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Why Managing Digital Preservation is different than managing Analog Preservation

Association for Heritage Preservation of the Americas—APOYO 30

Howard BesserNew York University

http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/howard/http://www.nyu.edu/tisch/preservation/

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Why Managing Digital Preservation is different than managing Analog

Preservation

•  CulturalIns.tu.onsmustkeepthingslongerthanotherorganiza.ons

•  HowDigitalPreserva.onisdifferentthanAnalog–  Preserva.onparadigmsneedtoshi@to“ongoingmanagement”inthedigitalage

•  Refreshing,andEmula.on&Migra.on•  ToolsandProcessesformanagingdigitalpreserva.on

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SorrythatIcan’tbethere

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Ihaven’tbeeninRiosinceJanuary

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But I started visiting Casa Rui Barbosa about 15 years ago

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AndIknowCasaRuiBarbosawell

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AndIwastherejust9monthsago

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How long we keep things•  Companies keep information for days, or even years•  Individuals keep things for years, or a lifetime•  Archives, Libraries, and museums keep things for hundreds of

years

Cultural Institutions have a much greater responsibility for preservation!

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Keeping works and documentation for the Future

•  requires Digital Preservation

•  Why is Digital Preservation a problem?

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AnalogWorks•  Analog Photos, manuscripts, books, paintings, sculpture•  Objective is to make object itself endure (temperature/

humidity control, chemicals/pigments/fibers/adhesives, …)•  Goal is to keep object as close as possible to original state

(though occasionally controversy arises over whether to let aging show)

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Electronic Works•  Video, audio, digital, new media•  Difficult to make the original object endure (magnetic particle

deterioration, warping, etc.)•  Even if we could make the original object endure, we wouldn’t have the

infrastructure to view it in the future•  Need to develop a paradigm shift from preserving the original object to

preserving info content•  Need to pay more attention to maintaining authenticity and replicating user

experience

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With Analog Photos, we focus on the Original

•  We repair and try to make the original negative or original print continue to survive

•  But where is the original of your digital photo?

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Longevidade Digital

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Paradigms Shifts neededOld New

Physical preservation

atmospheric cntrl ongoing mgmt

What to save? artifact idea + ancillary material & documentation

Cataloging Individual work in hand

FRBR

Later access Artifact & documentation

Restaging, ancillary material & documentation

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The Short Life of Digital Info: Digital Longevity Problems-

✿ Disappearing Information✿ The Viewing Problem✿ The Scrambling Problem✿ The Inter-relation Problem✿ The Custodial Problem✿ The Translation Problem

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Viewing Problem—electronic works need every part of infrastructure to work

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The Viewing Problem

✿ Digital Info requires a whole infrastructure to view it

✿ Each piece of that infrastructure is changing at an incredibly rapid rate (software versions, file formats, operating systems, storage devices)

✿ How can we ever hope to deal with all the permutations and combinations

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Viewing Problem

•  Requires new file formats and new physical strata at regular intervals

•  Needs a serious Managed Environment•  Main InterPARES finding--the need for

complete lifecycle management– archivist needs to be incolved when record is

created and throughout active life

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Responding to serious Longevity Problems

✿ Previous formats required little ongoing intervention (remote storage facilities, Iron Mtn); digital formats require intense ongoing management

✿ Need for:✿ Preservation Repositories✿ Preservation Metadata

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Conceptual Approaches to Digital Preservation

•  Refreshing always necessary due to volatility of physical strata–  Impact on evidential value

•  Migration -- advantages & disadvantages•  Emulation -- advantages & disadvantages

•  And will need a long-term managed environment

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Migration•  Wordstar to Word 1 to Word 3, …•  -Tables and complex features often get

corrupted•  -Need to repeat every 4-5 years (maybe

forever)•  +We know how to do this ourselves•  +If there’s a problem, we can catch it soon

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Emulation•  Keep the Wordstar file format, but write emulators to make it

work in newer environments•  +A better chance of carrying over complexity•  +Many more features can survive•  -Problems may not be caught until it’s too late•  -Specialists and a whole infrastructure of emulators required•  -Serious © problems (reverse engineering?)

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Possible endless need for reformatting implies

•  Possible loss with each generation•  Requires managed environment

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Managed Environment

•  More than temperature & humidity control•  Periodic monitoring of the works•  Periodic monitoring of the technical

environment for viewing the works (software, systems, hardware)

•  Trusted repositories

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Preservation Repositories:�Open Archival Info System Model

Producer

Management

Consumer

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Digital Preservation Players•  Collection staff (need to reach agreement on

SIP/DIP and acceptable AIP transformations)– preservation/conservation staff– metadata staff– access staff

•  Repository staff•  Agreement negotiators

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Tools&SkillsneededforDigitalPreserva.onManagement

•  BasicDigitalLibraryrepositoryknowledge(OAIS/SIP/DIP,AuditCer.fica.on)

•  FileFormatIden.fica.on/Valida.on(DROID/JHOVE,PRENOM)(explain)

•  PREMIS(explain)•  Alsolearningapplica.onsandcommand-lineskillsfor:–  Crea.ngandvalida.ngcheck-sums(explain)–  Extrac.ngmetadatafromfileheaders(explain)– Managingbulkingest,…(explain)

•  HereareexamplesfromNYU’scurriculumforteachingthese-

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Exercises/ToolsforFileIden.fica.on

File ID Exercise1. Unzip the DROID folder using unzip droid-6.01.zip -d droid

2. Change to the droid directory

3. Launch DROID using sh droid.sh

4. Add sample files by clicking on the green Add button, then to DROID by going to home/miap/Desktop/samples, click OK

5. Click Start

6. What does it display?

7. What doesn’t it display?

8. Is file ID enough?

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DroidFileIden.fica.on

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OCLC/RLG Efforts �PREMIS Data Model

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OCLC/RLG Efforts �PREMIS Data Dictionary Example

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DigitalPreserva.onToolsTraining

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DigitalPreserva.onTools

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ChecksumEduca.on

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ChecksumEduca.on

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BatchProcessingChecksums

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ExtractMetadatafromDigitalFileHeaders

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ExtractMetadatafromDigitalFileHeaders

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ExtractMetadatafromDigitalFileHeaders

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Checkingifwell-formedPDFs/XMLswerereceived

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OCLC/RLG �Digital Repository Attributes

•  Administrative responsibility•  Organizational viability•  Financial sustainability•  Technological suitability•  System security•  Procedural accountability•  Certification

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Preservation Repositories:�may be too difficult for small institutions

•  May be too complex for small institutions to manage•  May be done through partnering (small museum or dance

company with University) or through consortia (museum association, state-wide organization, …) or through service bureaus (OCLC, Cloud)

•  Archive or museum will direct what is needed, but digital repository will carry out the actual work (as defined in SIP/DIP/AIP agreement)

•  And many will choose to just outsource the storage part of the repository because today there are many vendors offering this

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Paradigms Shifts neededOld New

Physical preservation

atmospheric cntrl ongoing mgmt

What to save? artifact idea + ancillary material & documentation

Cataloging Individual work in hand

FRBR

Later access Artifact & documentation

Restaging, ancillary material & documentation

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Why Managing Digital Preservation is different than managing Analog

Preservation

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•  besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/howard/Talks•  http://www.brapci.inf.br/index.php/res/v/107431•  http://revista.arquivonacional.gov.br/index.php/

revistaacervo/article/view/26/26

Imagesofpresidentstogether

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