Library Preservation Techniques

LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) is an open-source software program that functions as a persistent access preservation system. This program assists libraries in preserving e-journals by way of multiple low-cost PCs located in different places. On a continuing basis, LOCKSS collects newly published electronic journals, and repairs any differences it finds between multiple copies of the material. This is yet another resource in the continuing drive towards greater patron access to library materials.

Another strategy for preservation comes from the digitization of old physical materials. As with LOCKSS, this strategy is based on the idea that if enough copies exist, it becomes statistically implausible for failures to occur in every copy. When old items are digitized, they actually have the potential to be more accessible. However, it must be mentioned that digital preservation is no guarantee of access. According to U.S. law, three digital copies can be made of endangered works, and access to the copies is explicitly limited by the law.

An important aspect of accessibility is preservation. Without the tools in place for preserving a collection, access will undoubtedly become more difficult as time progresses. When it comes to digital documents, a generous lifespan is five years. A similar document in physical form on acid-free paper is expected to last for 100 years. The short digital span of life is due primarily to software formats that become obsolete. Preservation is not a passive process because there is a need to continually adapt procedures to advancing technologies.

The stored volumes of historical works are most endangered in the area of multimedia, which are stored in analog form on magnetic tapes. In the area of audio, one project has established some standards including the use of WAV files. The National Gallery of the Spoken Word (NGSW) is funded by the Digital Library Initiative II. Their hope is not only to have a high quality sample rate of 96 kHz, but also to make the audio files fully-searchable and filled with the spoken words of the 20th century.

An effort to thoroughly preserve much of the world's digital video or software would make for a nearly impossible task. Part of the difficulty comes from the lack of a good standard. Most digital video is too highly compressed and too prone to loss when expanded to be considered reliable preservation, but the file sizes for storing uncompressed video make any large-scale effort economically infeasible. Software is an even steeper hill to climb in terms of effective preservation. On the positive side of the issue is the fact that, unlike video, all software is born digital. Two basic choices exist for the preservation of software. One option is to transform the software from one format to another. The problem with this is that information may get lost during the transition. The other option is to emulate old platforms where the software is instructed to perform identically to an obsolete format. Unfortunately, the difficulty in choosing an option is not based on the fact that they are both good choices, but that both are expensive and hard to accomplish.

One relatively new approach to resource access is Extensible Markup Language (XML). A desire to switch from MARC's format to XML has been expressed recently because of a need to make the bibliographic information compatible with the Web. There is a concern that the MARC format will be unable to effectively support future digital resources and, perhaps, the XML information standard should be implemented sooner rather than later.

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