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Digital Preservation
Context
The rapid pace of change of electronic devices and formats for recording, storage and use represents a threat to the long-term accessibility of digital objects. This is true both for digitised and digital born content, which today seem more fragile than even very old analogue materials such as ancient books.
Without the development of efficient methodologies, techniques and tools for 'digital longevity', the information society risks facing a 'digital dark age' with a considerable amount of its cultural, scientific and commercial resources getting lost.
Due to the ever increasing proliferation of digital content this risk is imminent equally for commercial organisations, the public sector and individual users. Digital preservation is too big an issue for individual institutions or even sectors to address it independently. Concerted action at both national and international level is required.
Objectives under the 6th Framework Programme (2002-2006)
Digital preservation has been one of the main strands envisaged for EU-funded research in the field digital culture in the IST Work Programme 2005-2006. It is addressed through the strategic objective 'Access to and preservation of cultural and scientific resources'.
Research on digital preservation implies exploring methods and systems for preserving the availability of digital resources over time, through novel concepts, techniques and tools. This includes, at one hand, empirical research, needed to develop test-beds and systems that will support the availability and accessibility of multi-sourced and multi-formatted and multi-distributed resources. Longer-term research, on the other hand, should address the preservation of complex, dynamic and very high volume digital objects, including those with high levels of interactivity.
FP6 projects addressing digital preservation
Two large-scale projects will test OAIS-based systems and tools to support longer-term availability and accessibility of multi-sourced and multi-formatted resources (CASPAR) and to integrate preservation functions and services into organisational workflows and processes (PLANETS).
The project DPE - DigitalPreservationEurope is working towards coordination of national activities in preservation - focusing on advocacy, certified repositories, and mobilising centres or networks of competence.