There is growing recognition of the need to address the fragility of digital information, on which our society heavily depends for smooth operation in all aspects of daily life. This has been discussed in many books and articles on digital preservation, so why is there a need for yet one more? Because, for the most part, those other publications focus on documents, images and webpages – objects that are normally rendered to be simply displayed by software to a human viewer. Yet there are clearly many more types of digital objects that may need to be preserved, such as databases, scientific data and software itself. David Giaretta, Director of the Alliance for Permanent Access, and his contributors explain why the tools and techniques used for preserving rendered objects are inadequate for all these other types of digital objects, and they provide the concepts, techniques and tools that are needed. The book is structured in three parts. The first part is on theory, i.e., the concepts and techniques that are essential for preserving digitally encoded information. The second part then shows practice, i.e., the use and validation of these tools and techniques. Finally, the third part concludes by addressing how to judge whether money is being well spent, in terms of effectiveness and cost sharing. Various examples of digital objects from many sources are used to explain the tools and techniques presented. The presentation style mainly aims at practitioners in libraries, archives and industry who are either directly responsible for preservation or who need to prepare for audits of their archives. Researchers in digital preservation and developers of preservation tools and techniques will also find valuable practical information here. Researchers creating digitally encoded information of all kinds will also need to be aware of these topics so that they can help to ensure that their data is usable and can be valued by others now and in the future. To further assist the reader, the book is supported by many hours of videos and presentations from the CASPAR project and by a set of open source software. Front Matter....Pages i-xxii Introduction....Pages 1-5 The Really Foolproof Solution for Digital PreservationDigital Preservation ....Pages 7-9 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Introduction to OAISOAIS Concepts and Terminology....Pages 13-30 Types of Digital Objects....Pages 31-39 ThreatsThreats to Digital Preservation and Possible Solutions....Pages 41-45 OAISOAIS in More Depth....Pages 47-67 Understanding a Digital ObjectDigital Object : Basic Representation Information....Pages 69-138 Preservation of IntelligibilityIntelligibility of Digital Objects....Pages 139-166 UnderstandabilityUnderstandability and Usability of Data....Pages 167-175 Linking Data and “ Metadatametadata ”: Packaging....Pages 177-190 Basic Preservation StrategiesPreservation Strategies ....Pages 191-196 AuthenticityAuthenticity ....Pages 197-202 Advanced Preservation Analysis....Pages 203-232 Front Matter....Pages 233-264 TestingTesting Claims About Digital PreservationDigital Preservation ....Pages 265-265 Tools for Countering the ThreatsThreats to Digital Preservation....Pages 267-269 The CASPARCASPAR Key ComponentsKey Components Implementation....Pages 271-290 Overview of the TestbedsTestbed ....Pages 291-339 Front Matter....Pages 341-343 Front Matter....Pages 345-366 Sharing the Effort....Pages 367-386 InfrastructureInfrastructure RoadmapRoadmap ....Pages 265-265 Who Is Doing a Good Job? Audit and CertificationAudit and Certification ....Pages 387-406 Final Thoughts....Pages 407-428 Back Matter....Pages 429-429 ....Pages 431-433 Addressing advanced issues of digital preservation, beyond keeping the bits and the ability to render, this book explores concepts of understandability, usability and interoperability for digital objects, as well as concerns over issues such as authenticity.
