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The Digital Preservation site didn't have enough activity during the beta, and has been closed. You can download the data dump of all questions here.

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Digital Preservation

Q&A site for professionals working to ensure long term access to digital objects.

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<Comments removed> If you have questions or comments about this proposal, please click 'create new discussion' below. – Robert Cartaino Apr 24 '12 at 19:17

10
votes
1
answer

Where is the missing data from the dumps of these two closed beta sites?

feb 11 '14 at 20:37 Community♦ 1
2
votes
1
answer

When a private beta is closed, are the questions merged with a living site?

mar 20 '13 at 7:35 410 gone 1,587
10
votes
3
answers

Will digital preservation take into account also rare type formats?

feb 25 '13 at 16:50 Thomas Padilla 51
25
votes
6
answers

Get active on other Stack Exchange sites?

dec 24 '12 at 9:52 Community♦ 1
18
votes
3
answers

Merging Digital Preservation & Libraries & Information Science?

oct 2 '12 at 12:27 Community♦ 1

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discuss this proposal

56 Example Questions

active newest votes
up vote 31 down vote
What are the most essential technical/how-to guides that anyone getting started in digital preservation should read?
added by Trevor Owens Apr 11 '12 at 12:43
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up vote 23 down vote
What tools and best practices (standards, preferred formats) are there for the acquisition and preservation of email?
added by Jefferson Bailey Apr 11 '12 at 13:43
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up vote 22 down vote
What storage format(s) (digital and physical) will hold up the longest?
added by warren Apr 10 '12 at 12:52
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up vote 19 down vote
What is fixity, and when and how should my organization be checking files for it?
added by Trevor Owens Apr 9 '12 at 19:10
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up vote 19 down vote
Where are there listings of current tools and services for digital preservation?
added by Bill Lefurgy Apr 17 '12 at 20:37
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up vote 16 down vote
What should go into making a decision about how many copies of digital assets my organization should keep?
added by Trevor Owens Apr 9 '12 at 19:16
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up vote 16 down vote
If I want to be sure that the digital photographs that I am taking are available in 20 years, what steps should I take? 50 years? 100 years?
added by Micah Beck Apr 11 '12 at 1:40
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up vote 14 down vote
How can I accurately document requirements for emulating a particular piece of software?
added by anarchivist Apr 9 '12 at 21:04
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up vote 14 down vote
What are cost-effective options to monitor the recoverability and integrity of files in very large preservation archives?
added by user56044 Apr 11 '12 at 2:05
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up vote 14 down vote
What are some examples of, or links to, specific, in-use digital preservation policy documentation and/or DP technical procedures & guides?
added by Jefferson Bailey Apr 11 '12 at 20:56
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up vote 13 down vote
Under what circumstances does it makes sense to destroy a physical original that has been digitized? Can a physical object ever be "fully digitized"?
added by Micah Beck Apr 11 '12 at 1:55
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up vote 12 down vote
What copyright or other intellectual property concerns do I need to keep in mind for the ongoing process of digital preservation?
added by David Lowe Apr 20 '12 at 17:57
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I would think that, in general, you need to track, at a minimum, who the copyright holder is (or is the object public domain), how to contact the copyright holder, and what rights you have to preserve, use, or to allow use of the object. – Ari Davidow Apr 21 '12 at 1:47
up vote 12 down vote
In the absence of an accepted archive standard for video, what are best steps/formats for preservation and working copies?
added by Ari Davidow, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 21 '12 at 9:15
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up vote 11 down vote
Should the possibility of unrecoverable bit rot in storing huge digital collections be anticipated, or can perfect bit preservation be safely assumed?
added by Micah Beck Apr 9 '12 at 20:42
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up vote 11 down vote
What should a committee responsible for preservation planning look like in terms of membership and expertise?
added by anarchivist Apr 9 '12 at 20:58
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up vote 11 down vote
How do I identify the relevant factors or decision criteria to consider when prioritizing files for preservation?
added by user56044 Apr 11 '12 at 2:12
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Anther related question would be: Who (in an organization) ideally should be making these decisions? Also: What political/hierarchical situations typically influence the selection of items slated for digitization? – Anonymous Apr 20 '12 at 20:18
up vote 11 down vote
When should you migrate a file format? On demand, post-ingest, yearly assessments, etc.?
added by walker Apr 20 '12 at 20:42
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up vote 11 down vote
I'm a solo archivist. I have some born-digital files in my holdings and expect more soon. How do I build a digital preservation program from scratch?
added by l'Archivista Apr 23 '12 at 5:28
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up vote 10 down vote
What tools can I use to convert web pages unreachable by [Heritrix] to the [WARC format] to assure long term preservation?
added by Mat, edited by warren Apr 18 '12 at 13:30
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up vote 10 down vote
How would I record information about creating bit-level disk images using the PREMIS Data Dictionary?
added by anarchivist Apr 9 '12 at 21:01
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up vote 10 down vote
How do I access/update [old storage media]?
added by warren Apr 10 '12 at 12:52
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Can you make this more specific? Its very hard to give a general answer. How about something like "I stored some files on DECtape in 1975 from a PDP-11/20 running DOS-11 and haven't touched it since. How do I recover them with the least chance of information loss?" – Micah Beck Apr 11 '12 at 2:07
1  
@Micah Beck - in the live site, this would be specified, in the definition stages, we're trying to narrow down the type of question .. and this covers a type :) – warren Apr 11 '12 at 16:34
up vote 10 down vote
What are the factors related to consideration of geographic distribution of copies of digital content?
added by user56044 Apr 11 '12 at 1:58
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up vote 10 down vote
Since encryption is vulnerable to long-term attacks (and increases in compute power), can files that are not physically isolated be kept private?
added by Micah Beck Apr 11 '12 at 2:02
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1  
And, "does it matter?" .. are those corporate secrets really going to be that valuable in 20, 50, or 100 years? – warren Apr 18 '12 at 13:32
1  
I do think there needs to be some standard set for an information creator to designate when to "release" information for historical use vs. keeping it secret in the short term for whatever reason (financial, confidentiality, embarrassment). – Kat Pew Apr 21 '12 at 19:07
up vote 10 down vote
What are the costs associated with participation in a distributed digital preservation network like LOCKSS? (initial, yearly, per-TB, etc.)?
added by Jefferson Bailey Apr 11 '12 at 13:08
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up vote 10 down vote
What factors should go into decisions about using spinning disk or magnetic tape for preservation copies of digital objects?
added by Trevor Owens Apr 11 '12 at 17:35
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up vote 10 down vote
How will we know whether a format like PDF or encoding like ASCII will be usable, or even heard-of in 400 years?
added by hexafraction Apr 12 '12 at 20:12
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1  
If I answered this question, I think I'd answer it more as, "What current practices are being used to keep access copies from obsolescing?" Because most likely a format like PDF or ASCII will not be particularly usable when we're all receiving info-holos through our bio-plants. – Nada Apr 18 '12 at 15:22
1  
I disagree. There is a real difference between the likelyhood of ASCII being readable in 400 years and PDF. ASCII can be described in a one-page document that is already reproduced in hardcopy widely enough to have a good chance of surviving. PDF is much more complex, and most of the documentation is electronic. In fact, I think there is a whole category of "Which format should I use for [type] documents." or "Is [format A] or [format B] more likely to be survivable in [time frame]." – Micah Beck Apr 23 '12 at 16:00
@micah I think that's a good point--I didn't realize that they are on different levels at first. – hexafraction Apr 23 '12 at 23:25
up vote 10 down vote
What hardware/software do I need to create images from floppy disks?
added by sheepeeh Apr 13 '12 at 16:41
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up vote 10 down vote
How can I open a set of old WordStar documents? Once opened, should I keep the originals or migrate formats. If I migrate what should I migrate to?
added by Trevor Owens Apr 16 '12 at 12:57
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up vote 10 down vote
What tools – other than Wayback – can my institution use to provide user access to WARC format archived sites?
added by benfinoradin, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 21 '12 at 9:11
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up vote 10 down vote
What guarantees (SLA) should be required of cloud storage operators in order to use their services in preservation, and how can they be verified?
added by Micah Beck Apr 17 '12 at 21:17
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Is this really cloud-specific? My initial response, which isn't intended to be sarcastic, would be: “the same as you'd use for any other storage system, including your own”. Basically I don't trust anything long-term unless you regularly audit it and have contingency plans, so I'd probably rephrase it to make the last point the primary: “How should I verify a storage system for preservation?” and possibly “How do I efficiently do this regularly across all of my systems?” – Chris Adams Apr 22 '12 at 19:10
There might be challenges specific to cloud storage service, due to the fact that (by design) users may not have direct access to the storage facilities or any knowledge or control over them. Thus, characteristics which are commonly assumed (for better or for worse) in conventional storage facilities may need to be made explicit in the case of cloud services. A related question is "Are cloud storage services ever appropriate for use as a resource for digital preservation?" – Micah Beck Apr 23 '12 at 11:18
I would argue for the "worse" side of that assumption but this does support this question being a good one – Chris Adams Apr 23 '12 at 18:43
up vote 10 down vote
"Context information" is among the many forms of metadata OAIS recommends you capture for your AIPs. How does your institution define it?
added by sheepeeh Apr 18 '12 at 13:18
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up vote 10 down vote
What strategies/software have you used to ensure that temporarily-private data is secure now but still accessible in the distant future?
added by Nada Apr 18 '12 at 15:24
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up vote 10 down vote
What filesystem to use for different purposes such as preservation action copies, storage, etc. This should also address journaling, permissions, etc.
added by techmaurice Apr 19 '12 at 18:47
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up vote 10 down vote
How do you best involve end users in designing your digital preservation strategy?
added by Allyson Donahoe, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 21 '12 at 9:08
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up vote 10 down vote
How can I find out more about institutions that might want to collaborate or partner on sharing interoperable repository services?
added by David Lowe Apr 20 '12 at 17:47
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up vote 10 down vote
How do I approach the preservation of versioned digital data, with changes over time?
added by David Lowe Apr 20 '12 at 18:05
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up vote 10 down vote
What are some sensible approaches to setting up access controls to cover a broad spectrum of digital data repository users?
added by David Lowe Apr 20 '12 at 18:08
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up vote 10 down vote
What educational programs are available for aspiring data curators?
added by Jennifer Davis Apr 20 '12 at 20:52
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up vote 10 down vote
What tools do you currently use to check for "bitrot" or other changes to data files?
added by Wally Grotophorst Apr 21 '12 at 23:15
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up vote 10 down vote
How should you assess the preservation risk facing a collection of digital files?
added by Paul Wheatley Apr 23 '12 at 13:35
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This proposal didn't have enough activity during the beta. It was closed 7 years ago.

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