Digital preservation

Browse resources aimed at helping cultural heritage institutions preserve their digital assets. Use items in the digital preservation toolkit to take stock of digital assets, to develop digital preservation policy and plans, and to implement digital preservation procedures.

Title Source
Medalta Museum – Digital Preservation Policy

The Medalta Museum of Medicine Hat Alberta, with the assistance of CHIN, applied tools in the digital preservation toolkit to produce a digital preservation policy, plan, and procedures to help ensure long term access to their digital assets, including images, audio recordings, collections management records, and similar content. This document is the Policy that arose from that work. It is preserved in the format that will be used by Medalta museum. It acknowledges existing preservation standards, outlines administrative responsibilities, summarises organisational viability and security measures, and assures financial, technological and procedural suitability.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Medalta Museum – Digital Preservation Plan

The Medalta museum of Medicine Hat Alberta, with the assistance of CHIN, applied tools in the digital preservation toolkit to produce a digital preservation policy, plan, and procedures to help ensure long term access to their digital assets, including images, audio recordings, collections management records, and similar content. This document is the Plan that arose from that work. It is preserved in the format that will be used by Medalta museum. It outlines the museum's objectives and constraints, then posits various solutions. Finally the plan identifies which solution was chosen, justifies why it was chosen, and outlines basic procedures for implementing it.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Medalta Museum – CHIN Digital Preservation Case Study

In 2011, CHIN conducted a survey on the state of digital preservation in Canadian Museums and found that while museums often held digital assets, few museums had a formal policy or plan for the long-term preservation of these assets. In response, CHIN developed a Digital Preservation Toolkit, consisting of resources produced by both CHIN and its partners, which helps museums create digital preservation policies, plans and procedures. Medalta Museum, a mid-sized museum in Medicine Hat, Alberta, has partnered with CHIN as part of its flood recovery exercise to develop its own digital preservation plan and policy. This case study is an account of that activity, and it is hoped that other midsized museums may benefit from the work found herein and the resulting documents.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
8th Hussars Museum – CHIN Digital Preservation Case Study

The 8th Hussars Regimental Museum of Sussex New Brunswick, with the assistance of CHIN, applied tools in the digital preservation toolkit to produce a digital preservation policy, plan, and procedures to help ensure long term access to their digital assets, including images, audio recordings, collections management records, and similar content. This case study takes a look at how CHIN's digital preservation toolkit can be applied to smaller museums where finances and human resources are limited.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
8th Hussars Regimental Museum Digital Preservation Plan

The 8th Hussars Regimental Museum of Sussex New Brunswick, with the assistance of CHIN, applied tools in the digital preservation toolkit to produce a digital preservation policy, plan, and procedures to help ensure long term access to their digital assets, including images, audio recordings, collections management records, and similar content. This document is the Plan that arose from that work. It is preserved in the format that will be used by 8th Hussars. It outlines the museum's objectives and constraints, then posits various solutions. Finally the plan identifies which solution was chosen, justifies why it was chosen, and outlines basic procedures for implementing it.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
8th Hussars Regimental Museum Digital Preservation Policy

The 8th Hussars Regimental Museum of Sussex New Brunswick, with the assistance of CHIN, applied tools in the digital preservation toolkit to produce a digital preservation policy, plan, and procedures to help ensure long term access to their digital assets, including images, audio recordings, collections management records, and similar content. This document is the Policy that arose from that work. It is preserved in the format that will be used by 8th Hussars. It acknowledges existing preservation standards, outlines administrative responsibilities, summarises organisational viability and security measures, and assures financial, technological and procedural suitability.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
A Survey of Open Archival Information System Usage in Canadian Museums

The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model is a framework for digital archives designed to help ensure that digital assets are properly documented and that an asset’s authenticity and integrity are established. The model has been widely accepted by the digital archiving community, yet Canadian museums have been slow to adopt it. The Canadian Heritage Information Network conducted this survey to learn why.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST)

The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is the only professional association that bridges the gap between information science practice and research. For over 75 years, ASIS&T has been leading the search for new and better theories, techniques, and technologies to improve access to information. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Anne Kenney and Nancy McGovern on Ten Good Reasons to Pursue Digital Preservation

Listen to Anne Kenney and Nancy McGovern from Cornell University Library discuss ten good reasons to pursue digital preservation.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Authenticity in a Digital Environment

On January 24, 2000, CLIR convened a group of experts from different domains of the information resources community to address the question: What is an authentic digital object? To prepare for the discussion, five individuals were asked to write position papers that identify the attributes that define authentic digital data over time. These papers, together with a brief reflection on the workshop, are presented here. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Canadiana (Digitization, Preservation, Access)

Canadiana works to preserve Canada's print history and make it accessible online. Working closely with major memory institutions, we identify, catalogue, digitize and store documentary heritage—books, newspapers, periodicals, images and nationally—significant archival materials—in specialized research databases. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Canadian Museum of History's Digital Collection Inventory: A Case Study Applying the Digital Preservation Toolkit

This case study recounts the digital inventory process undertaken by the Canadian Museum of History (CMH) as a first step in developing a digital preservation plan and policy.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Collections without Borders: Sustaining Digital Content at Cultural Institutions

While institutions continue to develop an array of digital content, and products, they often do so without giving enough consideration to the ongoing efforts and resources required to ensure their long-term viability. This case study explores how the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) successfully conceived and implemented a strategy to digitize its permanent collection and develop a durable database infrastructure. It offers a number of lessons for other institutions looking for ways to develop their own capacities and infrastructures, even if that development is more modest or takes place incrementally. The case study also features a useful Health Check Tool for Digital Content Creators in Cultural Heritage Institutions, developed in conjunction with the U.K.'s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the U.S.-based Ithaka S+R.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Concepts for Developing Digital Preservation Policies

This tutorial will help you understand how to set up digital preservation policies for your museum. The content assumes basic knowledge of digital preservation. However, for more experienced users, links are included to provide more information and resources. By taking this course, you will: - understand what a policy procedure is; - learn the steps and the process to develop a digital preservation policy; - become familiar with the institutional practices for developing a policy; - determine what a digital preservation policy needs to cover. Course Format: The digital preservation policy course consists of three modules, five quizzes, three self-assessments, checklists, printable tools and discussion forums. The course is organized into three modules: Introduction to Policies and Procedures, The Process of Developing a Policy and Developing a Digital Preservation Policy. You will also have an opportunity to assess your understanding of the material. The course offers tools you can use to analyze specific digital preservation policy situations within your own institution. You can send the results of these assessments to a facilitator via the course's email address to get feedback, suggestions or helpful tips.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Creator Guidelines. Making and maintaining digital materials : Guidelines for individuals (PDF format)

This brochure-style document, created by The InterPARES 2 Project can help your museum make informed decisions about creating and maintaining digital materials in ways that help ensure their preservation for as long as they are needed. While these guidelines can be applied to various kinds of digital publications, documents, and data, they are especially important for digital records.

Other
DIG35 Specification (PDF format)

A metadata standard for digital images. The DIG35 Specification includes a "standard set of metadata for digital images" which promotes interoperability and extensibility, as well as a "uniform underlying construct to support interoperability of metadata between various digital imaging devices."

Other
Digital Curation Centre (DCC) [UK]

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is a world-leading centre of expertise in digital information curation with a focus on building capacity, capability and skills for research data management across the United Kingdom's higher education research community. The Digital Curation Centre provides expert advice and practical help to anyone in the United Kingdom higher education and research wanting to store, manage, protect and share digital research data. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Digital Obsolescence Case Study - Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada

The Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada manages and displays portions of the National Currency Collection. In 2001, the Museum decided to digitize the collection to facilitate auditing and collection management, and work began in earnest in 2002. There are approximately 100,000 artifacts in the collection. We had two concerns about the digitization process. One involved the entries in our database, which included small versions of images, and the other was the large versions of the images themselves. This case study only addresses the images.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC)

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) is an advocate and catalyst for digital preservation, enabling our members to deliver resilient long-term access to content and services, and helping them derive enduring value from digital collections. We raise awareness of the importance of the preservation of digital material and the attendant strategic, cultural and technological issues. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Digital Preservation Decision Tree Model to Establish Whether a Digital Resource Should be Preserved (2021 version)

This resource provides a digital preservation decision tree that helps cultural heritage institutions decide which of their existing digital resources should be preserved for the long term. The tree may be used to help develop the institution’s digital preservation policy (a key document that supports and helps determine the institution’s digital preservation action plan) or to support an existing policy for resources not already covered by it. The 2021 version of this tree differs from previous versions in that it includes a detailed subtree for technical considerations. These considerations are a distillation of issues identified and taught by Joe Iraci and Ern Bieman in the Canadian Conservation Institute’s “Modern Information Carriers and Digital Preservation” regional workshops held between 2017 and 2019.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital preservation format literature review

As a deliverable to Canada’s National Heritage Digitization Strategy, members of the Digitization and Digital Preservation Discussion Group (a national information group based in Ottawa) produced the following literature review as a first step in identifying digital format recommendations for long-term digital preservation. The following document summarizes the findings of that review in a series of easily referenced tables indicating the digital formats that various major organizations recommend or accept for long-term preservation. Tables are organized according to media type, including text, still images, moving images and audio.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital Preservation Inventory Template for Museums

The digital preservation inventory template is used during the problem definition stage of any digital preservation activity. Even if your museum does not choose to pursue digital preservation activity, it should at the very least take stock of what resources it has, how long they are expected to be kept, what risks exist with access to these resources, and what potential impacts may arise as a result of losing access. If your museum should decide that some degree of digital preservation is merited, the information completed using this template will serve in the development of your digital preservation policy, action plan, and procedures.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital Preservation Plan Framework for Cultural Heritage Institutions (2021 edition)

Once a need for digital preservation has been identified, use this newly revised framework to consider various potential solutions and to select the one that best fits the needs and resources of your institution.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital Preservation Policy Framework: Development Guideline Version 2.1

A well thought-out digital preservation policy must be tailored to meet the needs of the organisation that will use it. As such, no one policy is suitable for all museums. There are however, common components that should be considered in the development of any such document, and these are captured in The Digital Preservation Policy Framework Development Guideline. This is version 2.1 of the guideline, last revised in October 2012, and developed by Nancy Y. McGovern, Director, Digital Preservation Management Workshops. It builds on version 1.0 that reflected the findings of the Cornell Digital Preservation Management workshop curriculum development project (co-developers, Anne R. Kenney and Nancy Y. McGovern, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities); and lessons learned in the development of the Cornell University Library Digital Preservation Policy Framework. Examples of digital preservation policy frameworks that have been developed by organizations using this guideline include: The Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the Library and Archives of Canada, and the North Carolina State Archives and Library.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital Preservation Policy Framework for Museums and Galleries

This policy framework is tailored to standards and practices suitable for digital preservation in museums and galleries, which generally preserve digital assets differently from archives. Specifically, museums and galleries document information about digital assets in the existing collections management systems rather than in a formal digital archive. While the core principles remain the same, the standards and practices differ.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital preservation recommendations for small museums

Smaller cultural heritage institutions often do not have the resources to implement the archival systems recommended as best practices by the digital archiving community. Yet they hold digitals assets that require preserving. These recommendations, produced by CHIN, provide concrete steps that can be taken by small to medium-sized museums and similar cultural heritage institutions to preserve their content in the best way possible, within the resources at their disposal. These recommendations assume the presence of at least one computer on-site, at least one staff member or volunteer with strong user-level Windows operating system knowledge and a digital preservation budget between $100 and $1000.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital Preservation Survey: 2011 Preliminary Results

In the fall of 2011, CHIN launched a Digital Preservation Survey to collect accurate and timely information about the scope and the state of digital assets held by its member organizations. This report provides an overview of the information received, as well as an analysis of the results, on a question-by-question basis. The data received from survey respondents is rich, and would support additional, more detailed analyses of the current situation. In all, 307 surveys were included in the analysis, representing a response rate of 22.3%. A number of organizations took the time to emphasize the extensive technical knowledge required to complete the survey. Not all organizations could find the resources to respond to the survey within the time-frame allowed. Key survey results reveal that: - Many member institutions don't have the resources to complete an inventory. - The number of obsolete carriers is quite low. - The vast majority of respondents have digital assets, and can prioritize them for preservation. - Most respondents use a small number of widely installed software packages. - Some respondents don't know the temperature and relative humidity in their storage space(s). A mechanism needs to be implemented that will guide new member organizations, and new volunteers within those organizations to older training topics such as digitization.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
Digital Preservation Toolkit

In response to member feedback in the 2011 CHIN Digital Preservation Survey, CHIN has identified and produced a number of easy-to-use tools that help museums assess their own needs for digital preservation, and guide them in the development of digital preservation policy, plans, and procedures. All of these documents (which are organised by chronological order of use) are accessible to museum professionals and volunteers who may have no formal training in the field of digital preservation.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
DOCAM - Documentation and Conservation of New Media Arts Heritage (DOCAM)

DOCAM's main objective is to develop new methodologies and tools to address the issues of preserving and documenting digital art, technological and electronic works of art. Over the project's five-year mandate, numerous case studies will be conducted that will focus on documentary collections and conserving works of art featuring technological content.

Other
DRAMBORA - Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment

The Digital Repository Audit Method Based on Risk Assessment (DRAMBORA) represents the main intellectual outcome of a period of pilot repository audits undertaken by the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) throughout 2006 and 2007. It presents a methodology for self-assessment, encouraging organisations to establish a comprehensive self-awareness of their objectives, activities and assets before identifying, assessing and managing the risks implicit within their organisation. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Electronic Media Collections Care for Small Museums and Archives

Electronic Media Collections Care for Small Museums and Archives provides information on the steps that can be taken to improve their longevity. Taking action now will help to prevent information loss in the future.

Canadian Conservation Institute
Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative

A collaborative effort by federal agencies formed as a group in 2007 to define common guidelines, methods, and practices for digitizing historical content. (Description taken from the website)

Other
How to use a digital preservation toolkit

The Digital Preservation Toolkit focusses on the development of a digital preservation policy, plan, and procedures for existing digital holdings in Canadian cultural institutions. Among other things, the toolkit includes templates for taking stock of your institution's digital assets, producing a digital preservation policy, and developing a digital preservation plan and procedures. This document is a guide on how resources in the Digital Preservation Toolkit should be used, and provides a workflow for all activity leading up to, and surrounding digital preservation policy and plan development.

Canadian Heritage Information Network
InterPARES (International research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems)

The International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES) aims at developing the theoretical and methodological knowledge essential to the long-term preservation of authentic records created and/or maintained in digital form. This knowledge should provide the basis from which to formulate model policies, strategies and standards capable of ensuring the longevity of such material and the ability of its users to trust its authenticity. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Les stratégies de gestion et de conservation préventive des documents électroniques

The OAIS (Open Archival Information System) reference model for archiving digital objects is an International Standards Organisation (ISO) standard, upon which existing library and archival preservation research is currently based. The objective of this document is to define standard components of a reliable system within the context of the OAIS model, so that long-term retention and access to digital objects can be guaranteed. Available in French only.

Other
Linking Collection Management Policy to Metadata for Preservation – a Guidance Model to Define Metadata Description Levels in Digital Archives (PDF format)

This paper attempts to provide some structure for the concepts and ideas on a general collection management decision guide in the form of a requirements analysis framework that may assist in determining the metadata granularity required for digital resource management within an archive. (Description taken from the website)

Other
LOCKSS

The LOCKSS Program, based at Stanford University Libraries, provides libraries and publishers with award-winning, low-cost, open source digital preservation tools to preserve and provide access to persistent and authoritative digital content. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS)

METS was developed by the Digital Library Federation as an implementation strategy for preservation metadata. It is not in itself a metadata standard, but it provides a means to exchange metadata and digital resources. The METS schema provides a flexible mechanism for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata for a digital library object, and for expressing the complex links between these various forms of metadata.

Other
Moving Theory into Practice: Digital imaging tutorial

This tutorial offers base-level information on the use of digital imaging to convert and make accessible cultural heritage materials. It also introduces some concepts advocated by Cornell University Library, in particular the value of benchmarking requirements before undertaking a digital initiative. You will find here up-to-date technical information, formulas, and reality checks, designed to test your level of understanding. (Description taken from the website)

Other
MPEG-7

MPEG-7 is a standard for describing features of audio and video content "so that users can search, browse, and retrieve that content more efficiently and effectively". It combines content metadata (title, creator, rights, information about people, objects, and events represented in the multimedia file, etc.) as well as technical metadata about the file. MPEG-7 is an ISO standard developed by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group).

Other

National Heritage Digitization Strategy – Digital Preservation File Format Recommendations

This document was produced by members of Canada’s Digitization and Digital Preservation Discussion Group and was submitted to the National Heritage Digitization Strategy. It identifies file formats suitable for the long-term preservation of heritage content. Selection criteria are applied to formats that have been widely accepted, and each recommended format includes a brief description as well as considerations related to preservation. The document also includes a review of selection criteria and a summary of preservation formats that have been recommended by a number of memory institutions elsewhere.
Canadian Heritage Information Network
NISO Z39.87-2006 - Data Dictionary - Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images

This standard defines a set of metadata elements for digital images to enable users to "develop, exchange, and interpret digital image files. The dictionary has been designed to facilitate interoperability between systems, services, and software as well as to support the long-term management of and continuing access to digital image collections." Metadata for intellectual property and rights management is not included. This standard was written with large-scale digital repositories in mind, but is still useful for smaller repositories.

Other
Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC)

The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) provides professional conservation treatment for books, maps, photographs, documents, parchment, papyrus, manuscripts, architectural plans, and works of art on paper. NEDCC treats many highly significant paper and photographic objects and continues to be the premiere center for the most difficult conservation challenges. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Oral History & Born-Digital Collections Toolkit

The “pivot to digital” provoked by the Covid-19 crisis exposed the need to develop core competencies and confidence in working with digital assets in relation to collections. The Ontario Museum Association is pleased to share, in collaboration with Toronto History Museums and Digital Action Research & Training, a new resource for museums to ethically collect, preserve, and leverage oral histories and born-digital collections. This new resource builds on leading international best practices and is the product of the ‘Innovating with Collections Online’ project, funded by the Museums Assistance Program from the Department of Canadian Heritage, which provided mentorship and learning for five museums to engage with and mobilize ethical oral history and born-digital collections in their institution.

Other
PREMIS (Preservation Metadata) Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata

The PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata is the international standard for metadata to support the preservation of digital objects and ensure their long-term usability. Developed by an international team of experts, PREMIS is implemented in digital preservation projects around the world, and support for PREMIS is incorporated into a number of commercial and open-source digital preservation tools and systems. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization

The paper describes four large-scale projects—Google Book Search, Microsoft Live Search Books, Open Content Alliance, and the Million Book Project—and their digitization strategies. It then discusses a range of issues affecting the stewardship of the digital collections they create: selection, quality in content creation, technical infrastructure, and organizational infrastructure. The paper also attempts to foresee the likely impacts of large-scale digitization on book collections. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Preserver Guidelines. Preserving digital records : Guidelines for organizations (PDF format)

These brochure-style guidelines have been developed by the InterPARES 2 Project to provide concrete advice to those who are responsible for the long-term preservation of digital records. They are not intended to be comprehensive, but to highlight a number of areas that are particularly important to the preservation of authentic digital records, which experience has shown to be often overlooked in the rush to accept digital records into archival repositories.

Other
The National Archives (UK) – Digital Preservation

The National Archives is tackling the challenges of digital preservation, ensuring continued access to digital information in the future. They play an active role in storing and preserving digital material created by UK government. (Description taken from the website.)

Other
The Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS)

OAIS is a "conceptual framework for an archival system dedicated to preserving and maintaining access to digital information over the long term". OAIS is of interest to libraries, archives, museums, and other research repositories. The OAIS information model "provides a conceptual foundation" on which the PREMIS (Preservation Metadata) Data Dictionary is based.

Other
Thirteen Ways of Looking at...Digital Preservation

D-Lib Magazine article on digital preservation as a self-contained problem, focusing on the technical obstacles that must be overcome in order to secure the long-term persistence of digital materials. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist (PDF format)

The Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist is meant for those who work in or are responsible for digital repositories seeking objective measurement of the trustworthiness of their repository. (Description taken from the website)

Other
Understanding Recordable & Rewritable DVD

A comprehensive guide to Recordable and Rewritable DVD technologies encompassing DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. Includes information on all aspects including formats, compatibility, capacity, copy protection, labeling, handling, storage, longevity, manufacturing and further resources.

Other
UNESCO Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage (PDF format)

The charter is a declaration of principles focusing on advocacy and public policy issues, the technical issues being covered in the Guidelines for the preservation of the digital heritage, prepared for UNESCO by the National Library of Australia. The charter is expected to help Member States prepare their national policies inspiring responsible action for preservation of and access to the digital heritage. (Description taken from the website)

Other
National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s (NDSA) Levels of Digital Preservation

Levels of Digital Preservation is a resource for practitioners when building or evaluating their digital preservation program. Originally created in 2013, Version 2.0 was released in 2019 along with additional supporting documentation and resources.

Other

Contact information for this web page

This resource was published by the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN). For comments or questions regarding this content, please contact CHIN directly. To find other online resources for museum professionals, visit the CHIN homepage or the Museology and conservation topic page on Canada.ca.

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