We live in a digital age. Many workers log in on computers to perform their daily tasks, and a significant number of them don’t even travel to an office, but work remotely via the internet. You can shop for everything online and pay electronically. Our most sensitive information is collected and stored digitally, often with no paper backups. In fact, Information Age states that, “It is estimated that 98% of organisations need to keep digital records for the long-term because of issues relating to compliance, legal defence, litigation and enduring corporate backing.”
As a result, one of the biggest concerns of our time is digital preservation--how will we preserve all this digital information for the future? This concern doesn’t only apply to individuals. It’s a pressing issue for today’s businesses. In fact, according to Information Age, “digital preservation is set to be a major growth area… as companies seek to hold onto their corporate memory.”
What Exactly is Digital Preservation?
Digital preservation means saving information in ways that ensure it can be accessed in the future. Although digitizing our lives has brought progress and significant convenience to society, the technology involved changes so rapidly, it can be obsolete in just a few years. To put it in perspective, think of paper books--they’ve been around since the 15th century, when Johannes Gutenberg developed moveable type. Books from that era, including his world-famous edition of the Bible, aka “The Gutenberg Bible” still exist. The information they preserved is still accessible more than five hundred years later.
On the other hand, do you remember the word processing software, WordPerfect? It was the most popular word processing program through much of the 1980s. But today, very few people or companies use it and some think documents written with it will be impossible to access in the near future. Or think of floppy disks--in the not so distant past, less than 15 years ago, these were one of the most popular ways to backup your documentation. But you would be hard pressed to find a computer that can access and read a file on a floppy disk today.
Digital preservation means finding ways to not only preserve data, but also to make sure it will be possible to access in the future, in spite of changes in technology.
Do You Need to Plan for Digital Preservation?
Whether or not you should be looking into implementing digital preservation depends on the type of business you have and whether the information you store needs to be available in the future. If Information Age is correct and 98% of companies have to store information digitally long-term, does that mean 98% of companies need thorough digital preservation? Most experts in the field say yes. It’s widely agreed that digital preservation is no longer merely a concern for libraries and museums, but for all businesses using digital records.
Current Methods of Digital Preservation
Many companies are relying on the Cloud-- storing their files in places like Dropbox, or Google Docs to preserve them. Even though this is a useful present day strategy, some worry that these methods will also become obsolete one day.
Another option is PDFs. Most documents can be converted into PDF format and experts in preservation, like the Smithsonian Institution Archives, think this is a solid long-term option that will preserve data and keep it accessible.
It’s important to keep an eye on relevant information regarding storage and preservation of digital data. As technology changes, your method of digital preservation could likely need to change as well. In the meanwhile, if you have current concerns, it’s a good idea to reach out to your IT specialist to help you develop the best possible strategy.
IMAGE: Pexels / CC0 Public Domain