This book examines the use and re-use of digital archives in a unique manner, by combining theoretical and practical approaches to the contemporary digital archive. The book brings together a range of writers - specialising in media and cultural studies, contemporary art and art history, digital and networked culture, library and museum studies - to explore the cultural impact of digital archives. Several of the essays describe the process of constructing a digital archive as a specific case study – in digitising a physical archive and designing a searchable digital database as the core of the digital archive. Other chapters explore the cultural significance of digital archives in more general theoretical terms. These considerations include: the specific properties of the digital archive; its similarities and differences to the traditional paper-based archive; the ethical decisions made in the design of an archive; and the potential for creative re-use of online archived materials.

Cultural history enthusiasts have asserted the urgent need to protect digital information from imminent loss. This book describes methodology for long-term preservation of all kinds of digital documents. It justifies this methodology using 20th century theory of knowledge communication, and outlines the requirements and architecture for the software needed. The author emphasizes attention to the perspectives and the needs of end users.

This book examines the use and re-use of digital archives in a unique manner, by combining theoretical and practical approaches to the contemporary digital archive. The book brings together a range of writers - specialising in media and cultural studies, contemporary art and art history, digital and networked culture, library and museum studies - to explore the cultural impact of digital archives. Several of the essays describe the process of constructing a digital archive as a specific case study - in digitising a physical archive and designing a searchable digital database as the core of the digital archive. Other chapters explore the cultural significance of digital archives in more general theoretical terms. These considerations include: the specific properties of the digital archive; its similarities and differences to the traditional paper-based archive; the ethical decisions made in the design of an archive; and the potential for creative re-use of online archived materials.

This volume is devoted to the broad topic of distributed digital preservation, a still-emerging field of practice for the cultural memory arena. Replication and distribution hold out the promise of indefinite preservation of materials without degradation, but establishing effective organizational and technical processes to enable this form of digital preservation is daunting. Institutions need practical examples of how this task can be accomplished in manageable, low-cost ways. This guide is written with a broad audience in mind that includes librarians, archivists, scholars, curators, technologists, lawyers, and administrators. Readers may use this guide to gain both a philosophical and practical understanding of the emerging field of distributed digital preservation, including how to establish or join a network.

The United States Congress in December 2000 appropriated funds to the Library of Congress (LC) to spearhead an effort to develop a national strategy for the preservation of digital information. LC staff scheduled a series of conversations with representatives from the technology, business, entertainment, academic, legal, archival, and library communities, and asked the Council on Library and Information Resources to commission background papers for these sessions and to summarize the meetings. The resulting papers, along with an integrative essay by Amy Friedlander, are presented in this document. Contents include: "Summary of Findings" (Amy Friedlander); "Preserving Digital Periodicals" (Dale Flecker); "E-Books and the Challenge of Preservation" (Frank Romano); "Archiving the World Wide Web" (Peter Lyman); "Preservation of Digitally Recorded Sound" (Samuel Brylawski); "Understanding the Preservation Challenge of Digital Television" (Mary Ide, Dave MacCarn, Thom Shepard, and Leah Weisse); and "Digital Video Archives: Managing through Metadata" (Howard D. Wactlar and Michael G. Christel). (AEF).

Useful as both a teaching text and day-to-day working guide, this book outlines the essential concepts and techniques that are crucial to preserving the longevity of digital resources.

The Nordic Model of Digital Archiving explores the roots and strengths of Nordic digital archiving and proposes new directions to guide digital archivists in addressing the challenges posed by ever- changing digital technologies and the datafication of information and records. Digitization and born-digital records promise efficient and cost-effective solutions to everything from preservation of data to easy user access. However, digitization also poses challenges for archival practitioners worldwide. Bringing together contributions from practitioners and academics to offer a range of international case studies, this book offers practical solutions for archivists in terms of governance, technologies and processes. It highlights and analyses the cornerstones of the Nordic model of archiving: reliance on standards; powerful regulatory instruments -, especially in public sector archiving, including legislation; and collaboration between archivists and government agencies, and among different tiers of central and local government. While showcasing work in the Nordic region for the benefit of archivists and record keepers globally, this volume also challenges the limits of the Nordic model with insights drawn from international archival theory. The Nordic Model of Digital Archiving offers a new perspective on archiving that will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students of archiving, digital archives and records management.

A report of an OCLC Research survey of library special collections holdings and practices at selected institutions in the United States and Canada. Numerous charts and tables summarizing responses are included. Recommendations for best practices are also provided.

General Analysis; Digital Repository; Preservation Strategies; Current Activities; Conclusion.