Which of the following statements best reflects your thinking about the ultimate goals of institutions concerned with the digital preservation of media collections?
b. We will convert non-digital materials into digital formats for access purposes (such as Internet and user requests). 28
c. Only materials in measurable danger will be converted to a digital format. 0
d. Non-digital collections will continue to be maintained through traditional storage methods, and only selected materials will be digitized for preservation purposes. 13
e. There are no plans to digitally preserve our collection at present. 5
Funding [...] is of great concern to my institution. - Allen
We will convert archives to a digital format when we can raise the money to move those collections. Others will migrate to digital if we think public access is important for them. - Baker
Our current access/preservation methods are based on microfilm usage, and we now plan to film any items (practically all our collections of interest are on paper) that we digitize for access purposes. We use RLG (Research Libraries Group) standards for microfilm metadata. - Carli
Given the present problems with migration and technological obsolescence, digital "preservation" is probably not the best idea. - Conrad
We will save the non-digital originals as long as possible, with plans to reformat them onto other analog formats as funds permit. For those items where digital copies are needed (for wide access/preservation/internet availability), the item will be reformatted onto analog and digital formats *simultaneously*." - Dale
...sav[e] the non-digital originals as long as possible, but [...] digitizing for preservation and access should be done *before* there's any clear sign of danger/deterioration. While ideally one would like to save everything forever, the cost of conversion and ongoing maintenance of digital versions probably means that appraisal strategies will have to determine what gets digitized and saved... Access and user demand as well as preservation needs should be factors in deciding what to digitize. - Hadley
...our thrust is to identify images which are used often [...] and/or images which best represent a critical component and get it in a medium for quick and easy retrieval and use company-wide. - Hamal
We will use digital preservation for some things when they are in danger... Other things we may convert to digital form to improve access, but when we do so, we should convert them at a preservation level... (see the remarks by Anne Kenney and Steve Chapman on "Full Informational Capture" in DLIB magazine). Hybrid solutions (digital conversion, but an analog preservation copy on traditional media) may still be necessary. - Hirtle
We convert non-digital 35 mm neg. stock to digital so we can use it. We keep the original always. - Lee
Materials should be stored in multiple formats, both analog and digital to minimize risks of catastrophic unrecoverable loss. - Lindner
...I advocate the hybrid approach to the library collection, with preservation reformatting options that include paper, microfilm, electro-magnetic analog, and digital options. - Lowe
...I'd digitize the lot and preserve the originals in the best possible environment with as little disturbance as possible. - Lucas
...office files are likely to be handled differently from library collections, and within the latter, rare books and manuscripts are likely to be handled differently from newspapers. - Maher
For this question, I think it is useful to talk about two categories of artifacts: 1. Machine readable, electronic artifacts (video, computer files, art etc) and 2. "Material" artifacts (e.g. books, photographs, paintings, etc.). For category 1 objects, digitization will emerge as the only viable way to preserve this class of artifacts. For category 2, digitization should almost never be used as a preservation tool. For artifacts in category 2, digitization would result in facsimiles that might be useful for the purposes of access but would be nearly useless for the purposes of preservation. - Messier
...digitize as needed for projects and to offer selections to colleagues, but to wait until standards are in place to do a major digitizing project. - Pollock
We are developing guidelines for digitisation... It is important to encourage people to digitise their collections before they deteriorate [and] present many other problems. - Rymer
I [...] would like to explore available [formats] and convert deteriorating materials first, then move on to "all" materials for access purposes... - Schwan
...everything should be digitised as a preservation and a distribution strategy, but [...] original materials should be kept in cold storage. I feel we should get rid of film only when (a) very high resolution, non compressed images can be stored in computers or (b) material was originally shot in digital format (film prints might be made for distribution). - Turner
...provide [...] functional access to all [our] materials, chosing from [...] storage and transmission techniques as the needs and resources of those we serve allows. - Vanderlinden
[Because] staff and money is a great concern, [...] we will have to be selective as to which non-digital materials are transferred... - Vetter
1. For our audio collections we will digitise everything that is worth keeping because it is in danger of obsolescence as market support for analogue technology shrinks...
2. For multi-media, [...] we will [...] preserve [...] only selected materials for ongoing access. That preservation decision will be based on collection development values...
3. We have a program of digitising to improve access to our rare and valuable Australian non digital collections. While access is the prime goal of digitisation in these programs, there is a preservation connection, partly to protect the originals from wear and tear caused by use, and partly to discover more about the technology in order to preserve the digital copy.
4. Finally, we are involved in programs to digitise material with preservation as the main goal. At this stage they are experimental in that the technology is still too immature to be able to regard digitisation as an appropriate preservation format... Distinctions between preservation and access are less definite in the digital environment. - Webb
This decision will be most affected by costs of conversion. - Wilson
Our plans vary slightly with media type. For photographs, we will mainly ... [save the non-digital originals as long as possible, converting them to digital when the originals are in measurable danger].. For video and audio, we need to provide material in a useful format, hence [We will convert non-digital materials into digital formats for access purposes (such as Internet and user requests)]. For documents and for commercial, recorded music we [have no plans to digitally preserve our collection at present]. - Wright
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