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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the awareness about digital preservation and what must be done towards preserving valuable original digital material. The paper also aims to discuss the use of metadata principles and the implementation of tools for the preservation of documents stored on personal computers.

Data loss prevention starts with the creation of a digital object. However, methods to minimize the loss of digital data are often ignored, the use of metadata structures embedded in digital objects from the outset thereof are recommended as a starting point towards good preservation principles. The need to create awareness on the issue of digital preservation was promoted by the authors at various occasions during 2008, as the number of incidents of data loss and costs involved continue to be of concern to all involved. Whether the loss occurs by a malicious attempt, or an inadvertent mistake, it can be diminishing either personally or to the institute/company where it occurs. Data were collected through a digital questionnaire and literature studies were done on several strategies, policies and best practices. Personal visits to libraries actively working on digital preservation and curation formed a basis for conducting the study. The implementation of tools that can be used to preserve and retrieve digital content by individuals was also investigated.

Digital objects should be archived with metadata about the object and the creation thereof. Metadata need not necessarily be structured and controlled when used by individuals or small groups for preservation of self owned data. The metadata content, however, should describe the object, the method of creation and technologies used in the creation. All changes to the document should be captured in the preservation metadata. Future access to digital content does not only depend on one preservation method but on a sequence of strategies and methods applied to the digital content.

The paper provides a broad overview of certain aspects that must be considered when implementing digital preservation strategies. The value of metadata needs to be widely accepted and implemented and the use thereof promoted to creators of personal digital objects.

The purpose of this investigation is to analyze information on the web and its preservation as the digital heritage of events related to climate change and the environment in Portugal and Brazil, thus contributing to web preservation in the Ibero-American context.

A theoretical and applied investigation using mixed methods to collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data from three sources: the Internet Archive and the public collection of Archive-It, the Portuguese web archive, and a selection from collections compiled by a research group (UFRGS) on web archiving and digital archiving in Brazil.

Web archive initiatives started in 1996; however, over the years collections have narrowed from nationally relevant themes to specialized thematic niches. The theme “climate change” has had an increasing impact on scientific and mainstream discussion in the 2000s, and by 2010 the over-arching theme became focused on digital preservation of web content, as demonstrated in this study. Failure to preserve data can lead to a rapid loss of climate change information, due to the inherent ephemerality of the web.

The paper demonstrates the relevance of preserving web content on climate change by showing what has been preserved to date and what will need to be preserved in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a number of examples of how Web 2.0 technologies and approaches (Library 2.0) are being used within the library sector. The paper acknowledges that there are a variety of risks associated with such approaches. The paper describes the different types of risks and outlines a risk assessment and risk management approach which is being developed to minimise the dangers while allowing the benefits of Library 2.0 to be realised.

The paper outlines various risks and barriers which have been identified at a series of workshops run by UKOLN (a national centre of expertise in digital information management based in the UK) for the cultural heritage sector. A risk assessment and risk management approach, which was initially developed to support use of Web 2.0 technologies at events organised by UKOLN, is described and its potential for use within the wider library community, in conjunction with related approaches for addressing areas such as accessibility and protection of young people, is described.

Use of Library 2.0 approaches is becoming embedded across many libraries which seek to exploit the benefits which such technologies can provide. The need to ensure that the associated risks are identified and appropriate mechanisms implemented to minimise such risks is beginning to be appreciated.

The areas described here should be of relevance to many library organisations which are making use of Library 2.0 services.

The paper should prove valuable to policy makers and web practitioners within libraries who may be aware of the potential benefits of Library 2.0 but have not considered the associated risks.

Digital preservation is currently a major concern for the information management, technological and scientific communities in all domains. It is also critical at the organisational level, with special pressure for all institutions with a responsibility for preservation, such as libraries and archives. This paper provides a brief overview of the main issues in digital preservation, highlighting current research and standards efforts.

Digital curation addresses the technical, administrative and financial ecology required to ensure that digital information remains accessible and usable over the long term. The purpose of this paper is to trace digital curation’s disciplinary emergence and examine its position within the information sciences domain in terms of theoretical principles, using a case study of developments in the UK and the USA.

Theoretical principles regarding disciplinary development and the identity of information science as a discipline are applied to a case study of the development of digital curation in the UK and the USA to identify the maturity of digital curation and its position in the information science gamut.

Digital curation is identified as a mature discipline which is a sub-meta-discipline of information science. As such digital curation has reach across all disciplines and sub-disciplines of information science and has the potential to become the overarching paradigm.

These findings could influence digital curation’s development from applied discipline to profession within both its educational and professional domains.

The disciplinary development of digital curation within dominant theoretical models has not hitherto been articulated.

The purpose of this study is to assess the digital preservation policies and plans for long-term digital preservation in selected repositories in South Africa, with a view to develop a digital preservation framework for the preservation of Indigenous knowledge system (IKS) in South Africa.

Through the multiple case study research design, data was obtained from eight respondents in four Indigenous Knowledge Systems Documentation Centers (IKSDCs) in institutions that are part of the National Recordal Systems (NRS) initiative across four provinces in South Africa using in-depth face-to-face interviews. Data collected was also supplemented with the content analysis of several policy documents in South Africa.

The findings reveal that there are no digital preservation policies in place in the institutions, especially long-term digital preservation for IKS. However, some of the institutions are formulating policies that will include the management of IKS collected in the institutions. This study also reveals that digital curation, policy formulation and disaster preparedness plans to some extent are measures said to be in place for the digital preservation of IKS.

This study focuses mainly on the NRS initiative in South Africa. Indigenous Knowledge (IK) related to traditional medicine, traditional plants and food are currently being digitized at the IKSDCs by IK recorders. This study will help in ensuring that the South African Government’s effort and investment in digitizing IKS and making them accessible online is not wasted. This study will help mitigate the risk of damage and alteration over time, either deliberately or in error.

This study fills a gap in the literature on the digitization and digital preservation of IKS from the context of the NRS project in South Africa. Very few studies have been carried out on the digital preservation of IKS in Africa. This study also proposed a framework for the digital preservation of IKS in South Africa.

This paper aims to introduce new criteria for evaluating authenticity in digital preservation, particularly in cases related to unreleased software projects and preservation work that occurs in non-institutional settings.

Interpretive visual and formal analysis of image files is performed on three overlapping preservation efforts to understand the ways that self-appointed preservationists reframe content in varied settings. The unreleased mid-1990s console game Sonic X-Treme is used as a case study because assets from the development process have been widely preserved among former developers and enthusiasts alike.

The findings indicate that non-professional preservationists transcode original production files into a variety of formats, ranging from lossy compressed images to contemporary three-dimensional (3D) modeling files. Materials are presented in settings that range from colorful webpages mimicking the appearance of commercial software to browsable file systems. These results show that non-institutional preservation practices embody notions of authenticity that diverge significantly from those of professional archivists.

The study is limited by its focus on a single case study, but helps to facilitate ongoing research concerning preservation of unreleased projects insofar as it surveys the current status of existing projects.

Existing studies within preservation literature have established the need for increased attention paid to unfinished digital works. This study introduces new data and interpretative findings that outline such preservation efforts as they already occur in non-institutional settings.