Active Preservation

Abstract

In order to perform long-term digital preservation it is necessary to be (i) understand the technology of the material being stored, (ii) be able to decide whether this technology is obsolete (and, if so, what to do about it) and (iii) perform verifiable actions to remove the causes of this obsolescence (e.g., via format migration). This demonstration will show a real-life solution for dealing with these challenges. It is based off pioneering work performed mainly in conjunction with the UK National Archives’ Seamless Flow programme and the Planets project1 and is now deployed in a variety of national libraries and archives around the world.