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About this theme
There is little point in creating digitised content and data if there is no strategy to maintain it. Digital preservation enables the longevity of digitised content, yet it has been a poor cousin in the past, with the result that much digitised content is no longer available, either because it has not been preserved or because links to it have been broken. In human terms, use of digitised collections is key, ensuring that an interested audience can give early warning of any risks to access and demand action. In technological terms, however, there is clearly more to be done.
There is also a link between digitisation and physical conservation or preservation. The survey found that many archives and libraries favoured digitising their collection for these purposes. If a collection is digitised and made available, then there can be a reduction in the use of originals. A digital surrogate or snapshot can capture information that would in lost due to gradual or catastrophic degradation of physical objects over time, increasing resilience and enabling disaster recovery. This is not a straightforward relationship – digitisation can sometimes increase the demand for items by raising the profile of little-known collections; and digital versions are not substitutes for the physical originals, which for example may be required as ‘vouchers’ to verify previous research and analyses, or may be necessary to enable additional research into the object’s materiality.
Digital preservation and sustainability, however, are seen as crucial to the longevity of both digital and physical assets. Curation and maintenance of digital assets cost money, but if it is not done, the public will no longer be able to use them. A large amount of funding has been invested by public bodies such as the Heritage Fund over the last 20 years for content digitisation. Further investment in preservation infrastructure ensures that this initial investment is worthwhile.
This was an area where the sector has a tangible sense of frustration about short-term project funding approaches, and where there is a real appetite for a strategic cross-cutting and long-term approach to infrastructural needs and investments. Public digital funding could achieve significant change by supporting shared and recognised resources. Solutions to address some of these issues could be implemented. For example, exit strategies for projects could include ways in which digital components and assets can be reused; and institutions willing to take in ‘orphaned’ material should also be made known as repositories of last resort.
Recommendations
Recommendation 8: Encourage research funders such as The Arts and Humanities Research Council and National Heritage Lottery Fund to include preservation and sustainability within their requirements.
The Network will:
- Support the production of guiding principles for digital preservation.
Recommendation 9: Link existing initiatives to maximise investment and research into sustainable long-term data infrastructure.
The Network will:
- Collaborate with UK Research and Innovation and The Arts and Humanities Research Council initiatives, such as Infrastructure roadmaps and ‘Towards a National Collection’, and new areas of action when these arise.
Oxford and Cambridge Universities
Case study: Preserving digital data for research and teaching
The Polonsky Digital Preservation Programme was a collaboration between Bodleian Libraries in Oxford and Cambridge University Library (2016-2018), made possible through generous funding from the Polonsky Foundation. The resulting ‘Digital Preservation at Oxford and Cambridge’ project aimed to enhance the libraries’ digital programmes by building on existing expertise and research in the field of digital preservation and curation.
Six digital preservation Fellows were organized as a team of three within each institution, directed by a Project Board, and also worked collectively as a larger team. At each institution the Fellows focused on different aspects of digital preservation identified as key to delivering a successful programme: policy and planning, outreach and staff development, and technical implementation.
Polonsky fellows in action
In the first year of the project the Fellows focused primarily on auditing the libraries’ collections of images and research data, resources which had been created since the mid-1990s. A staff survey was also launched to identify skills and knowledge gaps around digital preservation in current job roles.
In the second year the Fellows began looking at the implementation of their recommendations. This included developing policy and strategy, piloting technical solutions, and devising an all staff training programme. The Fellows also developed a number of business cases, which resulted in additional funding for follow-on digital preservation projects in Oxford University’s libraries and museums during 2019-2020.
The Programme resulted in a step change in the approaches of both libraries (and their host institutions) to digital preservation. There is now greater recognition of the central role that libraries must play in the creation and preservation of digital data, and how this work provides a vital underpinning to the teaching and research activities of the wider university.
British Film Institute
Case study: BFI Britain on Film
With the growing transition from physical to digital display, the British Film Institute (BFI) recognised within its Film Forever strategy that, without support, the UK’s screen heritage was in danger of being stranded in the analogue domain and forever inaccessible to the people of Britain. Aided by National Lottery funding, a five year national programme of works (2012-2017) invested in preservation from analogue originals to digitisation, interpretation and access. It is potentially one of the largest and most complex archive preservation projects ever undertaken in the UK and is a paradigm shift from analogue to digital for the National Archive.
From inception, BFI broke new ground: created its first ever video-on-demand platform, BFI Player; consulting with commercial facilities, commercial Rights holders and Regional and National Film Archives to establish technical standards for film preservation and access.
Like the award winning Master Film Store at Gaydon, to keep our master nitrate film safe; the BFI built a state of the art data centre and new Digital Preservation Infrastructure, designed to operate seamlessly with existing systems to keep the digits safe and accessible. This enables processes for ingest, media asset management, long term preservation and access to benefit all BFI born digital and digitised collections.
With our partners, we curated over 10,000 film works for digitisation, regularly released to the public, primarily online. The majority are free-to-watch as part of the landmark Britain on Film and other key themed collections on BFI Player. Public access was extended further through theatrical, broadcast and home entertainment releases on Blu-ray and DVD.
Today we have substantially transformed access to the nation’s film heritage with over 90 million video views (and growing) of titles available of Britain on Film. Above all the project has encouraged millions of people to engage with and enjoy their screen heritage for the first time.