Preserving the Memory of the World in Perpetuity: a joint statement on the archiving and preserving of digital information

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BACKGROUND

Preserving digital information is becoming an increasingly urgent
challenge for both libraries and publishers of books and journals, as
the amount of digital information is growing quickly and preservation
policies and techniques for this format of material remain unsettled.
While many electronic publications are produced in both print and
digital formats, although not always at the same time or in identical
versions, more and more material is produced as "born digital", that
is, it has no print equivalent. It is estimated that much of this type
of material has already been lost, as some producers have deleted their
electronic publications without recognising the importance of planning
for a long-term archiving process. The need is pressing. While the
costs of long-term archiving are high, the cost of doing nothing would
be disastrous.

Libraries have traditionally taken care of the publications they
have acquired, and have saved the physical artifact to safeguard the
information contained in it. With digital information the safeguarding
of the content becomes more of a shared responsibility between the
producer and the collector of the information. While both publishers
and libraries are committed to maintaining digital files, efforts to
date are inconsistent, fragmented and underfunded.

PRINCIPLES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Both
IFLA and IPA wish to work together to obtain some practical and
long-term results in the area of digital preservation. They therefore
advocate the following principles and recommendations:

  1. An increasing amount of information published only in
    electronic form has enduring cultural and documentary significance and
    is just as important as information published in more traditional
    forms.
  2. The long-term availability of this information is required and action must be taken now to make this possible.
  3. Both organizations will work to make long-term archiving and preservation a key agenda item internationally.
  4. Both organizations will encourage the development and
    implementation of industry standards, systems, and research for digital
    archiving and preservation, including identifying funding opportunities
    to support such work.
  5. While publishers generally can ensure the short-term archiving of
    their publications so long as these publications are economically
    viable, libraries are best-placed to take responsibility for long-term
    archiving through appropriate arrangements with publishers.
  6. Since national libraries have the mandate to acquire and preserve
    the published heritage in their respective countries, and most are
    experimenting with the acquisition of digital publications, these
    libraries, with other leading libraries and organizations, should take
    the lead responsibility for long-term archiving of digital
    publications;
  7. A publisher/library working group will further develop joint
    initiatives regarding the technical, economic and policy issues of
    digital preservation including, where appropriate, the establishment of
    co-operative initiatives with other organisations which are
    investigating these issues.

Adopted by the IFLA/IPA Steering Group, meeting in Paris, 27th June 2002

Statements, IFLA/IPA Steering Group, Preservation, Digital preservation, Archiving

Last update: 5 October 2012