Digital Preservation Cartoon​The Internet – and digital technologies more generally – has massively reduced the costs of producing and sharing information. It has allowed for an explosion of creativity, allowing for new ideas to emerge, partnerships to form, and innovations to take shape.

 

Yet there is no certainty that digital texts, videos and images will be accessible in years to come. Lost passwords, changing formats, and failures to archive mean that materials can disappear as rapidly as they emerge and spread.

 

Given libraries’ fundamental mission to preserve heritage, this is a major concern. Without action, how much of a historical record will there even be to preserve?

 

IFLA has worked on the challenges around digital preservation for years, both within our sections on National Libraries, Preservation and Conversation and our PAC Centres, but also through the UNESCO PERSIST project. The first International Digital Preservation Day is a great opportunity to share what has already been happening, and to set out the challenges.

 

So what can you do?

Read our blog!

Follow this page, where we’ll be publishing links to international library activity.

If you are from a national library or other library involved in web harvesting or digital legal deposit, fill in this survey from the News Media Section by 7 December.