Digital Archives Require Maintenance

All archives require maintenance, but because Digital Objects Degrade Faster Than Physical Objects, digital archives especially require maintenance, even if no new items are being added to the archive.

• Maintain hardware, migrating when necessary
• Ensure backups are functional
• Migrate files to new file formats when needed
• Review current practices as technology changes. Assumptions and predictions made years ago (“such-and-such will be a stable format”) may not turn out to be true.

Implies

Digital Archiving Must Be Sustainable

1. Edward M. Corrado and Heather Moulaison Sandy. Digital Preservation for Libraries, Archives, & Museums. 2017.

Notes Linking Here

• Computers
• Digital Archiving Must Be Sustainable
• Digital Objects Degrade Faster Than Physical Objects