Purpose

This document outlines the digital preservation activities used by Emory’s preservation repository to ensure long-term access to digital collections deposited by or for the Emory Community. Decisions to use these strategies are determined based on the criteria outlined in the Digital Preservation Policy Suite[1].

Preservation Effort Automated by the Repository

Preservation effort automated by the repository signifies the methodologies Emory’s preservation repository commits to using and automating to ensure the digital object is appropriately preserved.  While the automation process may require human intervention should a problem be detected by the system, the overall processes outlined below are largely performed with little human intervention.

Bit Stream Copying.  More commonly known as “backing up your data,” Bit Stream Copying is used to ensure the redundancy of digital objects.

Fixity Checking. Checking the fixity of the digital object ensures that the digital object remains unchanged or “fixed” over time.

Characterization of File Formats.File formats will be documented using standard technical metadata and/or characterization tools to ensure that files contained within the digital objects are well-formed and valid. Files that may be malformed, will be reported upon ingest when appropriate (i.e. Emory Libraries is the producer of the file).  Subsequent checks on the file will not notify the depositor and/or user the file is malformed.

Audit Trails.The preservation repository will automatically capture preservation events/actions that are performed on objects preserved by the repository.  The kinds of events/actions Emory’s preservation repository captures is outlined in the Preservation Event and Workflow Recommendations document[2].

Normalization. This methodology requires when possible and/or necessary that files contained within the digital object be migrated, transformed, or normalized upon ingest into another stable format to ensure long-term access.  Not all files contained within a digital object will be automatically normalized upon ingest. Instead, there may be cases where normalization would happen manually by the depositor (i.e. converting a Word Document to a PDF).

Preservation Effort Requiring Human Intervention

Preservation effort requiring human intervention addresses methodologies the Physical Holding Repository or Collection Steward may choose to manually perform. These methodologies may be employed to ensure digital objects are preserved at a higher standard than the repository can automate.  While automation may be utilized – either by using reporting from the repository or the development of programming scripts that perform actions – it will be up to the Physical Holding Repository or Collection Steward to determine when, where, and how automated tasks are employed.

Note that the methods mentioned below are not intended to be an exhaustive list of preservation methodologies that can be performed using human intervention, but the methods do provide a starting point for those who are interested in employing a greater number of digital preservation methods.

Format Migration. Format migration is a set of organized tasks designed to achieve the periodic transfer of files contained within a digital object from one hardware/software configuration to another. Its ultimate purpose is to preserve the integrity of the files and to retain the ability to retrieve, display, and otherwise use it in the face of constantly changing technology.

[1] Digital Collections Steering Committee Policy Suite. http://guides.main.library.emory.edu/ld.php?content_id=40741514

[2] Preservation Event and Workflow Recommendations. https://wiki.service.emory.edu/display/DLPP/Preservation+Event+and+Workflow+Recommendations