Digital Preservation

Program Overview

Digital Preservation Program Overview

The J. Willard Marriott Library has a mandate to preserve its unique collections in whatever form they exist. When it comes to digital materials, this can be a challenge because they are inherently fragile and can be difficult to maintain in the present while making sure they stay readable and useful for future generations.

In response to these challenges, we are creating a Digital Preservation Program within the Library. The mission of the program is to preserve and sustain long-term accessibility to unique digital collections housed within the Library.

The first step towards the new program has been to create a digital preservation policy framework, which is intended to be the highest-level digital preservation document at the Library. The framework makes explicit the objectives and priorities of the program.

As the program evolves, we will update this page to reflect the continuing work we are doing in this area.

Contact the Library's Digital Preservation Archivist for more information.
tawnya.keller@utah.edu or 801.581.8594

Organizational Policy Framework

PURPOSE
The J. Willard Marriott Library (hereafter, Library), in keeping with its mission, serves as a trusted caretaker of the Library's collections of enduring value1, including those in digital format. The Digital Preservation Policy Framework supports this mission and is the highest level digital preservation policy document at the Library. The framework makes explicit the Library's commitment to preserving its digital collections through a comprehensive digital preservation program for both born- analog and born-digital collections. The framework reflects the goals defined in the Library's SMART goals 2008-2009 and contains references to other relevant Library policies and procedures. The audience for the framework includes Library employees, digital content contributors, donors, and users.

MANDATE
Although many programs and projects both within and outside the Library make objects available to users online, digital preservation implies more than making an object available in a digital format. Digital preservation has been defined by the American Library Association (ALA) as “policies, strategies, and actions to ensure access to reformatted and born digital content regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time.”

The mandate for digital preservation at the Library is linked to institutional responsibility, legal obligations, scholarly commitment, contractual obligations and grants, and membership services (such as Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC), Greater Western Library Alliance, Mountain West Digital Library (MWDL), etc). Special Collections, Information Technology, University Archives and the Institutional Repository all have missions, whether explicit or implicit, to collect, preserve, and provide access to the historical collections and institutional and scholarly records they hold. In some cases analog preservation will not suffice and the digital preservation of such objects can be inferred.

Additionally, the Library receives grant funding to ensure that specific collections are digitized and made available to online users and the sustainability and long-term accessibility of those collections is often required.

The Library also provides services for outside institutions that need items digitized and made available online. As part of these services, the long–term preservation of selected materials has been written into many formal agreements.

View Complete Framework

Appendices

Link to document coming soon.

Preservation Decision Checklist

Link to document coming soon.