Useful websites on digital preservation

The Division of Preservation & Access
http://www.neh.gov/news/report98/preserve.htm

Image Permanence Institute
http://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/

Library of Congress-Digital Preservation
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov

Australian Library and Information Association
http://alia.org.au/policies/preservation

Digital Curation Centre
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/

OCLC Preservation Services

"With years of experience in digitization services, microfilm production and preservation project planning, we assist clients worldwide in creating solutions that expand access to collections while preserving the integrity of the original materials.
We stay on top of technological developments in the digitization and preservation of library and archive materials, and continually strive to find flexible and cost-effective reformatting options. We also provide metadata services and content management tools to increase visibility of your unique collections."

OCLC Preservation Services offer secure managed storage of digital content, as well as microfilm. Once an item is made into a digital archive, the OCLC systems perform quality checks and records the results in a "health record" for each file. Quality checks are done periodically by the OCLC automated system.

http://www.oclc.org/preservation/default.htm
http://www.oclc.org/digitalarchive/default.hmt

Rand Corporation Project REsource

This is a memo from the Rand Corporation dealing with the topic of digital preservation. The author states in the abstract that, "Digital objects are becoming a critical component of scholarly research, but stakeholders show an alarming lack of concern about preserving digital data accurately and sustainably; those charged with archiving information have not yet developed strategies that will enable future generations to build their knowledge on what has gone before."
Read the entire document at:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/2008/RAND_RB9331.pdf

Since I began collectiing information on digital preservation three things have become very clear: 1. Digital preservation is a new phenomenon
2. There are currently no comprehensive methods in which to preserve digital information
3. Many are interested in setting standards and doing research to find practical methods of digital preservation.

What are we waiting for! It seems like in everything that I read we are in the early stages of figuring out what to do, while every second more and more digital documents are created.