Progressing with Patience: An Unflinching Look at the Challenges of Digital Preservation

Abstract

Many academic libraries have devoted significant time, resources, and strategy to developing approaches that steward digital assets responsibly into the future. This paper examines how one academic library’s experience with this work has progressed over nearly a decade, and compares the experience to trends in the field. The point of view of technical services, digital collections, and management, are represented and specific workflows are shared. The paper takes a close look at challenges faced, explains how strategy has evolved over time, and shares examples of how other organizations might benefit from a shift in how progress is assessed through a new perspective on success.

Keywords: digital preservation, archives, digital libraries, repositories