Libraries’ digital preservation policy ensures future academic, research access

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Digital preservation is a term that might sound simple enough — but in an academic research library environment it means a lot more than just saving backup copies of files. It is a complex, ongoing process requiring meticulous, large-scale planning to ensure that digitized and born-digital scholarly content is curated and maintained across technology’s changes over time so that it remains useful. Penn State University Libraries’ digital preservation policy attempts to ensure future generations’ access to that digital content.  

“The digital preservation policy is a milestone achievement for the University Libraries and is its biggest public commitment to the ongoing curation of digital content collected by the Libraries. As the digital shift continues, the significance of this policy will increase,” said Nathan Tallman, digital preservation librarian. “It's the first public statement of its kind for the Libraries and Penn State. It demonstrates a full-circle investment in the digital content lifecycle and will safeguard future investment in collection materials.” 

Penn State’s policy — the most recent among 10 other Big Ten Academic Alliance member libraries who established similar policies during the past decade — is significant for University researchers because many grant-funding organizations now ask for proof of a preservation policy in grant applications. The Libraries’ leaders have further supported the policy with the adoption of storage infrastructure and permanent funding specifically for digital preservation and a detailed procedural roadmap for current and future employees to follow.  

The roadmap component of the digital preservation policy includes a detailed set of Levels of Digital Preservation Commitment-Based on an appraisal process, as digital objects are then selected and assigned degrees to which they will be maintained over time. Each level — Level 0: No Action, Level 1: Bit-level Preservation, Level 2: Logical Preservation and Level 3: Object Preservation — has a corresponding set of activities assigned to it.  

“These levels allow University Libraries subject experts to ‘right-size’ preservation to the need and/or value of the object,” Tallman explained. “To be responsible stewards of University Libraries collections, we can't and shouldn't preserve everything the same way; not everything needs to be preserved. This will help keep our program sustainable.” 

While preservation of all digital content types is covered in the University Libraries policy, audiovisual materials may have the most tangible considerations for many library users. Access to outmoded or aging and fragile content on formats, such as discs, records, films and even phonograph cylinders, requires maintaining old equipment with parts that may be challenging to acquire and outmoded software that is no longer manufactured or distributed.  

For instance, analog motion picture film — whether of research documentation, recorded instruction or Nittany Lion football games — will degrade across decades. Even more recent analog formats such as VHS tapes will lose as much as 20% of their magnetic signal over 25 years’ time. An analog tape can be viewed by one user at a time in person, and if the content is rare or fragile, it may be the last time it is ever viewed.

Long-term storage of physical collections from loose and bound paper to celluloid film and other material types requires specific, stable climate control conditions, but even in ideal environments, content quality of all types will degrade over time, including content stored on hard drives. Preserving this content digitally in perpetuity, so libraries can maintain easy access to it for generations of users, involves actions including detailed planning, risk mitigation and decision-making; security measures; and ongoing commitment to maintenance and investment as technology storage and delivery systems evolve.  

Born-digital content is especially at risk, including content, such as the new Penn State University Latino/a/x Student Oral History Collection, created by Heidy Canales, past president of the Latino Caucus, with current and former Penn State Latino Caucus members. The interviews were conducted entirely in Zoom and have been added to YouTube. For long-term preservation, they also will be added to the Libraries' new digital preservation repository. A University Libraries Zoom webinar hosted by Tallman at 10 a.m. on World Digital Preservation Day, Nov. 3, will offer insights into how this repository helps the Libraries meet its preservation commitments described in the digital preservation policy. 

Individuals interested in learning more about how digital preservation good practices can be applied to their own personal digital records can attend a second World Digital Preservation Day event on Zoom scheduled for 4 p.m. Nov. 3 and hosted by Tallman and Kevin Clair, digital collections librarian in the Eberly Family Special Collections Library. Details about both events are on Penn State News.

The University Libraries’ Preservation, Conservation and Digitization department oversees analog and digital preservation of library collections, working closely with several other units including the Eberly Family Special Collections Library on digitization strategies for Penn State’s library collections.