Technology has so altered our world that most of what we now create begins life in a digital format. The artifacts that tell the stories of our lives no longer reside in a trunk in the attic, but on personal computers or Web sites, in e-mails or on digital photo and film cards. The flip side to the ease with which we are able to create digital content is the complexity of preservation and long-term retrieval of this content. We must contend with issues relating to hardware and software compatibility; long-term storage; organization of files for ease of search and retrieval; media quality; disaster recovery; and integrity of original data.
Making Our Digital Heritage a Top Priority
When we consider the ways in which the American story has been conveyed to the nation, we think of items such as the Declaration of Independence, Depression-era photographs, television transmission of the lunar landing and audio of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Each of these are physically preserved and maintained according to the properties of the physical media on which they were created.
Yet, how will we preserve these essential pieces of our heritage?
- Web sites as they existed in the days following Sept. 11, 2001, or Hurricane Katrina?
- What about Web sites developed during the national elections?
- Executive correspondence generated via e-mail?
- Web sites dedicated to political, social and economic analyses?
- Data generated via geographical information systems, rather than physical maps?
- Digitally recorded music or video recordings?
- Web sites that feature personal information such as videos or photographs?
- Social networking sites?
- Should these be at a greater risk of loss, simply because they are not tangible?
The National Digital Preservation Program
Digital preservation concerns itself with the complex issues that arise when considering long-term preservation and retrieval of "born-digital" data — that is, data that exists in no other form.
The national digital preservation program being led by the Library of Congress is dedicated to ensuring that the digital information that conveys our history and heritage is available and accessible for generations to come. The program's formal name is the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). As a pioneer in the field of digital information, the Library has continued to provide digitized access to its vast collections, especially through sites such as American Memory, America's Library and Exhibits. The Library, throughout its history, has committed itself to collecting, preserving, classifying and disseminating a vast collection of materials to serve the information-seeking needs of the U.S. Congress, as well as students, educators, scholars and lifelong readers. These key missions of the Library of Congress make it uniquely qualified to lead a national digital preservation initiative.
In December 2000, Congress appropriated $100 million for a national digital-strategy initiative and charged the Library of Congress with leading it. The Library was asked to lead this effort in partnership with other organizations and institutions from both the public and private sectors. NDIIPP seeks to convene experts throughout the nation to provide a national focus on policy, standards and technical issues as they relate to digital preservation. This effort falls within the Library's mission, which is "to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations." The collections of the Library tell the stories of our nation; NDIIPP has already logged many achievements as it seeks to ensure that this collection of knowledge, regardless of its format, will remain accessible for generations to come.