June 30, 2009 -- The 2009 annual Special Libraries Association (external link) conference, held in Washington, D.C. in mid-June, featured a session entitled "Digital Preservation: Discovery in the Round."
The discovery began with three speakers providing brief remarks about current preservation issues. Jill Hurst-Wahl, from Hurst Associates, talked about the pressing needs that many smaller institutions have in managing digital copies of their collections.
Image Credit: Library of Congress Maps and Geography Division.
Jan Zastrow, Archivist for the Office of Senator Harry Reid, spoke about implementing practical solutions for archiving e-mail and other electronic records.
Bill LeFurgy, from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, discussed major results from working with a network of partners over the last five years.
Donna Scheeder, from the Library of Congress Law Library, moderated the panel and asked the speakers to address the current standards landscape in connection with digital preservation.
Session attendees—seated on all four sides of the speakers for the round effect—had many questions. Issues raised included preserving computer-assisted design data, securing institutional support for preservation activities and appraising scientific databases. Web archiving was a topic of special interest, with several participants inquiring about existing practices, tools and services.
