Digitization as a Preservation Reformatting Technique-An Academic Paper

                                      

      It has been said that history is the conscience of our present society and that those who fail to take cognizance of the past may be doomed to repeat its errors[1]. As such the preservation of historical material, in spite of its myriad of challenges, is acknowledged as an integral part of a society’s development and advancement. Accessibility to these historical materials has always been a fundamental aspect of preservation. After all, what is the use preserving a historical document, if persons cannot access and study its content? With the onset of digital technology, digitization has emerged as a means of increasing access to certain documents while ensuring the physical preservation of the source material. This paper posits that the digitization of analog documents and items, notwithstanding the technical challenges of preserving digital material, should be considered a method of preservation reformatting.

                                          In assessing the validity of digitization as a preservation reformatting tool, it is important to define digitization and preservation reformatting. Digitization involves converting an analog signal to a digital one [2]. Thus, a scan or picture of an analog item is taken and transformed into a series of pixels. These pixels can either be black, white, specific shades of grey or color and together they reconstruct the picture of the analog item in digital form. Preservation reformatting is the process by which facsimiles of an archival item are created to increase accessibility to its content as well as a means of protecting the item from the inevitable damage of physical use. Throughout the history of the archival profession, the two main forms of preservation reformatting have been microform facsimiles (microfilm) and print facsimiles (paper copies).  However, digital technology has proven that digitization has its benefits as a preservation reformatting strategy.

                                               Digitization has already been endorsed as a valid preservation reformatting tool by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in the United States[3]. Nonetheless, they acknowledge that there must be collaboration by all stakeholders in ensuring that best practices and uniformity among standards are developed and adhered to. Digitization functions as a preservation reformatting method in a number of ways, such as being able to produce a faithful representation of the original record, ensuring continued access and protecting the original item from physical abuse. It can better capture numerous types of paper-based materials, such as oversized and color materials[4].  Scanning and imaging technology is being constantly improved in areas such as resolution, pixel bit depth and color. As such, digitization is able to more faithfully represent the content contained in an archived item when compared to microform and print facsimiles. Digitization is also flexible when it comes to effectively and accurately capturing various types of media such as photographic negatives and positives. In some instances, digitization is viewed as the most feasible option for preserving damaged material that may otherwise be lost.  In 2008, the University of the Southern Mississippi Libraries digitized seventy-two deteriorated acetate negatives in an effort to recover and preserve their content[5]. The digitized images were able to capture details in the pictures which was obscured on the damaged negatives[6]. Though various reformatting strategies have their strengths and limitations, digitization is able to effectively capture the visual content of analog materials in a way microform and print-based reformatting cannot. Furthermore, there is no degradation to the digital master copy due to duplication or any lost in quality in copies themselves.

                                     Digitized documents also facilitate increased distribution and access possibilities because of computer technology and the internet. As a matter of fact, this is one of the main reasons why digitization is becoming increasingly popular as a preservation reformatting strategy. Digital technology and the internet have fundamentally changed the public’s expectations when it comes to information availability. People have convenient access to massive amounts of information at the click of a button on all types of technological devices.  Such conveniences have increased public expectation as it relates to the ease in which they could retrieve information. As a result, libraries and archives have had to turn to digitization as a means of providing increased access to their collections and holdings. Thus, digitized documents allow users to access the content of an item, consequently protecting the original item from the stresses of physical use. Duplicates can also be made from these digital files without subjecting the original material to the rigors of copying.  Furthermore, digitized facsimiles can be set up to provide users with increased functionality, such as zooming, printing, searchable text, and text analysis, thereby enriching the user experience.  

                                                    Much of the criticism leveled against digitization and its reliability as a preservation reformatting strategy centers on the issues of permanence, longevity, obsolescence and, data corruption. Since digital materials are inherently dependent on hardware and software applications to be viewed, the formats on which they are stored are susceptible to becoming unreadable and inaccessible if the relevant hardware and software no longer exists. This is known as technological obsolescence. Furthermore, digital files are particularly fragile and can easily be lost, deleted, and altered[7]. The integrity and authenticity of digital materials can easily be compromised since one can change the bit stream of a file and leave no record of tampering[8]. If proper control systems are not in place, there is always a high probability that digital material could be lost or modified without record. Data corruption is also another problem to which digital files maybe subjected. This refers to errors in computer data that can occur during writing, reading, storage, transmission, or processing, which can introduce unintended changes to the original data, rendering the formats inaccessible.  Thus, the longevity and permanence of digital items are a constant concern for archivists.

                                           In light of these issues, some authors have argued that although digitization is a form of reformatting, it is not a form of preservation reformatting when compared to preservation microfilming[9]. They assert that even though much is gained by digitization, permanence and authenticity are not among those gains[10]. However, every type of preservation reformatting has its own strengths and limitations.  In spite of its robustness, preservation microfilm presents a range of problems including limited access and distribution possibilities and limited functionality for example no searchable text or text analysis capabilities. Paper-based reformatting also has reduced distribution and access capabilities and limited functionality. Both methods of reformatting cannot be easily incorporated into the desktop environment, which comprises of computers and other machines with digital capabilities. In spite of their advantages, it is difficult to see how paper-based and microfilm reformatting would fit with the increased emphasis libraries and archives have been recently placing on information access and distribution.

                                      Digital preservation has emerged as a response to anxieties about the vulnerability of digital objects.  It refers to all the processes involved in preserving and maintaining access to digital material. Digital material is created when analog items and records are digitized. Hence, digital preservation is crucial to the effectiveness of digitization as a preservation reformatting method. These digitized items also need to be protected in the same vein as ‘born digital’ material. Digital preservation has become one of the major issues in relation to information science with national bodies such as the Library Congress (LOC) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) creating action groups and committees to formulate guidelines and standards that address digital data management and maintenance. These guidelines and standards can greatly assist archivists in dealing with digital preservation concerns.  Descriptive and technical metadata for each digital image can be employed to deal with concerns about integrity, authenticity and provenance. This metadata could include the unique identifier, scanning hardware, image processing software, master image resolution and file format, color space, bit depth, the date of creation for the digital image, and any special processing done using editing software such as Photoshop[11].  Migration is one the main methods of dealing with technological obsolescence or storage media failure. It involves a set of organized tasks designed to achieve the periodic transfer of digital materials from one hardware/software configuration to another, or from one generation of computer technology to a subsequent generation[12]. Inevitably, digital data must be migrated to work on new platforms.  Still, the migration of digital material has it challenges. Sometimes digital data is easily separable from the software to use it. The migration of such data is not difficult. However, there are instances where digital data and software are inseparable and both content and functionality must be preserved[13].  In such instances software emulation maybe developed to recreate the environment in which the original software operated in order to access a particular file[14].  Most importantly, digital preservation requires collaboration by a vast number of cultural heritage institutions, repositories, and archives in adhering to uniform standards and practices.  Migration on a broad scale is only practical if standard formats and platforms are widely used[15]. Thus, libraries and archives must exchange information and ideas with communities that may have greater experience in digital technology. Pilot projects involving various organizations from various fields are one of the best ways to learn new ideas and approaches. Digital preservation can be a labor-intensive and expensive process. However, libraries and archives can use public sensitization campaigns to draw awareness as well as funding.    

                                             Digitization has made the life of information professionals and users easier as searching has become faster, access to information is greater, images of the original are better represented, and less storage area is required. For these reasons, digitization should be considered a preservation reformatting technique. However, preservation of these digital files is necessary for digitization to function effectively. On the whole, there must be a deep-seated commitment and understanding of digital material for more informed decisions to be consistently made by all stakeholders.

Endnotes

[1] Bansal, Alka, Vinod Kumari, Ashok Kumar, and Mohinder Singh.  "Securing the Future of Information: Digitisation and Preservation of Documents in e-Format." DESIDOC Bulletin of Information Technology 25, no. 1 (2005): 23. accessed March 15, 2013. http://www.publications.drdo.gov.in/gsdl/collect/dbit/index/assoc/HASH5faa.dir/dbit2501019.pdf

[2] Mani, N. S. "Digitisation: Preservation and Challenges." DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology 29, no. 1 (2009): 70. accessed March 21, 2013. http://www.publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/233/142

[3] Arthur, Kathleen, Sherry Byrne, Elisabeth Long, Carla Q. Montori, and Judith Nadler. "Recognizing digitization as a preservation reformatting method."Microform & imaging review 33, no. 4 (2004): 175. http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/digi_preserv.pdf

[4] Arthur and Byrne, Long, Montori, Nadler. "Recognizing digitization as a preservation reformatting method.” 175.

[5]Capell, Laura. “Digitization as a Preservation Method for Damaged Acetate Negatives: A Case Study.” American Archivist 73, no. 1 (2010): 249. accessed March 28, 2013. http://archivists.metapress.com/content/X381802G137421H3

[6] Capell, Laura. “Digitization as a Preservation Method for Damaged Acetate Negatives: A Case Study.” 249.

[7] “Digital preservation: preserving heritage and protecting civil rights.” accessed March 30, 2013. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/digital_preservation_preserving_heritage_and_protecting_civil_rights/

[8] Smith, Abby. 2009. Why Digitize?. Microform & Imaging Review. 28(4): 120. Retrieved 2 Apr. 2013, from doi:10.1515/mfir.1999.28.4.110

[9] Smith, Abby. 2009. Why Digitize?. Microform & Imaging Review. 28(4): 120. Retrieved 2 Apr. 2013, from doi:10.1515/mfir.1999.28.4.110

[10] Smith, Abby. 2009. Why Digitize?. Microform & Imaging Review. 28(4): 120. Retrieved 2 Apr. 2013, from doi:10.1515/mfir.1999.28.4.110

[11] Capell, Laura. “Digitization as a Preservation Method for Damaged Acetate Negatives: A Case Study.” 247.

[12] Harvey, Ross. Preserving Digital Materials. (Munchen: K. G. Saur, 2005), 148.

[13] Marcum, Deanna. “A Moral and Legal Obligation: Preservation in the Digital Age.” International Information and Library Review 29 (1997): 360. accessed March 29, 2013. http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/ridl/if_internal/electronic_papers/marcum 97.pdf

[14] Marcum, “A Moral and Legal Obligation: Preservation in the Digital Age,” 360.

[15] Marcum, “A Moral and Legal Obligation: Preservation in the Digital Age,” 362.

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