Digital preservation has been happening since the 1980s in the civilian world and probably for at least two decades before that in the military world.  The science of creating digital backups of data in order to prevent them from being lost is really as much an art as it is a science.  This is especially true if you consider what the first part of the digital preservation movement was like.

When computer hardware was new, there were many competing storage forms that came on in a relatively short period of time.  Five-inch floppy disks were replaced by 3.5-inch floppy disks which in their turn were replaced by CDs and eventually DVDs.  For each of these new storage methods, new hardware was needed.  Whereas the 5-inch standard might have been sold on all computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the fact of the matter is that if you want to read one of those today you need to buy an expensive piece of hardware in order to get the job done.

That being said, the obsolete nature of technology that used to plague people interested in digital preservation is starting to be dealt with in a way that is intelligent as hardware companies start to understand how their advances affect their clients.  A good example of this is the CD to DVD evolution which is comparable in industry terms to the 5-inch to 3.5-inch standard.  Although DVDs are likely going to replace CDs as long as data storage sizes become big enough on average, DVD players can still read CDs and will likely be able to read them for the foreseeable future.  This was not true of the older storage disks and it is becoming even truer for modern storage devices like external hard drives and flash drives, all of which tend to use the USB standard.

Although there are still risks involved with pinning yourself to one storage standard for digital preservation, they are becoming less important in the grand scheme of things.

If there is one thing that has really caused the explosion of digital preservation yet is something that nobody ever talks about, it would have to be the introduction of the universal serial bus standard.  The USB standard is one that is on every new computer sold.  You probably already know where the USB ports on your computer are because you typically use them today for plugging in your mouse and keyboard but they have a far more direct relationship with the increase in popularity of mass digital preservation.

The link has to do with what the USB port has done to storage devices.  Before the USB, devices like CD burners and DVD burners were expensive, bulky and really not conducive to helping with the mass digitization of data and information.  After the USB, storage devices that were fantastic for backing up information were produced and brought to the market every day.  These included devices like USB storage drives, external hard drives and everything else in between.

Why is this so important for digital preservation?  It is important because it eliminates one of the major concerns of digital preservation and that concern is obsolescence.  You can’t read about digital preservation without hearing unfortunate stories of people that backed up information on floppy disks and optical drives only to have those storage media go out of standard construction, making their data recovery process a very expensive one.  This is always a risk that you should take seriously in the computer world because it is a risk that has shown itself to be true again and again as new technology is developed.

The USB standard has changed that however because of the fact that you can now make external USB storage devices that can be plugged into the computer.  This makes exchanging parts cheaper and easier and also makes it more likely that products will continue to be created that conform to that standard for a very long time to come.

Most people have spent some time looking at an Atlas, if not on their own or as part of looking for road directions they have at least done so in geography class in school.  As the world starts to get closer together, geographic and spatial information is starting to become far more important to the average person.  This is why a whole new section of digital preservation has really taken off within the last decade.

This is the digital preservation of cartographic information and it takes many different forms.  The primary form of cartographic digital preservation has to do with governments and major cartography businesses taking all of their old maps and converting them into a digital format that will last longer.  This is such a big trend nowadays that companies have made fortunes just on selling technology that allows for precise digitization of things like landmass shorelines and oceanic altitudes.

Examples of primary cartographic digital preservation are numerous, but you can focus on governments in order to see these in action.  Topographic maps across an entire country used to be found in paper map form, but now they can also be found in digital form for people that would prefer to have those types of maps instead.

The governments of the United States, Canada, Great Britain and several other countries in Europe have already converted most if not all of their topographic maps into digital formats, allowing their citizens to choose between a paper map or a digital map for a handheld device when going hunting, fishing, hiking or any other activity that would require the use of a map.

In addition to this type of primary conversion, the secondary aspect of cartographic digital preservation is that companies and governments are starting to create all of their new datasets in a digital format.  It’s called Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and it is one of the hottest industries in the world today.

Digital preservation or backing up data for future access has been increasingly challenging for the past few years. While technology has advanced in a very fast pace in terms of storage capabilities, these advances are actually placing the data collected in the past at risk. The information gathered used technologies that are no longer used today. A good example is the data stored in a floppy disk. This type of storage device was very useful from mid to late 90s. Today, you’ll be required to purchase a separate hardware just to read a floppy disk. The common mass-storage device as of this writing is the portable hard drive but it can be easily replaced after a decade with a new hardware.

Aside from the threat of obsolescence, digital preservation also requires careful handling of the storage device and the system that keeps it accessible. There are two factors on handling the storage device – care of the hardware itself and the software that protects the hardware. A floppy disk, hard drive, CD and other devices used to store information have a lifespan and can even be destroyed if they were not handled according to specifications. They have to be carefully handled and stored in an ideal condition 24/7. The software part on handling data keeps these devices from possible attacks while checking incoming data for possible viruses.

This is the reason why many businesses opted to use cloud services to securely store their data. There are a handful of online companies known to store data in behalf of its users. This has actually been economical for many businesses and even consumers. They simply have to pay the annual fee rather than keeping up with the latest technology and actively preserve their data on storage devices. Although these multi-million companies still have to go through the same trouble of digital preservation, they have already showed their capability in securely preserving data in behalf of their clients.