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.