Preservation in action: reprints of previously out-of-print books

BackinPrint.com is preservation in action!

Here's an excellent example of how technology can be used in preservation to improve access of preserved materials. This company worked with writers to establish not only an archive of preserved written works, but also to create a solution that allows these works to be accessed in their original formats - the printed word in book form.

By using on demand printing technology coupled with copyright grants from the originators of information, this organization has applied technology to great effect. By allowing consumers of information to purchase books that are preserved in electronic form, and then delivering that information in its original format, they have moved preservation of information to a new level.

Versions: new preservation challenges in the electronic information age

With the advent of electronic publishing of information come a scenario that was somewhat less of a problem when all information was in print form - that of the version. Print formats traditionally have controlled the process of versioning published information, but with the rapid increase in the numbers of self published books (Barbato, 1988) it is becoming increasingly difficult to preserve these materials due to the ability of the publisher to create unlimited versions of the same information, with no regulation on the specification or identification attached to any given edition (Carpenter, 2006).

As with any new technology there is a lag from the time of implementation to the time when standards and procedures are worked out, and some work to date has been done to establish standards for the versioning of purely electronic information such as the UK Joint Information Systems Committee VERSIONS system (Allsop, 2006) and the NISO/ALPSP Working Group (Carpenter, 200-6), but to date only a few tools for non-academic information publication have been created, such as Manila 9.5 blogging tool, from Userland Software Inc, which features version information embedding (Bernstein,2005), but this lack of tools poses a problem for those working to preserve information that does not contain version information.

Which version is more important?

When discussing versions it is important to note that not all versions carry the same attribution of value to all consumers. For example, some librarians feel that the authors version of a document is more valuable than the publishers version of the same document (Harris, 2007), so which version should be preserved, or should both be preserved? and why?

Knowing about the version of any given piece of information is important because it allows the researcher to know things like how the information has changed over time, who changed it, and therefore how it has been changed or updated from the original version. It also allows the consumer to better determine things like the influence of bias or the introduction of false information (Austim, 2005).

Part of the value of electronic formats for information is that they are readily accessible and they can be easily edited or created, but this also works against them when editing is done for malicious purposes. Adding bias to electronic forms of information or purposefully adding incorrect information or replacing correct information with incorrect information is easier to do with electronic forms of information (Waters, 2006) so keeping older versions and being able to identify previous versions is becoming increasingly important to preservers of information.

In the next entry I will take a closer look at the challenges to preservation of information presented by those who wish to alter information for their own purposes.


works cited:

Allsop, L. (2006). Versions of Eprint: user requirements study and investigation of the need for standards. ALISS Quarterly, 1(4), 30-.

Austin, M. (2005). The Wikipedia phenomenon. Information world review, (219), 38-.

Barbato, J. (1988). Small publishers are growing up. The publishers weekly, 234, 16-21.

Bernstein, J. (2005). Manila 9.5. EContent, 28(11), 18-20.

Carpenter, T. (2006). Standards column - toward a terminology of journal article versions: an update of the work of the joint NISO/ALPSP journal article version Working Group. Against the grain, 18(6), 79-.

Harris, S. (2007). Final versions carry little weight with librarians. Research information, (28), 13-.

Waters, R. (2006). Wikipedia stand-off in the search for online truth Written and edited by the people for the people, the ever- expanding online encyclopedia is loved around the globe. But does such egalitarian sharing of knowledge lead us towards truth or chaos? Richard Waters talks to the website. FT.com, , 24-.

One size fits all! (but how well?)

How many times have you seen this in an advertisement? It seems to be a popular marketing strategy, but how can one size really fit all as well as something that was designed to be a good fit based on need? Lets take a closer look at this concept in the context of preservation...


Digitization: a one size fits all panacea (?)

Digitization for preservation has many positive aspects, as we have discussed previously, and will likely continue to do so in future posts, but there are drawbacks that need to considered as well if we are to have a sustainable and usable solution. Consider these four different types of information in the context of preservation; an 8mm movie of the New York World's fair, a digital photograph, an historic photograph, and a film negative.


World's Fair 1934:



In New York in 1965 a promotional film was made to show what a day at the World's Fair would be like using then current technology (Kodachrome 35mm movie film). Fast forward to today. This film has now been digitized and preserved for future generations and provides a detailed look at a past event that we would otherwise not have. In this instance the solution for preservation has allowed for a seemingly total preservation of the information, and done so in a way that allows for more people to view the information remotely without the destruction of storage media. The only drawback that I can see is that the technology used to scan the original (part of the Prelinger archives) is now outdated and newer technology could have preserved more detail from the original, or provided a larger image for viewing. All things considered, I would still say that in this case we have a good example of the proper matching of the method of preservation and information to be preserved.

A film negative:




Here is an example of an older type of film with a nitrate base that presents a different problem for preservation than the other examples. The video shows how easily, and quickly, the base of the film burns, making this medium difficult to both preserve and access the information it contains. By selecting a preservation method that removes the danger of fire - another good example of making a good decision based on the information to be preserved and the method of it's preservation.


A.P. News digital photograph of the 9/11 events:

On September the 11th of 2001, both towers of the World Trade Center were struck by aircraft and destroyed. An Associated Press photographer created digital captures of these events using a digital camera and stored them in digital format on a computer (or more likely many computers). These images, having been created in digital format originally, require only the occasional update of their storage format in order to remain accessible for the foreseeable future. Again, this appears to be a very good match of preservation format to the type of information to be preserved.


A historic photographic print:

In the early 1900's a photographic movement called Pictorialism was very popular. In this style photographers manipulated their prints, used heavily textured papers, and worked to represent as wide of a tonal range as possible (meaning that they attempted to have as many subtle shades of grey between the white of the paper and solid black). Again, fast forward to today. Here we begin to detect a mismatch between the method of preservation and the information to be preserved. In today's technology there is no way to represent the feel, or look, of textured paper that presents the same experience as the original (Relph-Knight, 2006).


The experience of information

Information is not always completely self contained - as I have mentioned before, it may have contextual or tactile properties that are part of what the information is without actually being part of the information itself. Sound confusing? Well, let's take a quick look at this idea in a little more depth using the last example above, since I determined that it was not necessarily a good choice for digitization.

In this particular example, the photographer was working in a time when the paper choice was as important to the resultant art as many other factors (Peterson, 1997), the texture of the paper used becomes part of the information itself. By removing this aspect of the information via translation into a format the does not allow for tactile interaction we are editing what is preserved, and therefore the information is no longer preserved in it's entirety, but only in edited form. The action of editing has removed one of the senses used to experience the information, and therefore has altered the original experience (Perricone, 2007).

In the digital format we also run the risk of losing valuable visual information, because even if extraordinary care is taken in the scanning of this print to form the preserved form, the process of viewing will alter it's representation. Every person viewing the resulting image will not see exactly the tonal range of the original because every computer monitor is adjusted differently, and only with the most modern calibration equipment can the settings of one monitor be made to closely represent the results of another (Widman, 1999). Therefore, information that existed in the original print is not completely preserved in the format selected for preservation, even if that format is capable of retaining those subtleties.

Lastly, the format of the original information - a specific size print in this case - presented in a specific way - in a specific size and color mat - is not retained in the act of preservation, a further act of editing resulting in further change. This is especially important for large prints which exceed the size of a computer monitor. Size influences the way a photograph is viewed (Shore, 2007), and by altering the size presented information in relation to the original size we change the way this information is used - in this case interpreted.


works cited:

Peterson, C. (1997). After the photo-secession: American pictorial photography (1910-1955). W. W. Norton & Company : New York.

Perricone, C. (2007). The Place of Touch in the Arts. The Journal of aesthetic education, 41(1), 90-.

Relph-Knight, T. (2006). Colour perfect.(colour management of computers). Personal computer world

Shore, D. (2007). The nature of photographs. Phaidon : New York.

Widman, J. (1999). Digital photography and the workflow: output. Graphic arts monthly, 71(6), 26-.

In the News - British Library audio preservation project

Time's running out to preserve our treasures

Summary:

Digitization at the British Library has allowed many people to conveniently access information that was previously available only in the library itself, and even then required patience to access. But the digitization road has not been simple - a great deal of work goes into making sure that the preservation solution meets the goals of the library. Adding to the difficulty is the rapidly diminishing availability of older technology needed to access sound recordings, making the process a race against time.

Works Referenced:

Holder, D. (2008). Time's running out to preserve our treasures. Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved May 28, 2008 from http://education.guardian.co.uk/librariesunleashed/story/0,,2274851,00.html

Digital preservation - Media and format

Earlier I briefly discussed what it means to preserve information, why it is preserved, and by whom, and now I would like to revisit some of the points made in the first post regarding problems inherent in preservation in a little more detail - namely digital storage formats. Preserving information in the various digital formats available today offers many advantages over the preservation of the original physical information, such as access to more people in more locations (Gwinn, 1996), but it has some downsides as well. These downsides don't seem to be getting quite as much publicity as the upsides, and this has created a somewhat lopsided view of the format that could negatively impact those who rely on it or plan to rely on it in the future.

This is an 8" floppy disk - I still have one box of them left from sometime the 1980's. How many people reading this can remember using these (honestly)? How many even knew they existed? There is data preserved on this disk - not much, but some - yet I cannot access it because I have no 8" floppy drive, nor do I have an IBM system 34 to read the information even if I had the drive. The technology required to access the information preserved on this disk is obsolete and unavailable, therefore the information preserved on this media may as well not even exist - in essence it does not exist.

When the Library of Congress began to investigate the process of digital preservation it conducted a study to better understand what challenges would be involved in the process. They found that due to the progress of technology they were unable to determine how long the digitized information would continue to be accessible. They also found that it was imperative to preserve the original forms in the event of a loss of the digital versions, or for the future as newer technology became available for enhanced digitization (Marcum, 2007).

As technology progresses the ability to access information preserved on the media of older technology is still required to access that information, unless all of the information is moved to a more modern format before the technology required to access it has become unavailable. This continual updating of storage media translates into an ongoing real world cost for the preservation of digital information, which needs to be accounted for when considering what is involved in preserving digital information for the long term future.


Suggested Further Reading:

the Computer History timeline

A Brief History of Computing summary timeline


Works cited:

Feldman, S E. (1997). "It was here a minute ago!" Archiving the Net. Searcher, 5, 52-64.

Gwinn, N. E.. (1996). "Mapping the Intersection of Selection and Funding," Selecting Library and Archive Collections for Digital Reformatting: Proceedings from an RLG Symposium, Mountain View: The Research Libraries Group, Inc., p58.

Marcum, D B. (2007). Digitizing for access and preservation: strategies of the Library of Congress. First Monday, 12(7).

The Internet! Is that thing still around?

I borrowed the title for this post from Homer Simpson in an old episode of "The Simpsons" (Groening, 2006), but there is a kernel of truth here that I think needs a little more scrutiny. How many times have you gone back a bookmark or shortcut only to find that the page you were looking for was gone? Internet-only information is ephemeral, sometimes to an astonishing degree. How can this information be preserved, and how much of it should be preserved?

According to some people, we should preserve anything that someone else is not already preserving because no one can accurately say now what will be of value at a later point in time (Feldman, 1997). Obviously this will not work for everyone who preserves information because preservation is not free; storage costs, access methods, copyright fees, and personnel all cost money, and the last time I checked not too many people had endless supplies of cash on hand for the preservation of information.

What then is to be saved and what should be lost to the mists of time so to speak? As an individual, my first inclination is to say that nothing should be lost, but in reality, this is a much bigger issue that first meets the eye. Because of the aforementioned monetary issues, many organizations have established guidelines for what will be saved and what will be left for others to preserve. A good example of this is the Internet Archive, who's F.A.Q. states the following:

"we collect only publicly accessible Web pages. We do not archive pages that require a password to access, pages tagged for "robot exclusion" by their owners, pages that are only accessible when a person types into and sends a form, or pages on secure servers. If a site owner properly requests removal of a Web site through http://www.archive.org/about/exclude.php, we will exclude that site from the Wayback Machine."

Because not all information on the Internet is necessarily saved by every organization, things like Internet forums or personal online journals are not recorded, and therefore some other source must preserve this information if it is to be preserved at all. While some groups who create these kinds of information do preserve their content (for example the alternative process listserv archives) not all do, and that is an inherent preservation problem with the Internet (Beagrie, 2005).

In order to better understand this issue, the British Library conducted a study called "the Digital Lives research project" which found that there are a number of issues that will need to be dealt with in order to find a workable and sustainable solution to the preservation of this sort of information. One of the more significant problems they study found was that there was no common format for this information, which complicates efforts to preserve it. The study also found that there was no clear consensus regarding what was worth preserving and what was not (Pencock, 2006).

Until these issues are resolved, and they may never be fully resolved, the preservation of information that originated in an electronic form will be a complicated matter that those involved in the preservation of information will have to deal with.

Suggested Further Reading:

Report of the Task Force on Preserving Digital Information (OCLC)

How to Preserve Authentic Electronic Records


works cited:

Beagrie, N. (2005). "Plenty of Room at the Bottom? Personal Digital Libraries and Collections". D-Lib Magazine 11(6).

Feldman, S E. (1997). "It was here a minute ago!" Archiving the Net. Searcher, 5, 52-64.

Groening, M. & Brooks, J. L. (Producer). (2006). The Simpsons [Television series]. U.S.A.:Fox.

Pennock, M. (2006). Digital Preservation Coalition Forum on Web Archiving. Ariadne, (48), 1-.