Staff Papers

UNESCO campaign to preserve the 'digital heritage' - and consultations in Asia and the Pacific

A paper by Colin Webb, Preservation Services, National Library of Australia published in International Preservation News (IPN) - a newsletter of the IFLA Core Activity on Preservation and Conservation, Number 30, September 2003

Considering that the disappearance of heritage in whatever form constitutes an impoverishment of the heritage of all nations, …
Recognising that … resources of information and creative expression are increasingly produced, distributed, accessed and maintained in digital form, creating a new legacy - the digital heritage, …
Understanding that this digital heritage is at risk of being lost and that its preservation for the benefit of present and future generations is an urgent issue of worldwide concern, …

So begins the Draft Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage, which was submitted to the 166th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board in April 2003. The Draft Charter aims to present a concise, non-binding, but inspiring statement of principles for Member States as they grapple with the challenges of maintaining this rapidly growing digital heritage. The purpose of the Charter is to focus worldwide attention on the issues at stake, and to encourage responsible action wherever it can be taken.

Preparation of the Charter - ultimately for consideration by the General Conference of UNESCO - is one part of a campaign to address the barriers to digital continuity. As well as the Charter, other elements of the campaign include widespread consultations on the issues, development of practical and technical guidelines, and a series of pilot projects.

The National Library of Australia was contracted by the UNESCO Division of Information Society to prepare guidelines, to assist in drafting the Charter, and to organise a Regional Consultation Meeting for Asia and the Pacific, which was held in Canberra in November 2002. Further meetings were held in Managua (for Latin America and the Caribbean), Addis Abeba (for Africa), Riga (for the Baltic States) and Budapest (for Eastern Europe).

This paper presents a very brief overview of the Draft Charter, the Guidelines, and some of the issues that came out of the Regional Consultation Meeting for Asia and the Pacific regarding readiness for digital preservation.

The UNESCO Draft Charter for the Preservation of Digital Heritage

Charters and Declarations within the UNESCO scheme of agreements are meant to be 'normative' documents to which Member States are invited to agree through a vote at the General Conference, rather than by individual ratification. They are not binding and do not require action so much as encourage it.

The Draft Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage explains that the digital heritage

"… consists of unique resources of human knowledge and expression, whether cultural, educational, scientific or administrative, while embracing technical, legal, medical and other kinds of information that more and more are being created digitally, or converted into digital form from existing analogue resources. … Many of these resources have lasting value and significance, and therefore constitute a heritage that should be protected and preserved for current and future generations. This heritage may exist in any language, in any part of the world, and in any area of human knowledge or expression."

The purpose of preserving this heritage is to ensure its ongoing accessibility. The Draft Charter seeks a "fair balance between the legitimate rights of creators and other rights holders and the interest of the public to access digital heritage materials".

Threats to this digital heritage are highlighted, including rapid obsolescence of the technologies needed for access, a lack of supportive legislation, and international uncertainties about resources, responsibilities and methods. Urgent action is called for, from awareness raising and advocacy, to practical programs that address preservation threats throughout the digital life-cycle.

In discussing the measures that are needed, the Draft Charter emphasises the importance of deciding what should be kept, taking account of the significance and enduring value of the material and noting that the digital heritage of all regions, countries and communities should be preserved and made accessible. It discusses legislative and policy frameworks that will be needed, and calls on Member States to designate agencies with coordinating responsibility and to provide adequate resources.

Many agents have a role to play, both within and outside government, and agencies are urged to work together pursue the best possible results and to democratise access to digital preservation techniques. UNESCO commits itself as an organisation to foster cooperation, raise awareness, build capacity, and establish standards and practices that will help.

Guidelines for the Preservation of Digital Heritage

While the Charter focuses on advocacy and public policy issues, the Guidelines present the principles on which technical decisions can be based throughout the life cycle of a wide range of digital materials.

The Guidelines aim to address at least four audiences, each with different but overlapping needs: policy makers looking for enough information on which to base policy commitments; high level managers seeking to understand both the conceptual basis for digital preservation and the key management issues their programs will face; line managers involved in day-to-day decisions who need more detailed understanding of practical issues; and technical practitioners needing a good perspective on how various technical issues and processes fit together to make an integrated program.

The range of technical detail required to meet all the needs of technical practitioners was too wide, too situation-specific and too quickly dated for inclusion in the Guidelines, so they focus instead on technical and practical principles, and look to the creation of a website that can carry more detailed technical manuals and useful tips.

The Guidelines have been structured to make it easy for readers with different needs to find the information most relevant to them. As a result of the consultation process, specific suggestions are provided for those managing digital preservation programs with few resources. The organisation of chapters emphasises the need to understand some basic concepts behind digital preservation, followed by more detailed discussion of processes involved in creation, selection, transfer, control, rights management, authenticity and data protection, and maintenance of accessibility.

The Guidelines do not pretend to provide all the answers. Much remains uncertain, and one can only hope that reasonably short-term research will establish workable standards and solutions beyond those available in early 2003. However, it is also hoped that the principles embedded within the Guidelines will provide useful guidance for many people in many situations for a long time to come.

Both the Draft Charter and the Guidelines will be made available through the UNESCO Communication and Information website. The Guidelines are also expected to be available in printed form in a number of languages, including English, French and Spanish.

Regional Consultation Meeting for Asia and the Pacific

The Canberra Consultation Meeting was attended by 39 invited experts from 12 countries in the Asia and Pacific regions, and provided extremely useful input to the Draft Charter and Guidelines, as well as discussing barriers to preservation of digital heritage.

In preparing for the meeting, participants were invited to provide background notes briefly responding to the following questions:

  1. Please provide a brief description of the creation of digital heritage content in your country, and the work your organisation undertakes in preserving it
  2. What are the main obstacles to the preservation of digital heritage in your field of interest?
  3. What strategies do you have in place to address these concerns?
  4. What priority assistance would help in overcoming these barriers?

The resulting papers are a rich source of information on digital preservation readiness in Asia and the Pacific. Following are some impressions based on the papers.

The underlying message is that there is a rapidly increasing amount of digital heritage material being created - although its creation is not evenly spread and gives evidence of the "digital divide" that is so often talked about. At the same time, there is a second digital divide that is likely to emerge, as the state of readiness for preserving this digital heritage is also very unevenly spread. Without concerted action within the countries and sectors concerned, supported by others from outside, many of those creating digital content of enduring value will not have the resources, tools and expertise to maintain it.

Digital publishing

Most regional representatives spoke about digital publishing, although it was of particular concern to those working in libraries (including the National Libraries of China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, the National Diet Library of Japan, the Bibliotheque Bernheim of New Caledonia, the Central Library of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the Council of Australian State and Territory Libraries, and the Council of Australian University Librarians) as well as those engaged in publishing.

Digital publishing was already widespread in the larger and more advanced countries of the region. This included online and offline publishing and covered newspapers, journals, government information, websites and databases of research reports and scientific abstracts. Some of this material was also released in traditional print forms, although for newspapers, the digital and print versions usually differed. There was much less publishing occurring in Pacific states except New Zealand and in the poorer countries of Asia.

In Australia, digital publishing had increasingly moved to online access with a mix of new, small publishers, "non-publishers" using websites, and a few larger publishers.

Throughout the regions, there was little coordination of standards or advice on good practices being made available to publishers.

Electronic records

Those with a particular interest in electronic records included the National Archives Malaysia, Singapore (via the National Library), Fiji, Australia, and the Public Records Office of Victoria.

Participants reported that most governments were gradually moving to electronic record creation, although in many cases this did not extend to coordinated development and did not include adoption of comprehensive record keeping systems. Many agencies continued to use paper record systems for their more important records, but would have to face the reality of large holdings of electronic information needing to be managed. Formats found in agency holdings included emails, word processing documents, reports, spreadsheets, publications, Internet resources, datasets and databases, and multimedia objects.

Audiovisual resources

Although a component of many library, archive and other collections, audio and moving image formats were of particular interest to specialist A/V archives including the American Institute for Indian Studies Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, and ScreenSound Australia, and institutions with large A/V collections such as the NLA and the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Participants reported that large-scale commercial producers of audio-visual materials were active in countries such as Japan and India, many using advanced digital production techniques and in some cases releasing products in digital form only. Many of these products do not find their way into heritage collections. Outside the commercial field, there was also much activity in digital recording of oral history, languages and music, and of converting analogue recordings to digital form. This required considerable investment, which many organizations found hard to make, even while recognising that the working life of existing analogue systems was limited.

There was also a great deal of experimental work being done in digital content creation in Australia and Japan that would enrich the digital heritage but would be extremely difficult to preserve.

Data collections

Digital heritage probably first appeared in the data records of scientific and geoscience research, where the ability of computers and computer-based machines to capture, store, manipulate, analyse and share huge amounts of data made them essential tools from the 1950s onwards. At the Canberra meeting, reports by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China and GeoScience Australia particularly focused on data archive issues.

Digital data were being recorded about almost every conceivable phenomenon, and further data were generated by their analysis. Data collections also typically dealt with software applications such as databases used to structure and interrogate datasets, and simulations and models used to manipulate data to predict outcomes.

The quantity and complexity of such data collections usually reflect the amount and level of scientific and statistical research conducted in a country. Many extensive and extremely important data collections existed in many of the larger and more developed countries in the regions, although it was believed that some important sets of data would have been created of relevance to all countries.

In Australia, geospatial data had been created from the 1970s onwards, including satellite imagery, petroleum data, geophysical data, topographic mapping, etc. Large amounts of data could only be converted to more model media on demand, so some data was at risk of being lost if it was not re-used in a relatively short time. However, the long-term value of some data in assessing, for example, environmental changes over time, was only just emerging.

Digitisation

Almost all participants reported some programs to create digital content by copying existing analogue materials. In most countries and in most sectors, this was seen as an early step in establishing a 'digital presence', despite its resource intensive nature that severely restricted digitisation programs in some countries. In some communities even the reliability of power supplies and the availability of computers interfered with digitisation plans.

In many cases, digital copies were being made without much attention to the use of standards and formats that would make preservation easier, and without any planning for long-term maintenance of the digital files. The involvement of international programs such as UNESCO's Memory of the World could play a very important part in ensuring that digitisation efforts were not wasted.

Networks

One promising feature reported by many participants was the emergence of networks and collaborations to work together on development of digital information services. Although most of these were not focused on preservation issues, they may hold great potential for encouraging the use of common standards and for developing digital preservation readiness.

Some interesting examples included the National Digital Archives Program in Taiwan, pursuing a phased program of development with significant budget funding over a number of years, and including museums, libraries, archives, and academies, with government coordination. It features a centralised team to standardise metadata and practices in describing and managing content in different domains. There were also a number of large state, national and international collaborations in India set up to build digital libraries and to foster the use of digital resources, including the Digital South Asia Library, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, and the Virtual Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning.

In Australia, many such networks are in place, from sector-wide bodies such as the Council of Australian State and Territory Libraries, to informal cross-sectoral groups that meet in centres such as Canberra to discuss approaches and standards in digitisation.

Community-based digital heritage

Another exciting development that generated much interest was the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by local communities to bring together , promote and preserve their culture. This development was seen in the creation of 'digital archives' in a number of Japanese cities such as Kyoto to reflect and promote a distinct cultural identity, and in remote rural communities in Malaysia, Australia and Indochina to preserve ethnic cultural artefacts in areas such as genealogy, oral traditions, indigenous knowledge, and spiritual support. These community-based and -owned projects raise important issues about making the tools of digital preservation accessible and usable far beyond the confines of large heritage institutions.

Universities were also seen as an area of great potential in initiating more coordinated digital preservation activity. Where resources are available, digital technology has been a great enabler of teaching, learning and research, and many universities have responded with the creation of new forms of information management including Eprint archives, subject gateways, and self-publishing by academics. However, much data remained virtually unknown beyond the immediate research environment, and many universities were challenged to coordinate the many players involved in creating, managing and using digital heritage materials.

The role of government was seen as critically important in development of digital preservation. There would need to be two-way involvement in regional and international agreements, and digital preservation efforts would need to connect with broader policy issues such as intellectual property law and government information policies.

Legislation requiring workable deposit of publications and of government records was of widespread interest, although it was recognised that in some sectors other arrangements could achieve similar preservation objectives. Most central archiving authorities reported that their enabling legislation covered records in all formats, although many were not yet in a position to take on a long-term preservation responsibility for digital records.

Legal deposit of published materials was much less settled. A number of national libraries reported that extension of LD to digital materials was being considered by governments, and a few already had coverage of offline digital publications. Coverage of online resources was still rare although recognised as an important next step.

Current arrangements for managing digital resources

Very few participants were able to report on currently active preservation programs for digital materials, although a few national libraries, archives and specialist A/V archives were well advanced in either planning or implementing programs. All of these could still be considered experimental in that no-one could claim certainty about how they would manage digital resources over the long-term. This state of progress seems similar to other world regions, as there are few mature, working models in place anywhere.

The most common current preservation steps appeared to include: acceptance of responsibility; establishing what materials should be preserved; some work with content creators to guide practices; acquiring material, often selectively; negotiating rights with rights owners; documenting the acquired material; secure storage, with adequate backups; and transfer of data to fresh media before significant deterioration occurs.

The largely unresolved or at least untested elements of preservation arrangements remained the challenge of maintaining access as technologies change and the current means of access are lost; and finding sustainable ways to do this.

Areas of greatest concern

Some of the main barriers identified for those seeking to take on a preservation responsibility for digital heritage included: a lack of awareness at both political and operational levels; uncertainties about what should be selected for preservation; uncertainties about who should take responsibility; the lack of mature methods; poor levels of detailed technical knowledge; and legal barriers such as rights issues.

Some barriers are intrinsic to the problem, such as the rate of technological change, the widespread use of proprietary software, and the rapid increase in the quantity and complexity of digital objects.

For some participants, there are even more basic barriers, including poor access to existing technical knowledge which may only be available on the Internet; the high cost of obtaining international standards; and the absence of supporting infrastructure such as reliable power supplies and basic computer equipment.

For all participants, resource issues were critical.

Some of the more interesting priorities suggested for dealing with these barriers included: messages to governments that digital heritage preservation matters and requires funding; international fostering of national centres in each country for the preservation of that country's digital heritage; development of nation-wide preservation strategies; mentoring arrangements; development of guidelines aimed at specific communities; audits of digital collections to identify the size of the preservation task; development of tools that can be openly shared such as software for managing digital repositories; development of more automated ways of undertaking routine tasks; and development of cheap, practical solutions that operate now with currently available technologies.

While the UNESCO campaign will not provide the magic solutions needed to achieve some of these goals, it should help.

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