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Technological obsolescence

Technological obsolescence is the result of the evolution of technology: as newer technologies appear, older ones cease to be used. For example, new media for storing digital information rapidly replace older media and reading devices for these older media become no longer available. Newer versions of software constantly render older versions obsolete and the hardware required by this software also changes over time. Consequently, information which relies on obsolete technologies becomes inaccessible. Currently, it seems that the lifetime of digital storage media generally exceeds the life of the technology that supports it.

Strategies for dealing with technological obsolescence include: migration of digital information to technologies from which they are accessible, the emulation of obsolete systems, and the preservation of obsolete technologies.

While maintaining obsolete technologies might be the only option in limited circumstances, because of the associated need to keep every version of every piece of software and hardware, operating systems and manuals as well as personnel with relevant skills, it is not generally considered to be a feasible alternative. Emulation shows considerable promise: however, it is largely untested in the context of digital preservation. While migration is generally regarded as being the most promising digital preservation strategy currently, the difficulty in predicting the timing, nature and costs of this approach match the unpredictable nature of technological obsolescence itself.

Migrating digital information to standard formats, which are expected to be less volatile than the wide array of formats in which digital material may originally be accessible, will assist in mitigating the effects of technological obsolescence as well as in facilitating the transfer of information between hardware and software platforms as technologies evolve. Also, the creation and storage of metadata which includes information about technology dependencies will assist in managing and preserving access to this information.

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Articles

Avoiding Technological Quicksand : Finding a Viable Technical Foundation for Digital Preservation
Rothenberg, Jeff In: CLIR Reports (Date Created: 15 Jan 1998) Reviewed by: Reality and Chimeras in the Preservation of Electronic Records
This report to the Council on Library and Information Resources discusses digital preservation strategies and recommends emulation as the best possible solution to the digital preservation challenge. Rothenberg advocates the development of specifications to build an emulator for a digital document and its associated software, which are stored with the document. The work of building the emulator is not done until the document needs to be accessed.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/rothenberg/contents.html
Collection-Based Persistent Digital Archives - Part 1
Baru, Chaitan; Gupta, Amarnath; Ludaescher, Bertram; Marciano, Richard; Moore, Reagan; Rajasekar, Arcot; San Diego Supercomputer Center; Schroeder, Wayne; Wan, Michael In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: Mar 2000)
This article, from the San Diego Supercomputer Center, "defines an approach for maintaining digital data for hundreds of years through development of an environment that supports migration of collections onto new software systems." "The ultimate goal is to preserve not only the bits associated with the original data, but also the context that permits the data to be interpreted." See also Part 2 of this article which describes the creation of a one million message persistent email collection.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march00/moore/03moore-pt1.html
Digital Archaeology : Rescuing Neglected and Damaged Data Resources
Ann Gow; Seamus Ross In: JISC/Publishers Association Working Party Papers and Reports (Date Created: Feb 1999) (United Kingdom)
A JISC/NPO funded report within the eLib Programme on the Preservation of Electronic Materials. The report looks at approaches to accessing digital materials where the media has become damaged or where the hardware or software is unknown or no longer available. It has a comprehensive bibliography of printed resources, a webography and several rescue case studies dealing with rescue techniques.
ISBN: 1 900508 51 6
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/papers/supporting/pdf/p2.pdf
Digital Preservation : a Time Bomb for Digital Libraries
Hedstrom, Margaret (Last Updated: 16 Oct 1995)
This paper discusses the challenges and requirements of digital preservation, some current preservation strategies and their limitations and four areas for research and development: storage media, migration, conversion, and management tools.
http://www.uky.edu/%7Ekiernan/DL/hedstrom.html
Directory of Information Sources On Scientific Research Related to the Preservation of Sound Recordings, Still And Moving Images, and Magnetic Tape
Child, Margaret (Date Created: Sep 1993)
This directory focuses on two areas of concern: how to prolong the usable life of information on current physical carriers through safe environmental storage and correct handling and use; and how to ensure access to information when technology is changing.
ISBN: 1-887334-27-0
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/child/child.html
Preserving Digital Information : Final Report and Recommendations
Garrett, John (co-chair); Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information; Waters, Donald (chair) (Date Created: 20 May 1996)
This report arose from a decision at the end of 1994 by the Commission on Preservation and Access (CPA) and the Research Libraries Group (RLG) to create a Task Force charged with investigating and recommending means to ensure "continued access indefinitely into the future of records stored in digital electronic form." This was a watershed exercise which generated thoughtful discussion on this topic worldwide.
http://www.rlg.org/ArchTF/
A Project on Preservation of Digital Data
Lorie, Raymond A. In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: Jun 2001)
This paper, by an IBM researcher, reviews the challenges of preserving access to digital information, and after discussing conversion and emulation approaches, proposes a new approach to archiving data and program behaviour. The approach relies on development of a Universal Virtual Computer (UVC), allowing either the writing of methods to interpret an archived data stream, or specification of the way a program's original operating computer functioned. The IBM Almaden Research Center is involved in a joint project with the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, to evaluate the feasibility of a UVC solution for some specific data formats.
http://www.rlg.org/preserv/diginews/diginews5-3.html#feature2
Reality and Chimeras in the Preservation of Electronic Records
Bearman, David In: D-Lib magazine (Date Created: 15 Apr 1999)
This magazine column is a response to the report to CLIR by Jeff Rothenberg "Avoiding Technological Quicksand". Bearman gives a critique of the solution described by Rothenberg and suggests that migration is still the preferred solution for the preservation of electronic records.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/bearman/04bearman.html

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