CULTURAL HERITAGE

"Representing over 93% of the world’s information, the vast majority of this [digital] material exists exclusively in digital format, a fact that makes the preservation of digital information critical to the perpetuation of our cultural heritage and collective memory." - Ex Libris, Ltd. 2008 pdf
PRESERVATION

It's time to save face! Find out how to backup your Facebook data in our brief tutorial.
SHARED CHALLENGE

"The digital preservation network is the actors—creators and producers, owners, collectors, distributors, preservers, users, and others—who collaborate to preserve digital content." - Library of Congress, 2002 pdf
LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

"It cannot be over stressed that providing long-term access to digital information resources requires a long-term commitment." - Bernard Smith, 2003 pdf
FUTURE

“The preservation and re-use of digital data and information forms both the cornerstone of future economic growth and development, and the foundation for the future of memory.” - Seamus Ross, 2000 pdf

You need to know about digital preservation

Digital materials are extremely fragile. Unlike paper, which can sit on a desk for years without changing, digital materials need to be continuously monitored and cared for if we want to access them again down the road. Even a few years ago CDs were the media-du-jour for storing music, documents, and images. Today, we use thumb drives, iPods, or other external hard drives. Tomorrow. . . who knows?

If you create or are responsible for digital materials that you or others will need to access at some point in the future, then you should have a basic understanding of how to care for those files. This site has resources that can help North Carolina state government employees, and users of digital materials in general, learn what they need to know about digital preservation.

I'm New to Digital Preservation

What is digital preservation?

What can you do?

Why is digital preservation important?

I'm Ready to Learn More

Digital preservation as a process

More about key concepts

Potential digital preservation solutions

I'm Ready to Do More

Institutions to watch

Latest news

Interesting research projects

Major funding partners for U.S. institutions

default | + | ++

Quick Tips

Is someone else preserving your computer or website files? Let them know what needs to be preserved by either providing the files directly to them or pointing them to a location where they can retrieve the files.