1. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Intergovernmental Council for the Information for All Programme Twelfth Meeting of the Bureau Open thematic debate on Information Preservation Paris, 3 April 2007 Dietrich Schüller Presenting the Context

2. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Preservation of information Two basic tasks bring documents into repositories preserve documents

3. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Bringing documents into repositories Selection vs keeping everything – (administration) archives vs libraries (depot legal) Sub-issue: the case of audio-, video, and electronic documents hitherto outside professional custody

4. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Preserving documents The paradox inverse relation between age of document technology and longevity: clay tablets vs digital files Additional threat for machine readable documents: availability of specific hard and software Shift from passive to active preservation

5. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller The role of digitisation All kinds of documents Opening new dimensions of democratic access Secondary preservation by lifting stress from originals by use Audio and video documents Indispensable measure for long-term preservation by subsequent migration

6. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Digitisation ≠ (yet) preservation Generally, text and photographic materials are preserved in their original forms, digital copies are surrogates for access only Audio and video: digitisation is not the final solution for preservation, but only a first step Digital files are the most endangered species amongst documents, vulnerable and volatile Long-term preservation of digital information is a considerable technical, strategic, and financial challenge

7. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Costs of preservation Classical documents optimising and maintaining storage conditions restoration disaster preparedness

8. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Audio, video and electronic documents Conversion (“ingest”) to digital repositories (NB: digital documents generally also need some conversion) Maintaining digital files alive data integrity checking migration: automated systems vs manual approaches hardware and storage media prices plunging software

9. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Present digital preservation costs: 5-8 $ or € /GB/year Aim to be reached within short (?) term: 1 $ or € /GB/year

10. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Memory of the World Sub-Committee on Technology: Kevin Bradley: Risks Associated with the Use of Recordable CDs and DVDs as Reliable Storage Media in Archival Collections - Strategies and Alternatives, Paris, UNESCO 2006 www.unesco.org/webworld/risk Kevin Bradley et al: Open Source Archival Repository Software (to be published 2007)

11. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Worldwide overview (sketch) Situation of archives dependent from organisational financial climatic frame work

12. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Organisation and financing Strongly dependant from governmental input – private sponsorship upcoming Central vs decentralised institutions Problems of continuity of funding in GIS countries EU commission supported access, but left preservation to member states Worldwide: 80% of materials related to cultural and linguistic diversity outside (proper) archival custody

13. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller UNESCO Memory of the World Programme Member states should use its potential for awareness raising – beyond the register!

14. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Climatic conditions in southern countries Permanent struggle against humidity temperature insects and pest fungus Low-cost improvement of storage conditions possible Digitisation potential factor in reducing permanent storage costs

15. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Acetate cellulose tape suffering from extreme deformation due to hydrolysis

16. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Fungus growth through permanent storage at RH-levels above 65 %

17. PHONOGRAMMARCHIV − AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Dietrich Schüller Thank you ! dietrich.schueller@oeaw.ac.at www.pha.oeaw.ac.at