Preservation and Maintenance of the Digital Library : A New Challenge

Abstract

Libraries, archives, and museums play a critical role in organizing, preserving, and providing access to the cultural and historical resources of society. Digital technologies are used increasingly for information production, distribution, and storage. The institutions that have traditionally assumed responsibility for preserving information face technical, organizational, resource, and legal challenges in taking on the preservation of digital holdings. Maintenance will be critical to digital libraries; especially those who promote broad access to diverse, informal materials. If ignored, maintenance issues within the digital library, especially those relating to its materials will threaten its usefulness and even its long-term viability. We perceive the maintenance problem to be both technical and institutional, and this paper considers the preservation and maintenance of the digital library. The paper examines collection maintenance from several vantage points, including software architecture and the type of collection. The paper ends with an examination of potential technical solutions.