Digital Curation Strategies for Information Management in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Libraries and archives have been the central institutions that not only house works of value but also focus their efforts for preservation of them for future reuse. The term preservation is thus not unheard of in the traditional library and archival environment where materials in paper, microform, photographic materials are preserved. Preservation involved an array of tools and methodologies developed to reduce the decay of traditional materials and to restore them. The preservation of traditional printed materials however has the advantage that the collections are relatively stable for at least decades if not centuries. The digital information, unfortunately affords no such luxury and are by their very nature ephemeral and fragile, with a lifespan that could be weeks or days if left to themselves. Thus, the digital preservation adds new sets of challenges for libraries and archives. Here we made an experiment on how to manage the information using the digital curation techniques in higher educational institutions.