Digital Preservation

Since joining the PLANETS Project in 2007, I have been researching digital preservation practices. More recently, I have started to apply my research experience in order to understand how best to make ensure large and complex digital collections remains discoverable, accessible and useful over time.

Central to this is the recognition that digital preservation is not simply a technical problem to be solved. Nothing can be preserved unless a sustainable community is willing and able to care for it. Effective preservation certainly requires technical investment and research, but equally important are the social structures that allow those who care for the content to preserve the knowledge, resources and skills upon which digital content depends. It takes a village to save a hard drive, and so much of my work in digital preservation has been around trying to understand what the digital preservation community needs in order to succeed.