Digital Data Preservation—A Viable Solution

Abstract

Almost all the artifacts we have in digital only format is susceptible to loss because of the media deterioration, where they are stored. Even if we argue that migrating digital data on newer media at regular intervals will solve this issue. We have an even more important issue of digital data being inaccessible or not readable. This happens if software interpreting the data becomes obsolete. In such case the data is lost, as a bit stream is meaningless unless we can interpret them. Digital data preservation is a long and still open research area. There are various solutions proposed and implemented till date. All the solutions can be broadly classified into two categories (migration and emulation), based on the strategy to ensure longevity. We studied various approaches and strategies done till date for digital data preservation and propose a new framework—a combination of migration and emulation for digital preservation with fewer dependencies on future technology.