Digital preservation: The research and development agenda in Australia

The management of digital material has become increasingly critical as the range and volume of material existing purely in digital form grows. The imperative is social, economic and cultural. Digital materials document, as expressed by Walters and Garrett in the Research Libraries Group seminar Research report, society’s issues, concerns, ideas, discourse and events’2. The potential loss of the cultural memory of the developed world through the degradation and destruction of digital resources, archives, ephemeral and incidental material has been recognised as a serious problem that needs to be addressed urgently by those with a responsibility for long-term access to digital material. The need for preservation of this material is enormous, as digital material is forming an increasingly sizable portion of our intellectual and cultural heritage. In the past much of the material that documents cultural histories has survived through providence rather than specific archiving practices, neglect often facilitating rather than hindering preservation. We do not have this luxury with digital documents. A pro-active approach is essential to limit the possibility of what has been termed ‘the digital dark-ages’. [Introduction]