Electronic Information and Digitization: Preservation and Security Challenges
The Coming Crisis in Preserving our Digital Cultural Heritage
Clifford A. Lynch
Coalition for Networked Information

In a world of artifacts such as books or audio compact discs, it was possible to preserve a tremendous amount of the materials offered for commercial sale (or given away) just by purchasing and then taking good care of the artifacts. Copyright and the doctrine of first sale allowed libraries to do this. In the new world of digital information, preserving bits requires continual copying and periodic reformatting, which often is not permissible under copyright. Further, sale of digital information products may prove to be a rarity; one-time use or limited term licenses may be the norm, particularly for many consumer products. In effect, the rights holder needs to take explicit, affirmative action to permit preservation (except perhaps by the Library of Congress, with its special status within the U.S. system of copyright). There has been much discussion of the need to preserve scholarly information: journals migrating to electronic form, datasets and databases, and new genres of digital materials. While there are still formidable technical and economic problems, progress is being made in preserving scholarly information in digital form, because there is a shared commitment to permanent access throughout the entire community of authors, publishers, libraries, and readers involved with financing, producing, distributing, managing, and using this literature. Indeed, the archival stability of the scholarly record is an essential characteristic of that record. But for consumer marketplace materials, there is no such broad shared commitment to preservation. Libraries are a niche market rather than the primary market for these goods, and have little bargaining power. The producers of many consumer materials do not today understand or care about what they must do to ensure preservation of their digital works for the very long term. Because these consumer market works are both an important part of our common cultural heritage and also raw materials for future generations of scholarship, we face a looming crisis as consumer goods move into digital form. My paper will frame this crisis and discuss possible steps that may at least limit its impact.