A Manager's Guide To The Long-Term Preservation Of Electronic Documents

Description

In the modern era, digital documents are being created at an unprecedented rate. At the same time, increasing regulation is placing ever more stringent requirements on the need for retention of those documents. This paperback book has been written to provide guidance about the adoption of practices and standards organizations can use and implement so that they can be confident that their digital documents will be preserved for the long-term.

This 110-page A5 paperback book explains, in clear terms, the problems surrounding digital preservation, and explores the various solutions. It covers storage media, metadata, retention periods and standards-based archival formats. The pros and cons of each solution are described, offering managers an insight into the issues that need to be considered when taking this decision.

CONTENTS:

The digital preservation problem

    * The need for document preservation

    * Defining 'long-term'

    * Preservable digital documents

    * Aspects of preservation

    * Preservation challenges

    * Preservation approaches

    * Digital document preservation policy

Retention periods

    * Definitions

    * Principles of retention periods

    * Implementation

Standards-based archival formats

    * Characteristics of archival formats

    * Standards bodies

    * Non-digital archival format

    * Digital archival formats

    * Guidance for specific document categories

Storage media

    * Paper

    * Microfilm

    * Magnetic tape

    * Optical disk

    * On-line storage

    * Summary

Metadata

    * Metadata in long-term preservation of digital documents

    * The purpose of metadata

    * Metadata formats

    * Metadata schemas

    * Custom schemas

    * Data standards

    * UK Government

    * Metadata location

    * Technical metadata

    * Other relevant standards

Archive creation and maintenance

    * Core concepts

    * OAIS functional model

Related standards and publications

    * The OAIS model

    * Records management

    * Document management

    * Legal admissibility

    * PDF/A

    * References

    * Annex A - Policy document