Levels of Service for Digital Repositories

摘要

Digitalpreservationresearchhasmadeimportantgainsinrecentyears,andthecapabilityforlibrariesandarchivestomanagedigitalcollectionscontinuestogrow.Thisisobviouslygoodnewsinthatanexpandedbodyofdigitalrecords,publications,andotherobjectswillbepreservedandmadeavailable.Whatislessobviousisthatthereisnomagicbulletintheoffingfordealingwithallpermanentdigitalmaterials:onlyafractionwillmeetnecessaryconditionsforoptimalpreservationanduse.Materialsthatdeviatefromtheseconditionscanstillbeincludedindigitalcollections,butfindingandusingthemwillbemoredifficult,perhapssubstantiallyso.Thisarticleoutlinesconditionsthatgovernthepersistenceofdigitalmaterialsandsuggestsamodelforfuturelevelsofservicefordigitalrepositories.