The preservation of digitised collections : an overwiew of recent progress and persistent challenges worlwide

Bibliographic descrcription :
VARLAMOFF, Marie-Thérèse and GOULD Sara. The preservation of digitised collections : an overview of recent progress and persistent challenges worldwide. UNESCO WebWorld News Point of View, 1999. Text accessible : http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/preservation_1.shtml

Dublin Core
Tiltle : The preservation of digitised collections : an overview of recent progress and persistent challenges worldwide.
Creator : VARLAMOFF, Marie-Thérèse and GOULD Sara
Subject : Digital preservation, digital document, digital material, UNESCO.
Description : " This article attempts to present some of issues surrounding the challenge of digital preservation.
Publisher : UNESCO WebWorld News Point of View
Contributor :
Date : 1999
Type : Text
Format : HTML
Identifier : http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/preservation_1.shtml
Source :
Language : En
Relation :
Coverage :
Rights : © Copyrights 1999- UNESCO

"The emergence of digital technologies in the library and archival worlds has changed many practices in the profession, and in recent years many major libraries have been collecting or producing digital documents: even in developing countries, librarians dream of turning digital, leapfrogging other tried and tested technologies such as microfilming. It cannot be disputed that digital technology has accomplished a great step towards better and easier access to information; the same piece of information can be accessed by several readers simultaneously, regardless of where they are in the world, and far more speedily than previously. The Internet of course allows millions of people around the world to receive the same information at the same time. Distance, frontiers and time limits have all vanished: it could be said that the only requirements for access to information now are language and technical equipment or connections.

The opportunity to browse from one subject to another, from one website to another, and to automate the tedious aspects of seeking information has revolutionised research. Thanks to digitisation, a student can now scan a complete collection of Shakespeare’s dramas in a matter of minutes, something which would have taken days before the advent of digitisation when such a search would have involved laborious page by page research. Libraries also appreciate the space-saving advantages offered by digital collections: the Encyclopedia Britannica, on one or two CD-ROMs, is certainly less cumbersome than the print version, and if correctly handled those CD-ROMs will not need repair or restoration like ordinary paper books which are constantly used and whose pages or bindings tend to tear." [extract]