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The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation
A guide to managing data in the digital age. Winner of the ALCTS Outstanding Publication Award by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, Winner of the Waldo Gifford Leland Award by the Society of American Archivists Many people believe that what is on the Internet will be around forever. At the same time, warnings of an impending "digital dark age"—where records of the recent past become completely lost or inaccessible—appear with regular frequency in the popular press. It's as if we need a system to safeguard our digital records for future scholars and researchers. Digital preservation experts, however, suggest that this is an illusory dream not worth chasing. Ensuring long-term access to digital information is not that straightforward; it is a complex issue with a significant ethical dimension. It is a vocation. In The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation , librarian Trevor Owens establishes a baseline for practice in this field. In the first section of the book, Owens synthesizes work on the history of preservation in a range of areas (archives, manuscripts, recorded sound, etc.) and sets that history in dialogue with work in new media studies, platform studies, and media archeology. In later chapters, Owens builds from this theoretical framework and maps out a more deliberate and intentional approach to digital preservation. A basic introduction to the issues and practices of digital preservation, the book is anchored in an understanding of the traditions of preservation and the nature of digital objects and media. Based on extensive reading, research, and writing on digital preservation, Owens's work will prove an invaluable reference for archivists, librarians, and museum professionals, as well as scholars and researchers in the digital humanities.
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 11, 2018
27 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
About the author
Trevor Owens
7 books56 followersI'm a librarian, researcher, policy maker, and educator working on digital infrastructure for libraries. I'm the first Head of Digital Content Management for Library Services at the Library of Congress. I teach graduate seminars in digital history for American University’s History Department and graduate seminars and digital preservation for the University of Maryland’s College of Information, where I'm also a Research Affiliate with the Digital Curation Innovation Center. I'm the author of three books, the most recent of which, The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation, is in press with Johns Hopkins University Press.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 4, 2020
Would give this 6 stars, if I could. Any thoughtful and accessible preservation text that concludes with a rousing yet inspirational takedown of late stage capitalism and neoliberalism is an A infinity-plus in my book.
December 26, 2018
"The digital world is messy. It's important that in our efforts to collect, preserve, and provide access to it we don't tidy it up in ways that remove its significance" (53).
"Digital preservation is best understood as part of an ongoing professional dialogue on related but competing notions of preservation that go back to the very beginnings of our civilizations" (72).
"Preservation is access in the future" (73).
"Preservation happens because of institutions. Even if you are just organizing and managing your family's photos and documents, if they are going to persist beyond your lifetime, it will require something bigger than yourself. They could persist through family institutions, handed off and made legible to the next generation, or they could be handed off to a local historical society. In any case, individuals alone can't do digital preservation" (78).
"We are moving away from a world in which an archivist or a cataloger establishes an order and authors a description to a world where archivists and catalogers leverage, wrangle, and make sense of information flows" (158).
"Ultimately, the future of access to digital information is, as was the case with preservation throughout history, a question of resources" (192).
The conclusion is where things get GOOD by discussing late capitalism, neoliberalism, and the economics of cultural heritage work.
"'Do we need libraries in the age of Google?' is the kind of absurd question that is possible only in a society that has been seduced by the siren's calls of late capitalism. How is it culturally possible that this question is asked? The concept that a for-profit company founded less than twenty years ago could entice people to question the social, civic, and economic function that more than 100,000 libraries provide to people across the United States alone exemplifies a growing sickness in the zeitgeist. No. Ad revenue for search will not create a national infrastructure for collecting, preserving, and providing access to knowledge, wisdom, and lifelong learning" (194).
"It's also worth emphasizing how unsustainably inequitable the labor of cultural heritage workers has become" (195).
"There is no end for digital preservation. The best one can hope for is to be one link in an unbroken chain of memory. Given the challenges our world faces, I think those links to our past, those connections to facts, and the decisions we make about whose stories matter enough to constitute our collective social memory are now more important than ever. I hope that this book can serve in some small way as a useful guide to those of you who want to help maintain and repair that chain" (200).
"Digital preservation is best understood as part of an ongoing professional dialogue on related but competing notions of preservation that go back to the very beginnings of our civilizations" (72).
"Preservation is access in the future" (73).
"Preservation happens because of institutions. Even if you are just organizing and managing your family's photos and documents, if they are going to persist beyond your lifetime, it will require something bigger than yourself. They could persist through family institutions, handed off and made legible to the next generation, or they could be handed off to a local historical society. In any case, individuals alone can't do digital preservation" (78).
"We are moving away from a world in which an archivist or a cataloger establishes an order and authors a description to a world where archivists and catalogers leverage, wrangle, and make sense of information flows" (158).
"Ultimately, the future of access to digital information is, as was the case with preservation throughout history, a question of resources" (192).
The conclusion is where things get GOOD by discussing late capitalism, neoliberalism, and the economics of cultural heritage work.
"'Do we need libraries in the age of Google?' is the kind of absurd question that is possible only in a society that has been seduced by the siren's calls of late capitalism. How is it culturally possible that this question is asked? The concept that a for-profit company founded less than twenty years ago could entice people to question the social, civic, and economic function that more than 100,000 libraries provide to people across the United States alone exemplifies a growing sickness in the zeitgeist. No. Ad revenue for search will not create a national infrastructure for collecting, preserving, and providing access to knowledge, wisdom, and lifelong learning" (194).
"It's also worth emphasizing how unsustainably inequitable the labor of cultural heritage workers has become" (195).
"There is no end for digital preservation. The best one can hope for is to be one link in an unbroken chain of memory. Given the challenges our world faces, I think those links to our past, those connections to facts, and the decisions we make about whose stories matter enough to constitute our collective social memory are now more important than ever. I hope that this book can serve in some small way as a useful guide to those of you who want to help maintain and repair that chain" (200).
February 14, 2021
As a solo archivist at a small graduate school, digital preservation is always a lurking background anxiety. Owens' marvelous book gave me the confidence I need to tie what I already know about physical preservation, description, and access and apply it to an ever-changing digital world. And the cool thing is that this book is not just for librarians, archivists, and other cultural heritage professions. While the text is certainly anchored there, Owens provides a map for IT folks, administrators, hobbyists, and just regular people who are interested in how digital preservation has worked in the past and how it might work in the future. Owens has a clear and easy to follow writing style and uses compelling case studies to illustrate his points. He has also somehow arrived at a magical book about digital preservation that isn't tied to a current technology platform and that won't be out of date in a matter of years. And that is hard to do! Best of all, he has a progressive and not-rose-colored view of the culture of libraries and archives and deftly links the world of digital preservation to issues of climate change, social justice, and neoliberalism. This is really a fantastic book and I'd recommend it to any curious reader (and if you are an archivist or an IT professional, buy this right now).
May 29, 2019
I am in the process of getting a preservation program off the ground at my institution, and have been sharing this book with many of my departmental/division stakeholders because it provides such an accessible introduction to many of the different theories and practices that fall within the field of digital preservation. What I really appreciated as a practitioner is that the author broadly discusses key technical aspects and also introduces theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of preservation activity (including format theory, the platform nature of digital media, and the value of multimodal access for digital collections). The author also carefully avoids idealism by keeping the text grounded in the question of preservation intent for each collection and institutional context. In my opinion, this sort of overview text was sorely needed in the field and I am grateful for it.
September 1, 2020
Brought this home from the office when the pandemic started and have slowly been working why way through it. Savoring it in some ways. I want to get the axioms on a plaque and hang them in my office. So much of what Owens is discussing are things I "knew" but couldn't articulate well or really explain why I had problems with certain aspects of digital preservation at work - aspects I had set up before. Looking forward to taking my notes from this read and really diving back into our policies, framework, and born-digital processing and start to fix some major bottlenecks.
July 13, 2020
Well written book about the political, social and technological aspects of digital preservation, that is, long term access. It offers a great overview of the main problems and challenges and some practical advice or guidelines. This book aims to inspire critical reflection and to promote a holistic vision of digital preservation, so if you are only interested in the technological details you may want to read chapters 4 and 6 only.
December 14, 2020
I used this as a textbook in my undergraduate Introduction to Digital Curation class. Based on the reading responses and discussion I think the students found it accessible and informative. I paired it with Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein which helped provide a little bit more of a critical perspective on data practices.
July 31, 2019
An excellent and accessible book regarding digital preservation for both the novice and the expert.
April 29, 2020
In all sincerity, a masterpiece.
September 4, 2020
“Digital preservation is not about a particular system, or a series of preservation actions. It is about preparing content and collections for the first in a great chain of hand-offs.”
In this book, Owens is establishing a baseline for institutions to follow for digital preservation. Digital preservation does not have set preservation rules like analog materials do. Digital preservation is a different kind of beast that you have to think differently about and Owens does a great job at giving you the different perspective you need.
“The digital world is messy. It’s important that in our efforts to collect, preserve, and provide access to it we don’t tidy it up in ways that remove its significance.”
Owens discusses the history of preservation for a wide range of institutions and different approaches that can be taken by them to deal with digital media. Dealing with digital materials seems like a daunting task but Owens shows it is all about perspective and what your institution can do. He gives examples of how the More Product, Less Process (MPLP) model can apply to digital materials. Digital materials doesn’t have to be extremely organized to be used and that is what a lot of archivists need to remember.
“One of the biggest threats to the sustainability of digital information now and into the future is the defunding and underfunding of our cultural and civic institutions.”
As someone who is still new to working with digital materials, this book was a great perspective and made me question the practices going on in my institution (which is how it should be). Before reading this book I couldn’t apply MPLP to digital materials because I had no examples or knowledge of how that could work. This book is a great introduction or guide for digital preservation and I can see this information being relevant for years to come. I highly recommend this book if you are new to the profession or are looking for more perspective on digital preservation.
This review was originally posted at Red-Haired Ash Reads.
In this book, Owens is establishing a baseline for institutions to follow for digital preservation. Digital preservation does not have set preservation rules like analog materials do. Digital preservation is a different kind of beast that you have to think differently about and Owens does a great job at giving you the different perspective you need.
“The digital world is messy. It’s important that in our efforts to collect, preserve, and provide access to it we don’t tidy it up in ways that remove its significance.”
Owens discusses the history of preservation for a wide range of institutions and different approaches that can be taken by them to deal with digital media. Dealing with digital materials seems like a daunting task but Owens shows it is all about perspective and what your institution can do. He gives examples of how the More Product, Less Process (MPLP) model can apply to digital materials. Digital materials doesn’t have to be extremely organized to be used and that is what a lot of archivists need to remember.
“One of the biggest threats to the sustainability of digital information now and into the future is the defunding and underfunding of our cultural and civic institutions.”
As someone who is still new to working with digital materials, this book was a great perspective and made me question the practices going on in my institution (which is how it should be). Before reading this book I couldn’t apply MPLP to digital materials because I had no examples or knowledge of how that could work. This book is a great introduction or guide for digital preservation and I can see this information being relevant for years to come. I highly recommend this book if you are new to the profession or are looking for more perspective on digital preservation.
This review was originally posted at Red-Haired Ash Reads.
January 9, 2019
The best book on digital preservation I have read.
Very readable and lots of great examples.
This is one I’ll keep coming back to and quoting from...
Very readable and lots of great examples.
This is one I’ll keep coming back to and quoting from...
February 19, 2019
A great summation of what's at stake for digital preservation, both in terms of practicalities and more abstract implications. Mr. Owens is clearly a great humanist who approaches his work with a sense of mission, but also a pragmatic consideration for what is possible to accomplish, not merely what would be ideal to accomplish. While he doesn't offer any detailed how-tos (as he points out, such a thing would be instantly outdated), he provides the context and general understanding born of extensive experience to help preservationists of various levels orient their efforts wisely, not to mention motivate and energize them. Should be very useful for research and teaching, and a great read to boot.
March 29, 2022
Super interesting book about digital archival by the guy who heads up the Library of Congress's Digital Content Management strategy. Niche book for a niche audience, but I found it easily relatable as someone whose job often involves curating information and making it accessible and useful.
It starts out a little dense, but after chapter 4 really picks up in speed / ease of reading, as he talks through many relatable examples to explain important things to consider in doing digital archival work.
It starts out a little dense, but after chapter 4 really picks up in speed / ease of reading, as he talks through many relatable examples to explain important things to consider in doing digital archival work.
August 4, 2022
An accessible introduction to digital preservation thanks to Trevor Owens's highly readable prose, clear explanations of how software and hardware work, and good case studies of preservation in action. This book would make a good companion piece to Abby Smith's "When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future" and Daniel Cohen & Roy Rosenzweig's classic "Digital History."
March 11, 2019
Great book, kickstarted and laid a great foundation my interest in digital preservation in museum spaces. A text I was able to use in my job to lobby for greater attention in terms of museum staffing and resources for digital preservation of time based media artworks.
July 12, 2021
some helpful perspectives and reminders; biggest takeaway: the formal documentation of a dynamic system can often be an excellent representation of it when capturing it seems illusive; the conclusion was incoherent
[6/10 solid with some issues]
[6/10 solid with some issues]
October 24, 2024
Note to self: pg. 85 of preprint
March 8, 2022
Practical, eye-opening, and inspiring. "There is no end for digital preservation. The best one can hope for is to be one link in an unbroken chain of memory."
April 7, 2022
Read for thesis. Was good. Am tired.
April 9, 2024
Lido como base teórica para um aprofundamento em preservação audiovisual digital. O livro é bem geral e não entra tanto nos específicos do trabalho de preservação digital, mas ele tem um valor interessante como ponto de partida pois aponta diversos exemplos de trabalhos de preservação/arquivologia/museologia digital.
Como um primeiro passo, achei bom.
Como um primeiro passo, achei bom.
October 22, 2022
Very lucid, written from a progressive perspective. It's a high-level overview of digital preservation, with lots of concrete examples, but fairly little technical discussion, which was more what I was hoping for. Still one of the better LIS books I've read for how approachable it makes the topic.
December 15, 2024
An in-depth look at digital preservation largely written in a conversational style that makes it easy to read about a dense topic. Worth including in any LIS reading list about the topic.
July 7, 2025
I was supposed to just read the intro for my new job but they couldn’t find anything for me to do so I read the whole thing in like 2 hours and went home lol
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews