Research Questions and Findings of the Preservation Task Force

Research questions:

• What methods, procedures and rules of long-term preservation are in use or being developed?
  • Which of these meet the conceptual requirements for authenticity identified in Domain I?
  • Which methods of long-term preservation need to be developed?
  • Which of these methods are required or subject to standards, regulations and guidelines in specific industry or institutional settings?

• What are the procedural methods of authentication for preserved electronic records?
• In what way can archival description be a method of authentication for electronic records?
• In what way can appraisal and acquisition/accession reports be constructed to allow for the authentication of electronic records?
• What are the procedures for certifying electronic records when they cross technical boundaries (e.g., refreshing, copying, migrating) to preserve their authenticity?


• What are the technical methods of authentication for preserved electronic records?


• What are the principles and criteria for media and storage management that are required for the preservation of authentic electronic records?


• What are the responsibilities for the long-term preservation of authentic electronic records?

The main products resulting from the work of the Preservation Task Force are a survey of current preservation practices in the area of electronic records, a white paper on storage media for digital information storage and a model of the activities involved in the preservation of authentic electronic records. The major activities represented in the preservation model are:

• managing the preservation process;
• bringing in electronic records;
• maintaining electronic records; and
• outputting electronic records.

In addition, main findings of the Preservation Task Force include the following:

• Electronic records cannot be preserved as such; only the ability to reproduce them can be preserved.
• Considering that the processes of storage and retrieval imply transformations both physical and of presentation, the traditional concept of unbroken chain of custody must be extended to include the processes necessary to ensure the unaltered transmission of the record through time.
• Technology cannot determine the solution to the long-term preservation of electronic records.
• Archival needs define the problem and archival principles must establish the correctness and adequacy of each technical solution.
• Solutions to the preservation problem are inherently dynamic.

The Preservation Task Force Final Report provides a detailed account of all aspects of the process of preservation, with recommendations relating to the main requirements for implementation.

Documents

Public documents for the Preservation Task Force are located here.