Digital continuity

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Digital continuity is the ability to maintain the digital information of a creator in such a way that the information will continue to be available, as needed, despite changes in digital technology. [1] It focuses on making sure that information is complete, available and therefore usable. Activities involved with managing digital continuity include information management, information risk assessment and managing technical environments, including file format conversion. Digital continuity management is particularly important to organisations that have a duty to maintain accountability, and to act transparently and legally, such as government and infrastructure companies. [2] Digital continuity is also an important issue for organisations responsible for maintaining repositories of information in digital form over time, such as archives and libraries. [3]

Contents

Focus of digital continuity

The focus of digital continuity differs from that of digital preservation and business continuity. While there is some overlap among these areas, they should be treated as related but separate issues. Business continuity focuses on making sure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities that must have access to those functions. Digital preservation focuses on long term strategies and requirements for storing digital information in an effort to stabilize the collection of digital records. [4] Digital continuity is concerned with the ability to make digital information continuously usable for as long as required. What constitutes usable will be different depending on each organization's needs. For the purposes of digital continuity, The National Archives believes digital information is usable when one can: [5]

Digital continuity projects

The National Archives in the United Kingdom began a digital continuity project for public use in 2007. The project is based on a four-stage process for managing digital information effectively in organisations:

At Archives New Zealand, the digital continuity project is entitled the Digital Continuity Action Plan. The Archives New Zealand project is focused on ensuring digital information is available in the future, that the information remains authentic and reliable, and that the public has continuous access through a proactive approach to maintaining digital information. [7]

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC), which concerns itself with digital preservation issues including digital continuity, has published reports advocating the assessment of digital preservation needs in the UK, and has been consulted in the creation of the Digital Continuity Action Plan at Archives New Zealand. [7] [8] The National Archives is also a member of the DPC.

Other digital continuity projects are underway at the Welsh Assembly Government in conjunction with the University of Wales, Newport., [9] and the National Library of Australia. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business continuity planning</span> Prevention and recovery from threats that might affect a company

Business continuity may be defined as "the capability of an organization to continue the delivery of products or services at pre-defined acceptable levels following a disruptive incident", and business continuity planning is the process of creating systems of prevention and recovery to deal with potential threats to a company. In addition to prevention, the goal is to enable ongoing operations before and during execution of disaster recovery. Business continuity is the intended outcome of proper execution of both business continuity planning and disaster recovery.

Disaster recovery is the process of maintaining or reestablishing vital infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster, such as a storm or battle.It employs policies, tools, and procedures. Disaster recovery focuses on the information technology (IT) or technology systems supporting critical business functions as opposed to business continuity. This involves keeping all essential aspects of a business functioning despite significant disruptive events; it can therefore be considered a subset of business continuity. Disaster recovery assumes that the primary site is not immediately recoverable and restores data and services to a secondary site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital obsolescence</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Risk Management Framework</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">IT risk management</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collections management</span> Process of overseeing a collection, including acquisition, curation, and deaccessioning

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References

  1. MacLean, Margaret; Davis, Ben H (eds) (1999). Time & Bits: Managing Digital Continuity. Getty Publications. ISBN   0-89236-583-8.{{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
  2. "Achieving digital continuity". State of New South Wales. 4 June 2010. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  3. Dalbello, Marija (October 2002). "Is There a Text in This Library? History of the Book and Digital Continuity". Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. 43 (3): 197–204. doi:10.2307/40323963. hdl: 10150/105488 . JSTOR   40323963.
  4. Chen, Su-Shing (December 2007). "Digital Preservation: Organization Commitment, Archival Stability, and Technological Continuity". Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce. 17 (3): 205–215. doi:10.1080/10919390701294012. S2CID   36735164.
  5. "Understanding Digital Continuity" (PDF). The National Archives . Retrieved 21 December 2010.
  6. "Managing Digital Continuity" (PDF). The National Archives . Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  7. 1 2 "Digital Continuity Action Plan". Archives New Zealand. Archived from the original on 16 October 2011. Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  8. "Mind The Gap". Digital Preservation Coalition . Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  9. "Digital Continuity". Chartered Institute for IT. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  10. Gatenby, Pam (1 February 2002). "Digital continuity: the role of the National Library of Australia". The Australian Library Journal. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2010.