1. First Steps
Even the smallest library, archives, or historical society can develop an ongoing and adequate preservation program.
2. CALIPR : an Automated Tool for Preservation Needs Assessment
***Temporarily offline as of October 2018***
Understanding the preservation needs of the collection is the starting place for developing a preservation program tailored to the needs of the institution and responsive to opportunities and limitations of resources. Calipr has been designed for institutions without preservation expertise on their staffs who wish to do a self-study. Calipr designs the needs assessment survey, explains how to draw a sample of materials from a collection, and interprets the results as a management report on collection needs in general terms.
3. California Preservation Survey of Moving Image and Recorded Sound Collections
Thirty-two libraries and archives in California surveyed their collections and aggregated their data to document preservation needs statewide and to provide a basis for ongoing funding to preserve audiovisual collections of historical significance to California.
4. PRISM: Software for Risk Assessment and Decision-making in Libraries
This article, based on a talk given at the International Symposium on Risk Management for Cultural Property in Lisbon, September 2011, provides an overview and progress report on work underway at the University of California (UC) to apply principles of risk analysis and risk management to library collections owned by the University. UC has developed software to support analysis and decision-making, called PRISM (Preservation Risk Information System Model) that assists users to identify hazards, determine levels of risk, and compare the effectiveness, as well as cost effectiveness, of options for methods to mitigate recognized risks.
5. Digital Preservation: a four-part webinar series
The uncertainties that go hand in hand with new technologies in digital preservation can make “once and for all” preservation approaches impractical. Presented by the California State Library and the California Preservation Program, this webinar series will be of interest to library staff and archivists who are involved in developing digital projects. No special technical background required. Recordings of live broadcasts by Jacob Nadal that took place December 8, 2011, January 10, 2012, February 7, 2012, and March 20, 2012.
1. Digital Preservation: Fundamentals. This first in a series of four webinars presents basic concepts and approaches to dealing with crucial digital preservation issues today and make decisions that will position you for success in the future. Topics include storing digital objects, choosing and understanding risks in file formats, planning for migration and emulation, and the roles of metadata in digital preservation.
2. Digital Preservation: Text and Image Formats. This webinar explains the basic formats and standards used in digital text and digital image collections for libraries, archives, and museums; the development of text and image formats; the significant technical features that pertain to digital libraries. Text formats and encodings introduced include ASCII, Unicode/UTF-8, and the family of standards around XML, including HTML, CSS, and EAD. Imaging topics include formats and standards, particularly TIFF, JPEG and JPEG2000, and PDF, as well as issues inherent in color management and compression. At the end of this one-hour webinar, participants will be able to make informed decisions about text and image digitization projects and revisit their planned or existing project with an eye to making sure they will be useful sustainable into the future.
3. Digital Preservation: Storing and Managing Digital Collections. This webinar presents core concepts in the storage and maintenance of digital collections; how computers store data and the significant aspects of disk- and tape- based systems, including RAID arrays and “cloud” storage; basic trends in storage pricing and availability; common reference and assessment models for digital libraries, including the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and Trusted Repository Audit and Certification (TRAC); how these technologies and standards manifest themselves in a some common digital repository and content management systems. Participants will be able to evaluate costs and benefits of different storage methods, the applicability of repository software for their needs, and gain a framework for evaluating their immediate and hypothetical storage needs.
4. Digital Preservation: Audio and Video Formats. This webinar explains basic formats and standards used in digital audio and video collections for libraries, archives, and museums; the development of audio and video formats and the significant technical features that pertain to digital libraries; Pulse-Code Modulation (PCM), WAV and BWAV, and the issues related to compression for online delivery; formats and standards for video, particularly the role of compression and data storage; the meaning of “HD” and options for video transfer and capture, as well as format and encodings for uncompressed video and the Motion JPEG standards. Participants in this webinar will be able to make informed decisions about digital audio and video projects and revisit their planned or existing projects with an eye to making sure they will be useful sustainable into the future.
6. Preservation Best Practices This series of four archived webinars delivered in 2013 provide participants with an overview of the preservation standards for the many aspects of collections care, give benchmarks for measuring and improving preservation within an organization, and give guidelines for establishing a preservation program.
Documents related to the webinar series: