Notes on Preservation in the Age of Large Scale digitization

Notes on Preservation in the Age of Large Scale Digitization in relation to mass digitization, Oya Y. Rieger

Charles Henry in Rieger's (2008) white paper, "Notes on Preservation," raises some interesting questions: "The commercial partners, as well as the participating libraries, are investing significant resources in digitization projects. How can we secure—or improve—a long-term return on this investment? Can we strike a better balance between quantity and quality? (preface, p. vii, Charles Henry).  Rieger adds, "Research libraries serve as stewards of cultural heritage resources, notably books and journals, but also photographs, recordings and other information sources" (p. 1). In this white paper, Rieger connects preservation with digitization, suggesting that mass digitization requires systematic preservation efforts or we may just be wasting our time (if the data is inaccessible in the future). However, she also notes that much preserved data might be inaccessible even today, even though it is preserved, because users do not have access to it because of "lack of funds, copyright restrictions, or other reasons" (p. 1).  So, she raises the issue of not just how are we going to preserve complicated digital materials but how will we ensure access.  She questions whether Google books (and Microsoft Live Search) have any intention of maintaining long term access to their digitized collections.

I do wonder, what comes after digitization?