Revisiting digital preservation from the perspective of information science: conceptual approximations

Abstract

Nowadays digital preservation is the most efficient way to save memories and access to information contents in digital environments. In this context, the institutions tend to have actions of dissemination, cooperation and exchange of experiences about the processes and methodologies of digital preservation. This paper proposed expanding the conceptual understanding of the digital preservation process and its implications, through the identification and description of the digital preservation and digital object concepts, therequirements and the main strategies in this area. It was conducted an exploratory research of bibliographical and documentary nature, based on Systematic Literature Review method, in order to understand, according to the scientific literature in information science and the discussions about the digital preservation in Brazil, North America and Europe. It was found that the digital preservation is a process consisting essentially of ensuring the preservation of useable access to the digital content objects for long times. The complexity in digital preservation development is entirely associated with the digital environment characteristics and to the nature of the preserved objects themselves. Related to the existing strategies, migration was configured as the most appropriate for the context of the majority institutions intending to develop digital preservation process. It was found that this subject is still new and needs more studies in Library and Information Science community in national scientific context, highlighting the need for more digital preservation researches, mainly in identifying processes and methodologies for the preservation of digital objects in information environments.