Digital preservation is therefore too complex a challenge to be confronted by a single organisation, as it is transversal to many sectors and requires answers which often require comparisons on the international level.
For this reason, Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale has found it advisable to undertake a coordination action on a European level by means of the Digital Preservation Europe project (DPE).
Project Duration: 2006/2009
Web site: http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/
The phenomenon of digitalising document memories is the outcome of a continuous process of transformation of the means and tools of communication, which has progressively concerned all the sectors involved by the development of telematics. The rapidity that characterises the change of electronic supports and formats for recording, filing and use, represents a threat to the accessibility and long-term preservation of digital resources.
What do we do if a floppy disc or a CD-ROM is no longer readable? What guarantees can there be as to the reliability and authenticity of digital documents? How long will we be able to access our archive of digital photos?
These and others are the questions that each of us has had to answer at least once in the course of our personal or professional activities.
Preserving digital resources in the long term implies observing management practices that involve the digital object throughout its entire life cycle. Digital preservation is not only a mechanism to ensure that the bit sequence created today will be interpretable tomorrow; it is also a process that involves economic, legal and social aspects for which, to date, experience and awareness are still lacking.
