Advancing digital archival practices in Oman: challenges, opportunities, and prospects for the future

In today's digital age, there is a significant shift from physical to digital formats, impacting how information is stored and accessed. This transformation poses a critical challenge for university archives, necessitating adaptation to ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of archival materials. As digital archives grow, it becomes essential for university archives to implement robust strategies to preserve these materials for future generations while ensuring they remain easily accessible to researchers and the public. This study, conducted in Gauteng province, focused on assessing digital preservation in university archives, aiming to enhance access to archival materials. Unlike library materials, archival materials have unique characteristics that demand special attention for preserving their originality while ensuring digital accessibility. The purpose was to address the challenges university archives face in transitioning to digital formats while maintaining long-term preservation and access. A qualitative research approach grounded in the interpretivism paradigm was employed, using purposive sampling and thematic analysis to explore the current state of digital preservation. Findings revealed that university archives in Gauteng are in the early stages of readiness for digital preservation. Key challenges include the absence of formal digital preservation workflows, policies, technical expertise, insufficient digital storage facilities, software, and limited archivists’ involvement in digitisation efforts. The study's implications point to the need for strategic interventions to support digital preservation. Recommendations include developing robust digitisation and digital preservation policies, upgrading infrastructure, and strengthening collaborations between archives and ICT departments. Addressing these gaps would involve increasing staff resources, providing specialised training, managing born-digital materials, and migrating outdated media formats. Adopting the Open Archival Information System reference model was suggested to guide long-term preservation and retrieval efforts. By addressing these challenges, the study offered practical solutions for improving the sustainability of digital preservation practices in university archives, which could significantly enhance access to and preservation of archival materials for future generations.

In today's digital age, there is a significant shift from physical to digital formats, impacting how information is stored and accessed. This transformation poses a critical challenge for university archives, necessitating adaptation to ensure the long-term preservation and accessibility of archival materials. As digital archives grow, it becomes essential for university archives to implement robust strategies to preserve these materials for future generations while ensuring they remain easily accessible to researchers and the public. This study, conducted in Gauteng province, focused on assessing digital preservation in university archives, aiming to enhance access to archival materials. Unlike library materials, archival materials have unique characteristics that demand special attention for preserving their originality while ensuring digital accessibility. The purpose was to address the challenges university archives face in transitioning to digital formats while maintaining long-term preservation and access. A qualitative research approach grounded in the interpretivism paradigm was employed, using purposive sampling and thematic analysis to explore the current state of digital preservation. Findings revealed that university archives in Gauteng are in the early stages of readiness for digital preservation. Key challenges include the absence of formal digital preservation workflows, policies, technical expertise, insufficient digital storage facilities, software, and limited archivists’ involvement in digitisation efforts. The study's implications point to the need for strategic interventions to support digital preservation. Recommendations include developing robust digitisation and digital preservation policies, upgrading infrastructure, and strengthening collaborations between archives and ICT departments. Addressing these gaps would involve increasing staff resources, providing specialised training, managing born-digital materials, and migrating outdated media formats. Adopting the Open Archival Information System reference model was suggested to guide long-term preservation and retrieval efforts. By addressing these challenges, the study offered practical solutions for improving the sustainability of digital preservation practices in university archives, which could significantly enhance access to and preservation of archival materials for future generations.

Archives and manuscript collections, when well preserved, play a pivotal role in the preservation of corporate memory as well as the transmission of culture, building of national identity, and in providing valuable information sources on a variety of issues. However, in many parts of the world, the preservation and accessibility of archives and manuscripts, particularly those privately held, remains a neglected area requiring innovative ways to enhance their long-term preservation and accessibility. This chapter examines how endangered archival collections can be preserved through open access and digitization programmes funded locally or jointly with donor agencies. Specifically, the chapter examines the contribution made by the Endangered Archives Programme, a UK-based programme supported by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, to preserve endangered archives in Africa. The chapter shows that over the past 16 years, the Endangered Archives Programme has made a significant contribution in the preservation of endangered archives held privately and in public archival institutions. The chapter argues that the approach followed by the Endangered Archives Programme clearly demonstrates that collaborative effort in the preservation of endangered archives results in mutual benefits to the local communities as well the research community via the British Library. The chapter concludes by suggesting future directions that may be considered when undertaking similar copying projects.

Discute sobre as contribuições da Rede Cariniana no âmbito da preservação digital em Repositórios Digitais Institucionais. Utiliza como metodologia instrumentos necessários para o desenvolvimento de uma pesquisa bibliográfica, exploratória e descritiva, com uma abordagem qualitativa. Faz uso de um estudo de caso no Repositório Digital Institucional da UFRN por meio de uma coleta de dados feita através da realização de uma entrevista semiestruturada. Aborda reflexões e conceitos relacionados à preservação digital, que é entendida como um conjunto de ações e técnicas responsáveis quanto à informação digital, permitindo que ela seja preservada e recuperada ao longo do tempo. Menciona a Rede Cariniana, que oferece diversas alternativas para que as entidades brasileiras possam colecionar, armazenar e promover o acesso ao conteúdo selecionado por meio de cópias autorizadas. Aponta que o processo de conexão entre a ciência eletrônica e a necessidade de preservação dos dados digitais estaria baseado nos Repositórios Digitais Institucionais. Apresenta como resultados a garantia da guarda como principal interesse na adoção de ferramentas dirigidas à preservação digital de documentos; a UFRN faz parte do estudo realizado pela Rede Cariniana, a qual abriga a tipologia científica, cujo crescimento documental chega a 3000 por ano e visa a congregar todo o material científico nos próximos 5 anos, levando em consideração os aspectos tecnológicos, humanos e a ação prática de uma política de preservação digital. Sob este viés, a pesquisa finaliza que o propósito de enriquecer e contribuir para as iniciativas e práticas sobre a preservação digital brasileira é bastante promovido pela Rede Cariniana, por meio de uma infraestrutura descentralizada.

"This new edition of Digital Preservation in Libraries, Archives, and Museums is the most current, complete guide to digital preservation available today. For administrators and practitioners alike, the information in this book is presented readably, focusing on management issues and best practices. Although this book addresses technology, it is not solely focused on technology. After all, technology changes and digital preservation is aimed for the long term. This is not a how-to book giving step-by-step processes for certain materials in a given kind of system. Instead, it addresses a broad group of resources that could be housed in any number of digital preservation systems. Finally, this book is about “things (not technology; not how-to; not theory) I wish I knew before I got started.” Digital preservation is concerned with the life cycle of the digital object in a robust and all-inclusive way. Many Europeans and some North Americans may refer to digital curation to mean the same thing, taking digital preservation to be the very limited steps and processes needed to insure access over the long term. The authors take digital preservation in the broadest sense of the term: looking at all aspects of curating and preserving digital content for long term access. The book is divided into four part: 1.Situating Digital Preservation, 2.Management Aspects, 3.Technology Aspects, and 4.Content-Related Aspects. Digital Preservation will answer questions that you might not have even known you had, leading to more successful digital preservation initiatives."

Context: Digital preservation research seeks strategies to ensure the longevity and accessibility of digital information, mitigating risks of obsolescence and the loss of cultural, historical, and scientific heritage. Interface design plays a crucial role in shaping user behavior and influencing digital preservation practices. Problem: Widely used systems, such as word processors and operating systems, often lack explicit digital preservation strategies. The absence of features like metadata completion, open format adoption, and automated backups creates a gap between system capabilities and sustainable preservation practices, limiting users’ ability to ensure long-term access to their data. Solution: This research applies the Semiotic Inspection Method (MIS) to critically analyze the messages conveyed by save file interfaces in Microsoft Word and Windows 10. The study identifies gaps and opportunities to integrate design guidelines that encourage digital preservation, focusing on sustainable formats, metadata management, and user awareness. IS Theory: Grounded in Semiotic Engineering, the research interprets user-system interaction as a communicative process. By reconstructing designers’ meta-messages, it evaluates how interface design supports—or hinders—digital preservation. Method: The study employs a qualitative, exploratory approach using the Semiotic Inspection Method to analyze static, dynamic, and metalinguistic signs in Microsoft Word and Windows 10 interfaces. This method reconstructs implicit designer messages to assess their alignment with digital preservation needs. Results: The analysis reveals that current interfaces prioritize efficiency and usability but neglect explicit communication of digital preservation strategies. Users receive no direct encouragement to adopt open formats, complete metadata, or implement backup routines. The findings emphasize the need for educational and interactive features that guide users toward sustainable digital preservation practices. Contributions and Impact in the IS Field: This study contributes to Information Systems (IS) research by proposing interface design guidelines that align usability with digital preservation principles, enhancing informational sustainability. Academically, it expands the application of MIS to evaluate system design in the context of digital preservation.

Neil Beagrie's report gives an overview of some key international developments in digital preservation, selected because of their potential relevance to the U. S. National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. The study focuses on major programs in four countries – Australia, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom – and systematically describes each program's national context, institutional and national initiatives, international initiatives and planned/future international activities. It also describes some key multinational initiatives such as the Open Archival Information System and Preservation Technology for European Broadcast Archives.

Purpose– Top management commitment is considered a significant factor in improvement programmes, and many papers have been written about the role of top management commitment in implementing a quality management system. However, not considering other management levels’ commitment, such as middle management, may lead to issues in achieving organisational development. Public organisations that work through vertical structures may face a lack of middle management commitment, which might have a negative impact on lower and non-management staff commitment to improvement programmes. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of middle management’s commitment towards improvement initiatives in public organisations.Design/methodology/approach– Empirical research with a mixed-method design used semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to explore the current practices of continuous improvement (CI) and examine employees’ views from different management levels of the implications of current improvements in a Saudi public service organisation.Findings– The analysis indicated that the lower managers and non-management staff agree that, after the implementation of the quality management system, the organisation’s middle management showed a lack of commitment to that system. Moreover, this lack of commitment is recognised in the analysis of participants’ views of CI practices recorded in the questionnaire and interviews. This lack of commitment has caused poor employee commitment and thus a lack of problem solving in organisational departments. It is also responsible for a lack of employee involvement, the centralisation of decisions, deficiencies in terms of determining and applying training, inequality between employees and a lack of trust between employees and their managers. These issues could be managed and resolved through middle management and their commitment.Practical implications– Increasing middle managers’ awareness of the importance of their commitment to improvement initiatives can have an impact on employees’ commitment towards improvement initiatives, especially in those public organisations that have vertical/hierarchical structures. The level of commitment towards the implementation of improvement programmes needs further in-depth analyses to identify which factors influence public organisation leaders’ commitment to improvement programmes.Originality/value– The results of this study could motivate middle managers in public organisations to review their policies and to facilitate CI initiatives.

Digital preservation involves careful planning and management and Digital Preservation in Libraries, Archives, and Museums addresses the technology, but more importantly the all-inclusive meaning and objectives of digital preservation. The authors thoughtfully organized the book into four parts grounded in a concept called the Digital Preservation Triad. Management tools that encompass the scope and depth of the project while considering the present and future of the collection are also included.

This paper describes how Michigan State University Libraries used the Digital Preservation Coalition’s Rapid Assessment Model (DPC RAM) to evaluate its digital preservation practices. Using the model, a small group of librarians established a baseline of digital preservation activities at the Libraries and made recommendations for incremental improvements. By keeping the working group small and consulting stakeholders as needed, the benchmarking process was completed within a short timeline and resulted in a concise report that provided a digestible and accurate picture of digital preservation initiatives at the time of the evaluation, as well as realistic goals for the next 18 months. Sharing the report with library administration led to a charge to establish working groups that would test two preservation systems and evaluate their usefulness as tools for expanding digital preservation practices at the Libraries. The format of the model ensured that evaluation and goal-setting were straightforward, even in the absence of any unit or position dedicated to digital preservation. Speaking with peers at other institutions has revealed a need for a simple tool like the DPC RAM that can be completed more quickly than other preservation evaluation frameworks, especially given the lack of administrative support for digital preservation at many institutions.

Since 2012, Colombia began the process of implementing digital preservation in archives, based on the publication of policies issued by the Ministry of Culture [Ministerio de Cultura] and the General Archive of the Nation [Archivo General de la Nacion]; however, standardized technical criteria, that indicate the use of models or standardized technological tools applied for the preservation of digital documents, are minimal. This is a necessary situation in the social and archival context of the country. Therefore, the current regulations on digital preservation that apply in Colombia to identify archival and technological needs in relation to the research object are identified and analyzed. The results described in this article are presented in the master thesis entitled: “Digital Preservation in Colombia from the Archival Perspective: An Analysis of Policies, Levels of Compliance and a Digital Preservation Scheme for Colombia” [Preservacion digital en Colombia desde la perspectiva archivistica: analisis de politicas, niveles de cumplimiento y un esquema de preservacion digital para Colombia] in order to complete the Master's degree in Gestion Documental, Transparencia y Acceso a la Informacion of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2017.

The knowledge base for contemporary fire management in Australia, and indeed Internationally, is not static. However, knowledge generation, for the most part, is dominated by western technical scholarship and constructs of planning, management and analysis. Annual and increasing catastrophic wildfire events leave no doubt that Australia has a fire management problem. There are many ways of knowing about and understanding fire within contemporary fire management practice, and research and Indigenous Australian knowledge systems make a valuable contribution to contemporary fire management. Indeed, some consider that the fire management practices of Indigenous people over 80,000 years shaped the current biota in Australia. This research project provides valuable insight into the depth of fire management knowledge that was held by two senior Kuku Thaypan Awu Alaya speaking Elders and fire knowledge holders, Dr George and Dr Musgrave. The Elders wanted to document and demonstrate their Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and their cultural practice of fire, their traditional cultural fire knowledge (TCFK) in the landscape for the management of their country and to maintain their cultural obligations. The Kuku Thaypan Elders also desired to increase opportunities that enabled them to be involved in and have an impact on contemporary fire management, particularly in caring for their country in Cape York Peninsula. Documentation of the Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of the Elders classification system as it relates to fire management required analysis of the different ways of knowing and managing fire in Cape York and Australia, more broadly. It was necessary to analyse the political and institutional frameworks and current ways of understanding and practicing fire that exist. This includes discussion on state practice of fire management and Indigenous cultural fire knowledge (ICFK) and its practice. This analysis provides discussion on the theory of Traditional Ecological knowledge in documenting cultural fire knowledge and its practice. Documenting the TCFK of the Elders required the development of a methodology that would enable different ways of communicating that TCFK and its use for fire management. The methodology that was developed for this purpose and is described in this thesis is the CAMPFIRES methodology. The methodology is designed to support agencies, researchers, fire managers and practitioners to 'see and act' in the World differently, while also providing a research practitioner model informed by Indigenous people to assist them in enabling their voice, speaking their knowledge and leading the application, documentation and analysis of their cultural fire knowledge in contemporary fire management and research. This thesis provides discussion on the multiple ways in which Indigenous Australians are engaging in contemporary fire management practice and its research and provides considerations for institutional reform required to fully realise the benefits of Indigenous peoples' involvement in contemporary fire management through the application of their traditional cultural fire knowledge (TCFK).

Purpose The purpose of the study is to investigate the digital preservation practices in institutional repositories (IRs) in Africa. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from the IRs developed in university libraries in Africa, and it was done in two phases. The phases are website investigation to identify the university libraries in Africa that have developed IR and online questionnaire. Findings Results from the study showed that the majority of IRs in Africa used DSpace software to manage their digital contents, and more than half of the IRs engage in information migration. The study also revealed that the majority of the responding institutions provide long-term digital preservation in their IR. Interestingly, the majority of the IRs has developed digital preservation policy to guide the implementation of digital preservation for IR contents. Finally, the majority of the respondents indicated that they do not have long-term funding and lack the necessary technical staff with required skills to handle and manage the IR. Research limitations/implications Because of language barriers, data were collected from only universities in English speaking countries in Africa. Practical implications The findings of this study will make librarians in universities in Africa and other developing countries understand the key issues relating to digital preservation and longevity. Originality/value The findings of this study will inform information professionals, librarians in developing countries that are planning to create IRs and provide long-term digital preservation of electronic resources in their institution.

University archives conduct digital preservation to provide access to their valuable digital materials. This comparative study explores digital preservation practices and challenges encountered at doctoral universities with a very high research activity (R1), doctoral universities with a high research activity (R2), and doctoral/professional universities (D/PU) in the United States that were listed on the 2021 edition of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. A total of 141 archivists at these institutions completed an online survey about the important aspects of digital preservation including staffing, digital preservation systems and tools, National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) assessment, funding, infrastructure, and collaboration. Statistical analyses reveal some differences across the archives examined in many of the digital preservation aspects such as staffing, systems and tools, and financial needs. Staffing and funding are the most problematic digital preservation challenges facing university archives. Based on the findings of this study, the authors address key questions for future research.