Practical experiences of the Dutch digital preservation test‐bed

Abstract

Digital Preservation test‐bed is a three‐year practical research project with the overall goal of investigating options to secure sustained accessibility to authentic archival records over the long‐term, by carrying out experiments in a controlled and secure environment. This allows one to ascertain the effects of undertaken preservation action on archival records. Test‐bed is researching three different approaches to long‐term digital preservation: migration, XML and emulation. Not only will the effectiveness of each approach be evaluated, but also their limits, costs and application potential. Experiments take place on four different record types: text documents, spreadsheets, emails and databases of different size, complexity and nature. At the end of 2003 the digital preservation test‐bed project was to provide: advice on how to deal with current digital records, recommendations for an appropriate preservation approach or a combination of approaches per record type, functional requirements for a preservation function, cost models of the various preservation strategies, a decision model to select the right preservation strategy, and recommendations concerning archival guidelines and regulations.