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  DIGITAL PRESERVATION ISSUES: BUDGETS, COSTS, STAFF AND SKILLS Saving digital heritage is now an absolute necessity in contemporary information sciences. However, reaching sustainable digital curation requires one to pass through multiple serious difficulties that can become real obstacles even for wealthy organisations. While the technical side of saving information can be complicated, the greatest and the most urgent problems have an organisational and financial nature (Beagrie, Lavoie, & Wollard, 2010). The post discusses key challenges related to budgeting, staffing, and skill set in digital curation and emphasises the importance of collaboration in solving these problems. Picture 1: The data curation issues circle Budget and Costs The most concrete and often mentioned challenge to digital curation is insufficient funding. The expenses in this case can include the cost of storage systems, software, and the amount of energy needed to keep them. When developing a business ...

  DATA CURATION PRESERVATION (ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES): THE HIDDEN CRISIS IN DATA PRESERVATION Figure 1: The Data Curation Preservation Issues Introduction In cases where the organisation loses valuable research data, the first thought to come to mind will be technological problems such as hardware failure or outdated software. However, there is a growing body of research showing that the real reason why data is lost is organisational issues rather than technological ones. The Accountability Vacuum Data governance within research organisations is seriously underdeveloped. A groundbreaking study from 2003 on e-Science data curation noted that there can be uncertainty as to institutional responsibilities for long-term data management, leading to significant deficiencies in preservation procedures (Digital Archiving Consultancy, 2003). Almost twenty years later, the same issue still applies. Despite organisations' investments in their technological infrastructure, questions related to...

DATA CURATION PRESERVATION ISSUES  The Silent Decay: Confronting Preservation Threats in Digital Materials   The idea that digital materials last forever persist, even though some evidence suggest otherwise. Digital files cannot simply be stored untouched and survive like some old paper documents (Vandecreek, 2012). This post examines the major threats to digital preservation and argues why solid curation plans based on tested methods are urgently needed. The Physical Vulnerability of Digital Media First, digital storage media are physically fragile. Although many assume digital information is safer than paper, it is actually remarkably vulnerable. Digital objects deteriorate over time, just like any physical artifact (Vandecreek, 2012, para. 4). This slow breakdown, often called bit rot , affects disks, servers, and hard drives alike. A case from Harvard illustrates the severity of this problem. Archivists discovered floppy disks stored in warmer climates covered in...