What is the main focus of digital preservation?

The primary focus of digital preservation is maintaining access to digital information over time. This involves employing strategies and practices to ensure that digital content remains usable and accessible for current and future users, despite potential changes in technology, software, and hardware that could render the information unreadable or unusable.

Digital preservation encompasses a range of activities, including regular backups, migration to new file formats, and metadata creation, which all contribute to mitigating risks associated with data loss, obsolescence, or degradation of digital materials. The goal is to create a sustainable framework that protects digital assets from being lost and ensures they can be retrieved and utilized effectively over prolonged periods.

While enhancing user experience, creating digital content, and reducing archival costs are important aspects of digitization and archival work, they are not the primary focus of digital preservation. The core commitment of digital preservation is to safeguard the longevity and accessibility of digital information, ensuring that it can continue to serve its intended purpose for users far into the future.