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Preservation Services at Harvard Library Franziska Frey"Malloy Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian"Head of Preservation and Digital Imaging Services"Harvard Library

Mission Statement

Harvard Library Preservation Services enables the University to fulfill its responsibility to ensure the longevity and usability of Harvard’s renowned collections.

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Needs Assessment

Survey Categories 1) Collection Overview 2) Environment 3) Security 4) Emergency Preparedness for Collections 5) Storage and Handling 6) Reformatting 7) Digital Preservation 8) Treatment of General/Circulating Collections 9) Special/Non-Circulating Collections

Digital Preservation Aim: Keep the Bits …

… safe

… useful to people

Digital Repository Service (DRS)

Long-term preservation repository

§  Professionally managed bundle of services §  Hardware + Software + People + Policies & Procedures §  Preserves content for Harvard’s libraries, archives &

museums §  Provides content now and in the future to researchers at

Harvard and worldwide

Safe Bits

§  4 copies, automatically replicated to 3 different geographic locations

§  Automated continuous process to check for corrupt bits

§  Restricted access to content §  3 different storage types Ø  2 different on-line storage systems plus next-generation

tape media

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Usable Bits

§  Full integration with Harvard Library’s central infrastructure §  Suite of delivery services, collection management

applications §  Persistently discoverable Ø Catalogs & search engines Ø Persistent names

§  Extensive metadata §  Monitored for format obsolescence

A Peek Inside §  46 million files, 160 TB

§  Many formats―images, audio, text, digitized books, web sites, biomedical image stacks, soon email and video

§  Diverse content―musical scores, poetry readings, architectural plans, drawings, photographs, illuminated medieval manuscripts, historical diaries, archaeological objects, scientific specimens, posters, etc.