Content Follows Form: Preservation via Systems Design
-
Stephen Chapman
The human-perceived content of any digital object is an artifact of systems, not an amalgamation of fixed physical attributes. Many of these objects are designed to have multiple renderings to optimize content for specific tasks, such as searching, sorting, analyzing, or reading. Using digital technology either to reproduce historic materials or to preserve original digital objects requires a definition of information integrity that accommodates function as well as appearance. The choice of encoding is critical to enable specified functionality, but the choice of repository is likely to be the guiding factor to preserving object integrity. If scholars, collection managers, and computer programmers collaborate to design large-scale digital repositories, perhaps the choice of where to store an object, particularly for the long term, will not require compromising what it contains.
© 2001 by K. G. Saur
Articles in the same Issue
- Impressum
- Comment and News
- Content Follows Form: Preservation via Systems Design
- Raising Lazarus: Revitalizing an In-House Microfilming Operation
- The Munich Digitization Center at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
- Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial, Cornell University Library/Department of Preservation & Conservation, 2000
- Index to Reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Impressum
- Comment and News
- Content Follows Form: Preservation via Systems Design
- Raising Lazarus: Revitalizing an In-House Microfilming Operation
- The Munich Digitization Center at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
- Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial, Cornell University Library/Department of Preservation & Conservation, 2000
- Index to Reviews
