Position Papers
DigitalPreservationEurope is producing a series of thought provoking and controversial position papers on a range of issues surrounding digital preservation. It is our intention that these papers will promote vigorous debate within the digital preservation community and encourage people to think about digital preservation in new and innovative ways by exploring and challenging the received wisdom.
Ross Harvey 'So Where is the Black Hole in our Collective Memory?'
Harvey's position paper asks the important question, Have the digital preservation community cried wolf too often? Are our strident, alarmist proclamations about the loss of digital materials too extreme? He argues that our inability to bring evidence to bear in support of such claims leave us exposed and easily overlooked.
Open the Paper [PDF, 155 KB], Published 18th January 2008
Why Appraisal is not 'Utterly' Useless and why it's not the Way to Go either.
This provocative position paper argues that random selection should replace appraisal as the method of deciding what to keep and what to throw out in the archival world. The author argues that, in contrast to appraisal, random selection will provide 1 A fair unbiased view of contemporary life, 2 Simplicity and cost effectiveness, 3 Privacy protection and 4 A future-proof process.
Open the Paper [PDF, 149 KB], Published 12th November 2007
