Digital Preservation Processes and Strategies – From a Danish Perspective

In the poster presentation I will present the initial empirical findings and analyses from my research contributing to the institute with a case study from Denmark. I will present how the Danish digital preservation strategy looks today, which challenges it faces and how my research can contribute to the ongoing debate of how we create digital archives in Denmark.

I will present a brief overview of my PhD project which seeks to study how the Danish local authorities have accommodated to the digitization of information in regards to the formation of digital administrative and historic archives. The study of the digital preservation processes (how and why records are stored) will be conducted at the level of the records creators (management, IT, EDERM-specialists etc.); on the level of archives (municipal archives specialized in digital preservation); and digital records which have entered permanent storage. The idea is to follow the records through their entire lifespan.

With the empirical studies and analyses as a point of departure I will contribute to a discussion of the current preservation strategies and also how we potentially can optimize the strategies to better suit the digital work processes. This will include international archival research in a debate about future digital archives; what challenges and consequences do the preservation strategies entail and how can we best take advantage of the development potential and new opportunities for digital archiving in the future?