Parsimonious preservation: preventing pointless processes! (The small simple steps that take digital preservation a long way forward)
While there are many and varied threats to the successful curation of digital material, the impression given by the current generation of digital preservation systems and by much of the “received wisdom” in the digital preservation community is that imminent technological (software/data format) obsolescence is the primary threat. This gives rise to the belief that the only way to successfully start doing digital preservation is to invest in a technically complex, expensive, and difficult to operate integrated digital preservation system. This paper argues that, while the threat of technological obsolescence is real in some particular cases, a much more imminent threat is poor capture and inability to achieve safe and secure storage of the original material. By applying the principle of parsimony to digital preservation, institutions can find ways forward that are incremental, manageable and affordable, and which achieve the goal of securing our digital heritage for the next generation. The paper observes that many existing institutional IT systems (and their support teams) provide as a part of normal business the capability to address many of the challenges of capture, custody, and integrity facing the new digital curator. The paper also argues that open source or free resources can be applied intelligently to further address these challenges, without needing huge integration or significant IT resource allocation. The paper gives an example of this and argues that the simplicity of a digital preservation system itself is critical to ensuring the long term access to the material that it holds. This approach makes it possible for even the smallest institution to begin to take steps to ensure the long-term survival of our vital digital heritage.