麻豆视频

Digital Preservation Policy

麻豆视频 Archives & Special Collections is committed to the long-term preservation, management, and accessibility of digital materials of enduring institutional, historical, research, or cultural value.

This policy applies to born-digital and digitized materials accepted into the custody of Archives & Special Collections, including University records, manuscript collections, organizational records, photographs, audiovisual materials, publications, websites, email, datasets, databases, and other digital content.

Digital preservation activities are carried out through the Archives & Special Collections Digital Preservation Lab (DPLAB) and associated preservation systems and workflows.

Transfer and Acceptance of Digital Materials

Archives & Special Collections accepts digital materials in a wide range of file formats and on a variety of storage media. Donors and transferring offices are not required to convert, normalize, rename, or otherwise modify files before transfer.

Whenever possible, materials should be transferred in their existing form so that original files, metadata, directory structures, and other contextual information can be evaluated and preserved.

Archives & Special Collections will determine appropriate preservation and access actions after transfer. Acceptance of digital materials is based on the Archives' collecting mission, institutional responsibilities, available documentation, rights and restrictions, technical feasibility, and available preservation resources.

When access to transferred files depends on passwords, encryption keys, specialized software, or other technical information, depositors should provide the information necessary to access the materials when legally and practically possible.

Appraisal and Selection

Transfer of digital materials to Archives & Special Collections does not necessarily mean that every file will be retained permanently.

As part of archival appraisal and processing, staff may identify duplicate, temporary, system-generated, out-of-scope, or otherwise non-archival files that do not warrant long-term preservation. Materials may also be excluded when they cannot be safely preserved, fall outside the Archives' collecting responsibilities, or are subject to legal, security, or other restrictions that prevent retention.

Appraisal decisions are based on the enduring institutional, historical, evidential, research, or cultural value of the materials and their relationship to the Archives & Special Collections collecting mission.

Preservation Principles

Archives & Special Collections seeks to preserve the authenticity, integrity, usability, and context of digital materials over time.

Original transferred files are retained whenever possible. Preservation copies, normalized files, migrated files, and access derivatives may also be created when needed to reduce preservation risk, improve accessibility, or support continued use.

Preservation actions are performed in a manner intended to retain the content and significant characteristics of the original materials. When migration or other alteration is necessary, the action and resulting files are documented.

Digital preservation cannot guarantee that every feature, behavior, or original software environment can be reproduced indefinitely. Archives & Special Collections will make reasonable efforts to maintain the intellectual content, authenticity, and significant characteristics of accepted digital materials using available technologies and professional preservation practices.

The level of preservation support provided for individual materials may vary according to their significance, condition, technical characteristics, preservation risk, available resources, and the feasibility of maintaining future access.

Digital Preservation Processing

Digital materials may undergo preservation processing after transfer. Depending on the materials and associated risks, this may include:

• virus and malware screening;

• file inventory and format identification;

• extraction and preservation of available technical and embedded metadata;

• creation and verification of cryptographic checksums;

• creation of preservation packages;

• normalization or migration of at-risk file formats;

• creation of preservation and access derivatives;

• documentation of preservation actions and changes; and

• transfer to managed preservation storage.

Preservation processing is performed on working copies whenever appropriate so that original transferred files can be retained unchanged.

File Formats

Archives & Special Collections does not require donors or transferring offices to convert files into designated preservation formats before transfer.

The Archives evaluates formats after transfer and determines whether files should be retained in their original format, normalized, migrated, or supplemented with additional preservation or access copies.

File-format decisions consider factors such as documentation, adoption, transparency, available software support, preservation risk, significant characteristics of the material, and the ability to provide future access.

The is used as a reference when evaluating digital formats and planning preservation or migration strategies.

Original files are retained whenever possible even when additional preservation or access formats are created.

Metadata and Documentation

Archives & Special Collections preserves existing metadata when possible and creates additional descriptive, administrative, technical, and preservation metadata as needed to manage digital materials over time.

is used where appropriate for descriptive metadata and interoperability between digital collections and repository systems.

Controlled subject terminology may be drawn from (LCSH) and (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) when appropriate to the collection and descriptive context.

Preservation metadata may be recorded using concepts and elements from (Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies). Preservation documentation may include information about digital objects, checksums, file formats, preservation events, migrations, software or tools used, rights, and responsible agents.

Existing embedded metadata is retained whenever practical. Metadata may also be extracted and maintained separately from the digital object to support preservation, management, discovery, and future migration.

Integrity and Fixity

Archives & Special Collections uses cryptographic checksums and other integrity controls to help verify that preserved digital files remain unchanged over time.

Checksums are created or verified during preservation processing and may be checked periodically thereafter. When a preservation copy fails an integrity check, staff may use a verified redundant copy to restore the affected file.

Changes resulting from authorized preservation actions, such as format migration, result in new files and new fixity information rather than undocumented modification of the original preserved file.

Preservation Storage

Digital preservation relies on multiple managed copies rather than a single storage location.

Preservation materials are maintained in managed storage systems designed to reduce the risk of loss from hardware failure, accidental deletion, corruption, disaster, or other threats. Redundant copies are maintained in separate storage environments or locations as appropriate.

Storage media and systems may change over time. Digital materials may therefore be transferred to new storage systems or media as part of routine preservation management without altering the intellectual content of the records.

Preservation and Access Copies

Preservation copies and access copies serve different purposes.

Preservation copies are maintained to support long-term retention, authenticity, and future migration. They may be larger, less compressed, or stored in formats that are not convenient for routine public use.

Access copies may be optimized, compressed, converted, captioned, transcribed, redacted, or otherwise prepared to improve usability, accessibility, and online delivery.

Creation of an access copy does not replace or alter the preservation copy.

Access and Restrictions

Preservation of digital material does not necessarily mean that the material will be made publicly available online.

Access may be provided through Vtext, Archives & Special Collections websites and indexes, the Archives reading room, or by request, depending on the nature of the material.

Access may be limited or restricted because of:

• copyright or other intellectual property rights;

• donor or transfer agreements;

• University policy;

• applicable law;

• privacy or confidentiality concerns;

• personally identifiable or sensitive information;

• security concerns;

• preservation concerns; or

• technical limitations.

When appropriate, Archives & Special Collections may create redacted or otherwise modified access copies while retaining the original material under appropriate restrictions.

Authenticity and Provenance

Archives & Special Collections seeks to maintain sufficient documentation to demonstrate the provenance and preservation history of digital materials in its custody.

Original files, checksums, metadata, preservation records, and documented preservation events may be maintained as evidence of authenticity and integrity.

Preservation actions such as migration, normalization, metadata modification, or creation of derivatives are documented when they materially affect the preserved digital object.

Rights and Preservation

Copyright and other intellectual property rights remain with their respective rights holders unless those rights have been transferred by agreement or otherwise provided by law.

Archives & Special Collections may undertake preservation activities consistent with its institutional responsibilities, donor or transfer agreements, licenses, applicable law, and University policy.

Preservation of a digital object does not imply that Archives & Special Collections owns the copyright or that unrestricted publication, reproduction, or reuse is permitted.

Policy Review

Digital preservation technologies and practices continue to evolve. Archives & Special Collections will review this policy periodically and revise preservation practices as necessary to address changes in technology, professional practice, repository systems, legal requirements, and institutional needs.

Related Policies

This policy should be read in conjunction with other Archives & Special Collections policies governing acquisitions, use and access, copyright and reproduction, restrictions, and the Vtext institutional repository.