Electronic records and digital preservation objects : a comparison

Today the rapid development of technology leads to information created in electronic form is growing exponentially at the same time, as hardware and software become obsolete fast. Information and long-term preservation is one of the most acute questions for all kind of preservation institutions because of large problems to deal with digital information. The solutions for long-term digital preservation and access that exist today are insufficient. One of the biggest challenges is to maintain high level of authenticity and reliability of electronic records. To find solutions for the long-term preservation problems, the LDP Project was started. The LDP Project gave rise to the LDP Centre: and its activities rely upon the outcomes of research and development from the LDP Project. Today the LDP Centre has developed a model for structure of a digital preservation object, which is called Information Delivery Package. The aim is to deliver the archival material from an organization to an archive for long-term preservation. In the beginning of the development the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) was utilised, which later was relinquished in order to use some solutions of best practices. It means that its theoretical fundament is rather poor. The purpose of the investigation was to point out possible deficiencies in the structure of digital preservation object, if any, developed by LDP Centre. This would be carried out using the Records Continuum Model as a “template” for records towards the developed structure of preservation object, analysing likenesses and differences. My efforts were made in order to show that capturing essential metadata, would make it easier to understand and preserve records. In the investigation, consideration was taken into electronic records at a conceptual level, regardless of format, medium, technical or legal aspects. The analysis of the empirical data shows that the structure of preservation object developed by LDP Centre contains all concepts within the Records Continuum Model at three levels, namely Create, Capture and Organize. The concepts embracing the fourth level, namely Pluralise in the Records Continuum Model are not presented in the developed structure of preservation object. When concerning the specific case of the Swedish National Archives, the managerial group, organizational structure and legislation put a barrier to apply the idea about alliance building and consequently the idea of time/space distanciation. Hence, the comment on whether the structure of preservation object has deficiencies is unsuitable so far. This because, the LDP Centre followed Swedish legislation and norms of the Swedish National Archives, when developing the structure of preservation object.Validerat; 20101217 (root