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Effective Date 2022

Last Revision Date 2025

Responsible Party NYU Libraries Digital Preservation Steering Committee

Digital Preservation Policy

Digital preservation, as with all of our library work, is informed by our mission and values. While our primary responsibility lies with the students, staff, and faculty of New York University now and into the future, the Libraries also welcomes and engages in scholarly, cultural, and artistic interactions with broader communities in our role as stewards of cultural heritage. This policy provides information on how digital preservation activities will be organized, managed, and undertaken at New York University Libraries and outlines commitments to those activities, including maintenance and expansion of the infrastructure required to ensure long-term access to digital resources.

Guiding Principles

Our Charge

Digital preservation is a challenging activity. As long as there is technology, we will need to perform the act of digital preservation continuously. This work has several obstacles that need to be addressed by practitioners. There are technological barriers to preservation such as the scale of collections, proprietary file formats and software, outdated physical media, and ephemeral Web-based platforms used to store digital materials. There are legal barriers to preservation work that can inhibit the ability to perform the act of digital preservation iteratively and over time. There are also social implications for digital preservation work, ensuring as it does the existence of materials reflecting a broad range of knowledge, scholarship, and cultural heritage. Given this, we focus on a broad spectrum of materials, including those from intentionally marginalized communities, and center global inclusion in this work. With these challenges and implications in mind, we recognize that failure is possible; we cannot promise that preservation will be forever. That said, we aim to increase the longevity of materials to the greatest extent possible. We continuously evaluate our institutional approach, whether risk-tolerant or risk-averse, and adjust as necessary given the surrounding circumstances.

Our Commitment

We commit to providing the resources—including staff, technology, expertise, time, and budget—to actively and iteratively preserve and maintain digital materials. We recognize that preservation requires constant and intentional work at every stage of the materials’ lifecycle. Within digital preservation, we prioritize the labor and expertise that makes it possible, and direct resources toward materials from intentionally marginalized communities.

Our Responsibility

We recognize that our responsibility for stewarding digital resources is distributed widely in NYU Libraries and goes far beyond practitioners in traditional technology and preservation departments. This distributed responsibility includes collection development, teaching and learning, technical services, research services, user experience, television and media, scholarly communications, and many other departments and areas of expertise. Just as responsibility for stewarding is widely distributed across our Libraries, it is also widely distributed beyond our Libraries and requires the expertise and collaboration of external partners and the use of external tools.

Our Scope

Not every digital object in our collections needs to be selected for digital preservation. Not every digital object that we deem in need of preservation needs to be preserved by us. Not every digital object we deem in need of preservation will be in our collection. These last two cases lead inevitably to the need for collaboration and interoperability. Beyond NYU Libraries, trusted creators, institutions, and vendors play a role in the stewardship of our digital resources, and we often rely on these collaborative efforts to effectively meet our digital preservation goals.

We are transparent in our commitment to and capacity for preserving digital objects, in our choice of which digital objects we preserve, in how we preserve them, and under what circumstances we allow access to the digital objects themselves. This aim will guide our choice of standards, formats, metadata, and maintenance procedures, all of which are central to successful preservation work.

Our Values

We promote a culture of openness to build and maintain legal and technological infrastructure that supports and rewards that openness, accessibility, and inclusivity. However, we recognize that it is not always possible or ethical to open materials. We commit to making material available to the widest possible range of users, including those with disabilities, and to adapting the process for making materials open and accessible as the work evolves. We make this commitment while recognizing that not all content may be made accessible.

Our Stewardship

As part of our mission, we proactively seek to build understanding, literacy, and awareness among ourselves and our community of users about decisions, procedures, and processes regarding digital preservation. Digital preservation is not just making sure the bits we get in are the bits we get out—we strive for our preserved materials to be understandable and directly usable over time. We aim to forefront access, respect, and archival integrity of the digitally preserved materials under our stewardship. We will meet the challenges of digital preservation head-on with the resources we have. To this end, this policy will inform future documentation, procedures, projects, outreach efforts, and overall transparency around digital preservation at NYU Libraries.

Strategy and Commitment

The primary purpose of digital stewardship is to ensure that intellectual and cultural heritage of enduring value is preserved and made accessible for the long-term.

Selection and Acquisition

NYU Libraries’s digital collections are subject to the same overarching criteria for curation, selection, management, and preservation as other resources in its collections. Collection specialists, who provide expertise on the long-term value of content, in consultation with preservation and information technology experts, make these decisions. We take into consideration the environmental impact of digital projects and the ways in which digitization, long-term preservation, data-exchanges, and large-scale server space contribute to climate change. For each specific project, we aim to confirm that the budgetary, staffing, and technological resources required will continue to be available and are sufficient to complete and maintain it. Materials that might soon become unusable or inaccessible should be prioritized for digitization and digital preservation activities. Digital collections should have a plan for metadata creation, discovery, and access before acquisition.

Levels of Commitment:

NYU Libraries’ commits to providing long-term access to digital collections and content directly under its stewardship.

  • Digitized materials with available analog versions will receive limited geographically distributed and redundant replication. In most cases the analog version of these materials will be considered the preservation copy. In cases where the analog carriers of information are obsolete or at great risk of obsolescence as determined by the Preservation and Conservation Department, digitized versions will be considered the preservation copy and treated with the same care as born-digital materials. Digital surrogates with no available analog versions will be treated with the same care as born-digital materials.

  • When possible, the Libraries will attempt to recover digital materials stored on obsolete media, encoded in obsolete file systems or formats, or otherwise inaccessible for appraisal, accessioning, and/or evaluation for long-term preservation. The Libraries makes no guarantee that recovery will be successful or that it will be able to provide the resources necessary to attempt recovery.

  • NYU Libraries will not limit digital objects accepted for preservation solely based on technological challenges. However, some digital objects may be prohibitively challenging and the Libraries cannot be expected to commit to preserving these objects without first analyzing our capacity based on a clear understanding of the budgetary, staffing, and technological resources required.

  • In rare cases, a collection may contain material for which the Libraries are unable or unwilling to accept preservation responsibility. Although incidental preservation activities may take place upon this material, the Libraries accept no responsibility for its long-term accessibility or validity. Examples of materials at this level would include objects that are known to be corrupt or not authorized for preservation at any level but which, for some reason, cannot be deleted immediately. Reappraisal and deaccessioning may be considered if one or more conditions are met, per the Deaccessioning Policy.

  • Due to copyright and other licensing issues, the Library will make determinations as to if, when, and how to preserve commercially available digital resources, including published content and proprietary software. Vendor-hosted digital resources are subject to examination of vendor processes, commitments, and sustainability with the aim of determining long-term availability of a comprehensive and coordinated collection of digital resources, which may include coordinating preservation efforts.

  • Maintaining a fundamental understanding of digital information and staying current with technological change is essential in order to be equipped to monitor and coordinate the systems and tools required for digital preservation, and to design preservation strategies for digital collections. To that end, NYU Libraries is committed to sufficient funding for operations and vital improvements for digital asset management, as well as ensuring digital preservation services are well-documented and data about materials are available, auditable, and understandable.

Operational and Procedural Strategy

Our digital preservation work is informed by guidelines created within the field of digital preservation and in alignment with established archival standards and best practices. For example, the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) Digital Preservation Handbook and the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) levels of preservation provide guidance on building and evaluating our approach; open source tools maintained by the Open Preservation Foundation are integrated into our workflows; NASIG Digital Preservation Committee helps guide our partnerships for licensed digital scholarly content; and file format standards for preservation master copies of digitized content are created in accordance with the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative.

Digital preservation strategies are based around the preservation of the intellectual content of the digital objects contained in the digital repository. Priority is given to maintaining the information contained in an individual content object, with the look and feel of any given object being preserved to the extent possible and deemed necessary. To this end, the Libraries utilize the following approaches to preservation.

  • Bit-level Preservation: Includes maintaining onsite and offsite backup copies, virus checking, fixity checking, documentation of file formats, and periodic refreshment by copying files to new storage media.

  • Bitstream Copying: Digital Library Technology Services maintains regularly scheduled backups of all information contained in the Libraries digital repositories, for use in the event of data loss. In combination with fixity checks, which identify potentially damaged content, this process ensures the integrity of content in the Libraries digital repository, and provides a foundation for its disaster recovery plans.

  • Fixity Checking: Digital materials are subject to biannual fixity checks, as well as before and after any time materials are transferred. Fixity checks compare the checksum values calculated at a given point in time with those generated at the material’s time of ingest. This activity mitigates the risk of objects becoming corrupt as it enables the repository managers to identify damaged or corrupted content, and to revert to a valid version of the object from a previous point in time.

  • Full Preservation: Items preserved at this level will receive bit-level preservation, as well as activities intended to ensure files remain usable. Activities may include normalizing or migrating files, or ensuring authentic rendering. Based on curatorial input and/or donor agreement, the Libraries will determine if it is more critical to preserve the intellectual content of the file, the original look and feel, or original usability, and will proceed to the best of their ability.

  • Archival File Formats: NYU Libraries are committed to the use of file formats that support long term sustainability. In general, the considerations for selecting file formats include ubiquity, the openness of the file format, its status as a preservation-friendly format, as well as how well the format is suited to format migration later on.

  • Normalization: The Libraries work to identify file formats well-suited to its approach to preservation and access. Upon ingest, materials not conforming to accepted standards may be systematically converted to a preselected format. To the extent possible, the Libraries will attempt to preserve the essential characteristics of the object. In cases requiring compromise, transformations that maintain the content of the object will be prioritized over those that preserve the presentation (in consultation with the curator and/or donor or donor agreement).

  • Format Migration: If the Libraries determines that a portion of its content is at risk of obsolescence, the content will be migrated to a stable format more suited to long-term preservation and use. This transformation may consist of migration to a newer version of the content’s existing format, or transformation to a different format altogether. In all cases, preservation of the object’s intellectual content will be prioritized over the preservation of a specific presentation style (in consultation with the curator and/or donor or donor agreement).

  • Metadata: Digital preservation services will secure metadata (e.g. administrative, descriptive, preservation, provenance, rights and technical) necessary for the use of the digital assets.

Access and Use

NYU Libraries is committed to providing as wide access as possible to users in ways that faithfully represent digital objects when they were created or acquired, and to enabling uninterrupted access to digital content over time as the technology for digital content creation and distribution evolves. Access to, and use of, digital resources in the custody of the Libraries are governed by applicable legislation, donor agreements, and/or Library policy.

Governance, Roles, and Responsibilities

Digital preservation is a shared responsibility requiring participation within and beyond the NYU Libraries. Within the Libraries, digital preservation is shared among these stakeholders:

Libraries Senior Leadership Team, Digital Preservation Steering Committee

  • Evaluates high level policies and programmatic plans.
  • Oversight of development, implementation, and maintenance of the digital lifecycle.

Special Collections; Scholarly Communications and Information Policy; Collections and Content Strategy; Research and Research Services (including Data Services)

  • Faculty, students, creators of content, publishers, staff, curators, and others who are responsible for complying with established deposit and access requirements and working with the management of the digital archive to ensure successful transfer.
  • Content specialists, archivists, librarian subject experts, and others who encourage best practices for digital content creation that makes content more preservable, and who appraise, select, acquire, manage, and curate digital objects for long-term preservation.

The Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department

  • Format specialists, who digitize or migrate content from one format to another for preservation and/or access purposes.
  • Preservation planning specialists who advocate for the long-term preservation and access of digital objects by lending guidance and support to content, metadata, and format specialists.

Digital Library Technology Services; Partners in NYU Information Technology

  • Digital repository administrators/developers who provide services and are responsible for the day-to-day management of the digital archive including: ingest, archival storage, and access functions;
  • Technology specialists, who develop software, procure hardware, implement backup and replication policies and procedures, and conduct auditing and reporting of systems.
  • Specialists who provide infrastructure to support the storage and applications required for digital preservation.

Knowledge Access and Resource Management Services.

  • Metadata specialists (data management), who ensure digital objects are described according to applicable standards in order to facilitate long-term discovery and access.
  • Management who set overall preservation metadata policy as part of the larger NYU Libraries organization.

Additional Stakeholders

  • Users, either persons or systems, who interact with repository services to find and to access preserved information of interest.
  • Patrons who use or are represented in NYU Libraries digital collections.

Appendices

Definitions

  • Access: The processes for the retrieval and presentation of digital objects from storage media, through the use of catalogs, repositories, and/or other tools.
  • Accession: To take legal and physical custody of a group of materials and establish physical and intellectual control.
  • Acquisition: The process of seeking and taking physical custody of materials from any source by transfer, donation, or purchase.
  • Bit-level preservation: A minimum standard for digital preservation. It focuses on ensuring the integrity of bitstream representations of digital objects.
  • Born-digital: Materials created in a digital format.
  • Digital stewardship: Functions or tasks associated with organizing a collection of digital objects including the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection, and archiving of digital objects.
  • Digital preservation: A comprehensive set of managed activities aimed at ensuring the long-term sustainability of digital objects, beyond the limits of storage failure and technological obsolescence.
  • Digital surrogate/digitized materials: Materials that were originally created in analog form, but were reformatted (such as by scanning) into digital form, usually for preservation or access.
  • Fixity: The quality of a digital object to be stable and resist change. Checksums are cryptographic hash functions used to ensure the integrity of objects.
  • Metadata: Information that describes digital objects or data collections, supporting their discovery, interpretation, and use.
  • Migration: The transfer of digital resources from one hardware or software generation to the next, while preserving the essential characteristics of the data. A method of overcoming technological obsolescence.
  • Open source: A software development methodology and licensing approach that makes computer source code freely available, open to modification, and redistributable.
  • Provenance: Information regarding the origins, custody, and ownership of an item or collection.

Sources Consulted

Digital Preservation Coalition (2023). Digital Preservation Policy Toolkit, Version 2. Retrieved April 1, 2025, from http://doi.org/10.7207/policytoolkit23-02

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. (2018 August). Digital preservation policies and planning. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/pages/datamanagement/preservation/policies/dpp-framework.html

The Ohio State University Libraries (2013 August). Digital Preservation Policy Framework. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://library.osu.edu/documents/SDIWG/Digital_Preservation_Policy_Framework.pdf

Yale University Library. (2014 November). Yale University Library’s Digital Preservation Policy Framework. Retrieved April 1, 2025, from https://guides.library.yale.edu/ld.php?content_id=26251943

National Digital Stewardship Alliance. (2019 October). Levels of Digital Preservation Version 2.0. Retrieved April 11, 2025 from https://osf.io/2mkwx

Open Archival Information System (OAIS) – Reference Model (ISO 14721:2012) https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/650x0m2.pdf

Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories (ISO 16363:2012) https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/652x0m1.pdf

Producer-Archive Interface Methodology Abstract Standard (PAIMAS) (ISO 20652:2006) https://public.ccsds.org/Pubs/651x0m1.pdf