7 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

for current business if one does not know how it can be appropriately preserved, i.e.
converted in a stable preservation format. Preservation formats therefore need to be
maintained, format developments need to be carefully watched in order to keep always a
migration path open to new formats when old formats will become obsolete.”[5]
There are Maintenance Programs designed for organizations that want to stay on the
leading edge of technology and ensure technological consistency throughout the
organization and entitled to receive all upgrades of that software that occur during the
Maintenance Program period.
According to Rich Lysakowski and Zahava Leibowitz “Adobe Systems (San Jose, CA) is
an example of a company with a truly unique philosophy and commitment regarding longterm
product compatibility. Adobe has a broad and public commitment to provide 100%
backward compatibility of the PDF format for at least the next 25 years. No other software
vendor has such a forward-looking philosophy and commitment to its customers. An
important business reason for this commitment is that Adobe is beholden to the publishing
industry, which has standardized on Adobe’s PostScript language and many of Adobe’s
other multimedia publishing products. PDF is a new and improved but compatible version
of PostScript, that also supports high quality publishing on the World Wide Web. The
publishing industry simply cannot afford to retool every few years. Publishers must be
able to access, view, and print their archived documents and books on demand for many
decades to come”.
Technology obsolescence, different data representation formats, limited storage media
longevity, special software and hardware required, are some factors that may reduce the
future readability of digital information.
3. Digital Preservation
Digital archives are distinct from digital libraries in the sense that digital libraries are
repositories that collect and provide access to digital information, but may or may not
provide for the long-term storage and access of that information. The glossary of the
National Preservation Office defines preservation, as it relates to print publications, as “all
managerial and financial considerations including accommodation and storage provisions,
staffing levels, policies, techniques and methods involved in preserving library and archive
materials and the information contained therein” 3. The ability to continue to use digital
information is threatened by the limited life of the media on which it is distributed. The
National Media Laboratory estimate that the life expectancy of magnetic tape is between
two and thirty years, incase of optical media between five and one hundred years[4].
Incase of electronic publication, the access of data is determined by the software and the
hardware used, they become obsolete over a period of 5years approximately. While
preserving the incoming content from various sources, to decide to keep the content
format as original or to covert to current format is questionable. Due to legal
responsibilities the content is stored in both formats
3.1 Document Management
Document Management is the process of managing documents throughout their lifecycle.
This includes the processes of retrieving, sharing, tracking, revising and distributing
216