Digital Curation

Digital curation is the professional practice of selecting, preserving, maintaining, collecting, and archiving digital assets. It serves as a comprehensive framework for establishing and adding value to digital repositories, ensuring that data remains reliable and accessible for both immediate use and long-term future requirements. While historically rooted in library and archival sciences, the discipline has expanded into scientific research and corporate enterprise management to mitigate the risks of digital obsolescence.

Historical Context and Evolution

The term curation originates from museology, traditionally referring to the care, preservation, and exhibition of physical cultural heritage. In the digital age, this concept has evolved to encompass the management of intangible assets. The formalization of digital curation as a distinct field gained momentum through legal frameworks such as the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and subsequent federal regulations like 36 CFR Part 79, which established standards for the care of federally owned archaeological collections. Today, the term bridges the gap between traditional heritage management and modern information technology.

Core Principles

Digital curation is governed by a commitment to the entire lifecycle of an asset, from its initial creation to its eventual retirement. Practitioners adhere to five primary principles:

• Lifecycle Management: Overseeing the complete birth-to-retirement trajectory of a digital asset.
• Appraisal: Evaluating and selecting assets based on their long-term value and institutional relevance.
• Preservation: Implementing technical measures to ensure the integrity and reusability of data.
• Proactive Value Addition: Enhancing assets through metadata and contextual documentation throughout their life.
• Access Facilitation: Ensuring that authorized users can discover and utilize the curated resources.

The Digital Curation Lifecycle

The Digital Curation Center (DCC) provides a standardized methodology for managing digital materials. This process is divided into sequential and occasional actions:

Sequential Actions

1. Conceptualize: Planning for the creation of digital material and identifying storage requirements.
2. Create: Generating content and attaching comprehensive metadata to ensure future discoverability.
3. Appraise and Select: Determining the relevance of data based on institutional mandates or legal requirements.
4. Ingest: Transferring material into a secure repository or archive.
5. Preservation Action: Applying technical safeguards to maintain data integrity.
6. Store: Securing data within a managed facility.
7. Access, Use, and Reuse: Managing permissions and verifying that data remains accessible and uncorrupted over time.
8. Transform: Converting data into new formats if necessary for continued utility.

Occasional Actions

• Dispose: Removing material that no longer meets retention criteria.
• Reappraise: Periodically evaluating collections to ensure ongoing relevance.
• Migrate: Moving data to new formats to prevent obsolescence.