Problems in the preservation of electronic records

Terms such as medium preservation and technology preservation are now widely used when discussing issues related to the preservation of electronic records. The advent of electronic information introduces new preservation requirements. Medium preservation has been addressed in discussions on environmental and handling concerns for tapes, magnetic disks, optical disks, and the like. Greater attention should instead be directed to the obsolescence of technologies. It is a challenge to imagine not only how to technically preserve electronic records indefinitely, but also how to choose what to preserve and how to guarantee the electronic record’s reliability and authenticity in the future. The combined problems of immense volume, unstable storage media, and obsolete hardware and software add up to some very tough problems, which have to be dealt with. Digital preservation is becoming a business issue. Not only are historians, librarians and archivists alarmed by the loss of cultural and government records due to a lack in digital preservation, but certain industries have also realised that they need to keep data longer and longer for regulatory or business reasons.