Presentation at the CT Forum on Digital Initiatives, Hartford, CT. October 22, 2012

1. Preserving Our Digital Heritage
Gregory Colati, University of Connecticut
October 22, 2012

3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan/55101610
01/

4. The Dilemma of Modern Media, 1996
 BEFORE YouTube, Facebook, and Smartphones
Paul Conway, Preservation in the Digital World
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/conway2

5. Dilemma of Modern Media, 1912
Flickr image from the National Film and Sound Archive Australia

6. Cultural Armageddon, 1990s

7. Cultural Armageddon, 2000s

8. Cultural Armageddon, 2012
Source: University of Southern California
Credit: Todd Lindeman and Brian Vastag/ The
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/graphic/2011/02/11/GR2011021100614.html

9. An Obsolete Documentary Form?

10. Preserving Digital Collections
Preserving digital collections is the same as preserving
physical collections, except where it is different
Respect the principles of the profession
Embrace the potential of technology

11. Five Equations of the Cultural Record
Content = Data
Analog = Non-existent
Unconnecte = Invisible
d
Reusable = Valuable
Visualization = Storytelling

12. Cyberinfrastructure and the Cultural Record
“Digital cultural heritage resources are a fundamental
dataset for the humanities…
… combined with computer networks and software
tools, now shape the way that scholars discover and
make sense of the human record…
… [and] the way their findings are communicated to
students, colleagues, and the general public”
"The Report of the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for
the Humanities and Social Sciences." American Council of Learned Societies (2006).

13. Counters of Bits and Tellers of Stories
“When it was made simple, counted in bits, Information
was found to be everywhere”
-James Gleick, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood (2011)
“It is not just about the data, it is about the story”
-Arianna Huffington (2012)

14. MAGI
C/CSD
S
CTDA
Other
Partner
s

15. Join Us!

16. Greg Colati
Sr. Director, Archives, Special Collections and Digital Curation
University of Connecticut
gregory.colati@uconn.edu