Born Digital Images Held Offline on Portable Storage Devices

Digital images with no analogue equivalent stored offline on portable storage devices or on hard disks, especially where there is no refreshment plan or no replication

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017                 

Examples:

Family or personal photos;

Photo archives of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME);

Aggravating conditions:

dependence on obsolete or proprietary formats or processes;

single copies;

no archival function;

lack of preservation capacity;

lack of skills;

single points of failure;

lack of clear stewardship or sense of ownership old or obsolete media;

lack of refreshment plan;

lack or loss of documentation;

overabundance;

primary storage is camera or phone;

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Community Archives and Community Generated Content

Digital content generated by community interest groups with great enthusiasm but dependent on project funding and limited or no prospect for long term support after creation, and no funding to deposit in digital archive.

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017                 

Examples:

Data of marginalized or sub-culture groups;

one-off projects in art, heritage, environment or community development;

content from small or volunteer societies where preservation is not a core functions;

digital and digitized oral history; AV content at Glasgow Women's Library;

recordings of BME Oral history;

Aggravating conditions:

dependence on obsolete or proprietary formats or processes;

single copies;

conflation of bit preservation with logical preservation;

ill-devised funding programmes;

lack of skills;

single points of failure;

lack of clear stewardship or sense of ownership dependency on portable media;

inadequate provision or over-dependency with social media, webhost or service provider

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Digital Materials Stored on Magnetic Portable Media

Digital materials stored on magnetic media which is more than 5 years old and which was intended to be portable (i.e. not hardwired into a server or other device) especially those for which there is no explicit media refreshment plan

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017                 

Examples:

Amstrad PCW Disks,

MiniDV,

ZipDisks,

floppy disks (3.5, 5.25, 8),

reel-based magnetic tape,

Older LTO (especially LTO1-6),

Digital Linear Tape,

AIT

Digital8

Compact Cassette data tapes

DDS/DAT tapes

Aggravating conditions:

Poor storage conditions (temperature, humidity, dust electro-magnetic effects);

No refreshment schedule;

Dependence on obsolete devices;

Storage media out of warranty;

Single copies;

Compression or encryption;

Lack of integrity checking;

Conflation of bit preservation with logical preservation;

exotic or non-standard connectivity;

approaching or exceeding published life cycles

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Digital Materials Stored on Older Portable Media (Non-Magnetic)

Digital materials stored on older portable optical or solid-state (flash) based devices, especially where the media is older than the warranty and there is no explicit media refreshment plan

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017                 

Examples:

Flash Drives;

USB sticks;

CD;

DVD;

LaserDisc;

Magneto-Optical Disc;

MiniDisc;

GD ROM;

Mini-DVD;

UMD;

EVD;

BluRay;

HDDVD;

HVD;

Memory Cards;

SD, Micro-SD;

Aggravating conditions:

Poor storage conditions (temperature, humidity, dust);

electro-magnetic effects;

no refreshment schedule;

dependence on obsolete reader devices;

storage media out of warranty;

single copies;

lack of integrity checking;

conflation of bit preservation with logical preservation;

exotic or non-standard connectivity;

approaching or exceeding published program-erase cycles;

read disturb effects;

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Family or Personal Records

Digital content and communications generated for personal consumption in a domestic setting and which may be of limited general interest but highly valuable to family members and genealogy

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017                 

Examples

childhood photographs and videos;

School or graduation photos;

Wedding photos and movies;

Electronic correspondence (email, messenger, WhatsApp);

Aggravating conditions:

storage on portable media or poor storage;

dependence on devices or processes;

dependence on obsolete or proprietary formats;

storage media out of warranty;

single copies;

inappropriate dependence on service provider;

inappropriate encryption or passwords;

lack of awareness or planning;

loss or lack of documentation;

over-abundance;

inability to act in a timely manner;

confusion over intellectual property

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Gaming

Interactions and experiences of games and related interactive virtual worlds, representing a significant investment of skill and time by players, and significant elements of cultural interaction in the late 20th and early 21st century

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017                 

Examples

multiple online interactive games;

Videogames post 32 bit / 3D graphics

MUD (e.g. TinyMUD, DikuMUD,

Bulletin Board Systems

MMORPGs

Ultima Online Nexus,

The Kingdom of the Winds. Neverwinter Nights

Gaming community fora

Aggravating conditions:

dependency on gaming console

encryption;

loss or Lack of Documentation including uncertainty over Intellectual Property Rights

absence of community of interest;

publisher no longer exists;

game withdrawn or replaced;

absence of collecting mandate from memory institution;

low or medium profile;

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Media Art

Historical interactive media arts including audio-visual installations and interactive performance technology, especially where there is an explicit hardware dependence.

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017

 Examples:

Works produced by media artists now deceased, such as: Jeremy Blake, Beatriz Da Costa, Heiko Daxl or Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski

Aggravating conditions:

storage on portable media or poor storage;

dependence on devices or processes;

dependence on obsolete or proprietary formats;

lack or loss of documentation;

lack of capacity in gallery or collector;

lack of awareness or concern from creator;

uncertainty over intellectual property rights;

uncertainty over provenance and significance

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Politically Sensitive Data

Digital content where the knowledge to preserve exists and there is no threat to obsolescence, but where political interests may be served by elimination, falsification or concealment.

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017

Examples:

Online News;

Social media and web-based campaigning;

Social media relating to 2016 UK/EU referendum;

Promises made to Scottish electorate in 2014 referendum;

US Environmental Data;

PFI Documentation in the UK;

Recordings of Leinster House;

Politwoops;

Deleted by MPs

Aggravating Conditions:

Opaque terms and conditions that facilitate deletion or obfuscation;

lack of access to web-harvesting;

significant lobby interest;

change of administration;

data resides in single jurisdiction;

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Smart Phone Apps

Apps being created for smartphones. Many are depreciated quickly but others only live until through multiple update cycles.  Hard to maintain version control and dependent upon the whim of the company that publishes them. No clear agency with mandate to record or collect.

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017

Examples:

London 2012 app;

BBC Olympic app;

Apps published for Apple iOS 10 or earlier and disabled since release of iOS 11;

Aggravating Conditions:

dependence on device;

dependence on exotic or obsolete formats or processes;

lack or loss of documentation;

uncertainty over intellectual property rights;

short term contracts

lack of skills;

lack of commitment or policy from corporate owners;

legal or other IPR restrictions;

environments whose major versions change faster than typical desktop OS versions;

undocumented OS dependence

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.

Unpublished Research Outputs

Data created in the process of academic research and required to ensure the reproducibility of scholarly research, and significant components of the scholarly record

Action:

Action and Assessment is now Urgent

(Action within 12 months in presence of aggravating conditions)

Assessment Completed:

November 2017

Examples:

shared research community resource eg fishbase.org;

original unpublished research data;

PhD data;

research blogs;

virtual research environments;

Research software;

correspondence between researchers;

grant proposals and agreements;

review comments;

Aggravating Conditions:

single copies;

dependence on device;

dependence on exotic or obsolete formats or processes;

lack or loss of documentation;

uncertainty over intellectual property rights;

lack of institutional mandate or capacity;

lack of disciplinary practice;

political or corporate interference;

lack of credit or incentive to share data;

short term contracts;

Practically Extinct: in the presence of Aggravating Conditions.

Endangered: where good practice can be demonstrated.