Digital obsolescence
[5] In reality, the mediums utilized for digital information storage and access present unique preservation challenges compared to many of the physical formats traditionally handled by archives and libraries.
Paper materials and printed media migrated to film-based microform, for example, can be accessible for centuries if created and maintained under ideal conditions, compared to mere decades of physical stability offered by magnetic tape and disk or optical formats.
Little professional thought in the fields of library and archival science was directed toward the topic of digital obsolescence as the use of computerized systems grew more widespread and commonplace, but much discussion began to emerge in the 1990s.
Hardware concerns are two-fold in archival and library fields: in addition to the physical storage medium of magnetic tape, optical disc, or solid-state computer memory, a separate electronic device is often required for information access.
Cassette decks and disk drives rely on the functionality of precision-manufactured moving parts that are susceptible to damages caused by repetitive physical stress and foreign materials like dust and grime.
[15] While in possession of indecipherable notes written by long-departed or deceased programmers, the computer hardware and source code needed to correctly run the decoding software had been replaced and disposed of by the agency.
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory acknowledged in 1990, following a one-year search that located a compatible data tape reader at a United States Air Force base, that a missing part might need to be rebuilt in-house if a replacement could not be sourced from computer salvage yards.
One example of a developer cancelling an instance of planned obsolescence occurred in 2008, when Microsoft retracted intentions of an Office service package dropping support for a number of older file formats, due to the intensity of public outcry.
A popular option for WYSIWYG document editing on C/PM and MS-DOS operating systems during the 1980s, a delayed port to Windows 1.0 caused WordStar to lose significant market share to competitors WordPerfect and Microsoft Word by 1991.
Bitstream copying (or data backup) is a foundational operation often employed before many other practices, and facilitates establishing the redundancy of multiple storage locations: refreshing is the transportation of unchanging data, frequently between identical or functionally similar storage formats, while migration converts the format or coding of digital information to enable moving it between different operating systems and hardware generations.
[4] Following recovery, some data, such as documentation, can be converted to analog backups in the form of physically accessible copies, while executable code can be launched through emulation platforms within modern hardware and software environments designed to simulate obsolete computer systems.
[5] The UK National Archives published a second revision to their Information Assurance Maturity Model (IAMM) in 2009, overviewing digital obsolescence risk management for institutions and businesses.
CERN began its Digital Memory Project in 2016, aiming to preserve decades of the organization’s media output through standardized initiatives.
[30] On 1 January 2021, Adobe ended support and blocked content from running in its Flash Player in response to the advancements in open standards for the Web.
