Twenty Years of Preservation:
Digital Preservation Milestones, 2000–2020
1998 (PREPARATORY WORK)
APRIL
Five-year project to build a first-generation production infrastructure for digital library collections, including support for digital preservation activities
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november00/flecker/11flecker.html
1999
MARCH
Functional Requirements for the LDI Repository, Phase 1
https://web.archive.org/web/19980514193504/http://hul.harvard.edu/ldi/
2000 (IN PRODUCTION)
OCTOBER
First object preserved in DRS
Harvard-Yenching Library, Hedda Morrison collection, Buddhist Nun Kneeling at Altar, ca. 1933-1946, HM01.6811
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:198
2001
JANUARY
DRS storage refresh
Migration of archival storage from in-database to attached storage area network (SAN)
FEBURARY
First page-turned (PDS) object preserved in DRS
University Archives, Official Register of Harvard University XXVIII:4, February 24, 1931
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:435151
MAY
DRS Policy Guide, version 1
Guidelines associated with operation and use of the DRS, highlighting digital materials accepted for deposit, services, and the rights and responsibilities of content curators and collection managers
DECEMBER
E-journal article interchange XML DTD
Precursor of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Journal Archiving and Interchange Tag Suite (JAITS) and NISO Journal Article Tag Suite (JATS)
https://doi.org/10.1108/10650750310508126
2002
MARCH
15,000th object preserved in DRS
Schlesinger Library, Daguerreotype portrait of unidentified woman, ca. 1840-1860, 91-M62-1-1z
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:402454
JULY
First Open Collections Project (OCP) preserved in DRS
Baker Library, Women Working: 1800-1930 collection, Edith Abbott's Women In Industry: A Study in American Economic History, 1910
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005113793
OCTOBER
First geospatially-referenced image preserved in DRS
Map Collection, Ch'ing-hai upper Yellow River (Huang He) expedition, 1925-1927, sheet 3 (102°24'22" N, 34°42'26" E; 103°46'36" N, 36°11'21" E), in the Harvard Geospatial Library (HCL)
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:439985
2003
MAY
First biomedical image preserved in DRS
Countway Library, Biomedical Image Library (BIL)
2004
MAY
1 millionth file preserved in DRS
Harvard College Library, Open Collections Program, OCR text of W. Jett Lauck's Diversified Industries, 1911, p. 373
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:199589
AUGUST
First audio recording preserved in DRS
Loeb Music Library, Archive of World Music, Matins for Sunday After the Elevation of the Holy Cross, 1960
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:fhcl.loeb:sa8502894
2005
MAY
Initial release of JHOVE
Free open source file format identification, validation, and characterization tool, consistently the most frequently downloaded in the digital preservation community
https://jhove.openpreservation.org/
OCTOBER
PDF/A standard (ISO 19005-1)
Archival profile of the upquitous PDF format developed under Harvard leadership of the ISO process
https://www.pdfa.org/resource/iso-19005-pdfa/
2006
AUGUST
DRS Policy Guide, version 2.0
Policies associated with the Harvard Library Digital Repository Service (DRS) intended for Harvard collection managers who are using or considering making use of DRS services
2007
APRIL
1 millionth object preserved in DRS
Judaica Collection, Photograph of Yossi Zwecker in "Peter-Pan", JPCDPIZ2565
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:1458442
MAY
Specifications for digitized images and transfer packaging for Google Book Scanning (GBS) project
Technical specifications for TIFF and JPEG 2000 images and METS transfer package, used as the basis for subsequent GBS partner and HathiTrust mass digitization efforts
2008
FEBRUARY
DRS storage refresh
New reliance on SAM/QFS for automated file transfer to mirrored SAN arrays and robotic tape library
MAY
First website preserved in DRS
University Archives, A-Sites collection, Welcome to the Harvard Physics Department Website! February 26, 2007
https://wayback.archive-it.org/org-935/20070226154039/http://www.physics.harvard.edu/
JUNE
First Google-scanned book preserved in DRS
Volume V of The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1884
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101076453057
SEPTEMBER
50 TB preserved in DRS
1.9 million objects, 8.7 million files
NOVEMBER
10 millionth file preserved in DRS
Loeb Music Library, Page-turned image of vocal score of Wagner's Rienzi, p. 231
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Loeb:2251895
2009
JUNE
100 TB preserved in DRS
3.4 million objects, 12.2 million files
2010
JULY
Founding membership in National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA)
Advancing the capacity to preserve our nation's digital resources for the benefit of present and future generations
2011
SPRING
Membership in HathiTrust
Not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving 17+ million digitized items
2012
SPRING
DRS storage refresh
Hardware replacement and addition of anticipated necessary capacity
2013
JUNE
Co-hosted with MIT the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) Boston program
Two 9-month residencies for 10 residents at Boston area stewardship organizations
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/ndsr_boston/home
2014
APRIL
First electronic thesis/dissertation (ETD) preserved in DRS
Daniel Mahefasoa Brady, Mechanisms of Cross-Modal Refinement by Visual Experience, doctoral dissertation, 2012
https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/10033910
DECEMBER
First email preserved in DRS
University Archives, Papers of Lawrence Bogorad collection, February 7, 2002
http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990094156850203941/catalog
2015
MAY
50 millionth file preserved in DRS
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) collection, Master page-turned image, Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, July-December, 1889, p. 21
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FMUS.MCZ:15002367
2016
JANUARY
DRS Policy Guide, version 2.6
Policies associated with the Harvard Library Digital Repository Service (DRS) intended for Harvard collection managers who are using or considering making use of DRS services
https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/LsPUD
JANUARY
Web archiving environmental scan
Description and analysis of 23 international web archiving programs reporting on researcher use of – and impediments to working with – web archives
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:25658314
MARCH
Membership in the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC)
Acquire, preserve and make accessible knowledge and information from the Internet for future generations everywhere, promoting global exchange and international relations
JUNE
Initial release of open-source File Identification Tool Set (FITS)
Free open source tool for identifying and validating file formats, extracting metadata embedded within files, and outputting the metadata in various formats
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/fits
2017
FEBRUARY
First video recording preserved in DRS
Americas, Europe, and Oceania Division, ACT UP Oral History Project collection, Changing the Definition of AIDS
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:30402932
SPRING
Migration of obsolete audio formats
Migration of some 7,000 RealAudio recordings to MP3 and SMIL playlists to AES-60
SPRING
DRS storage refresh
Integration with the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPPC) storage facility
OCTOBER
Harvard University Digital Strategy, version 1.0
Infrastructure for the preservation of and access to digitized and born-digital information, taking a tiered approach to supporting short-, medium-, and long-term needs
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34830922
2018
JANUARY
Largest file preserved in DRS (so far!)
Schlesinger Library, Bernice Sandler appearance on Larry King television show, 1985, video, 568 GB
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:34744480
MARCH
Web Archiving Collection Service (WAX) decommissioned; all content transitioned to Archive-It
WAX decommissioned due to the increasing unsustainable burden of maintenance and enhancement in favor of the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service
https://preservation.library.harvard.edu/web-archives-collections
MAY
400 TB preserved in DRS
9.5 million objects, 81.3 million files
SEPTEMBER
Hosted iPRES 2018, the 15th International Conference on Digital Preservation
Where Art and Science Meet: The Art in Science and the Science in Art, celebrating the first 15 years of iPRES, the premier international conference on digital preservation
OCTOBER
Harvard Library Digital Preservation program
Formally established as independent administrative unit within Preservation Services
https://preservation.library.harvard.edu/digital-preservation
NOVEMBER
Inaugural Digital Preservation Reading Club
Informal, monthly gathering of Library colleagues interested in discussing trends and topics relevant to digital preservation
https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/bLalDg
2019
JULY
DRS Policy Guide, version 4.0
Controlling principles and obligations underlying the long -term preservation of digital resources by the Harvard Library’s Digital Repository Service (DRS)
https://wiki.harvard.edu/confluence/x/V64uD
AUGUST
100 millionth file preserved in DRS
Countway Library, Page-turned image of John Shaw's Observations on the Causes and Early Symptoms of Defects in the Form of the Spine, Chest, and Shoulders, and the Means of Correcting them ..., 1827, p. 88
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HMS.Count:41201147
SEPTEMBER
10 millionth object preserved in DRS
Fine Arts Library, JPEG 2000 image of map of Orange and Vaison la Romaine, from Jean Boule’s Orange, Vaison-la-Romaine, Carpentras: le Mont Ventoux: guide historique et touristique, 1980, p. 6
https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:41325359
SEPTEMBER
Hosted New England regional Archive-It Meetup
Forty participants, 22 outside of Harvard, representing 16 institutions across the greater New England region, sharing web archiving goals, projects, ideas, and questions
https://communications.library.harvard.edu/blog/preservation-services-ho...
OCTOBER
Membership in the Open Preservation Foundation (OPF)
Global non-profit membership organization working to advance shared standards and solutions for the long-term preservation of digital content
2020
JULY
First outsourced preservation storage
Large-scale Judaica Library video collection hosted at the USC Digital Repository for low-cost, high-density archival storage
https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:FHCL:100008850
OCTOBER
Twenty years of digital preservation at Harvard!
55 contributing Library programs, 318 thematic collections, 19 content genres, 90 format types, 10.2 million objects, 106 million files, 479 TB