DPI: The Digital Preservation Imperative – What You Need To Know

David McKnight
McGill University

Abstract
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As research libraries acquire and create digital content, Digital Preservation and Asset Management comes to the forefront as one of the most important professional issues that library professionals must face. In essence, each institution must have in place policies and practices which will insure that digital assets are refreshed, migrated and preserved to insure long term access. This is the Digital Preservation Imperative. For the sake of this paper, the author will outline the issues, standards, costs, policies and practices associated with Digital Preservation. The author concludes that research libraries must act responsibly to insure that the digital content they acquire or create today is preserved for future access.

Biography
Currently, David McKnight is the Director of the Digital Collections Program, McGill University Libraries. Since 1997, he has produced more than thirty scholarly digital collections. He frequently presents papers at conferences on the subject of digital libraries.