Digital Archiving and Preservation Strategies for Modern and Contemporary Literary Works

Abstract

Digital archiving and preservation have emerged as one of the key strategies of conservation of contemporary and up-to-date literary documents in a period of rapid technical transformation and the multiplicity of born-digital texts. In contrast to the old print productions, the contemporary literary productions are more and more in digital form, e-books, web journals, blogs, multimedia storytelling, and texts in social media, which are inherently exposed to technology obsolescence, information degradation, and dependency on a platform. The paper discusses the most significant strategies, technologies, and models used in the process of digital archiving and long-term preservation of modern and contemporary literature. It compares internationally accepted preservation strategies, such as Open Archival Information System (OAIS), trusted digital repositories, as well as metadata standards, like Dublin Core and PREMIS, with emphasis on their role in preserving authenticity, access, and intellectual integrity. Practical preservation methods are also discussed in the research, such as format migration, emulation, redundancy and cloud-based storage, and the special focus is on the trade-offs between technological efficiency and ethical and legal issues, such as copyright, authorial intent and cultural sensitivity. Moreover, the article discusses the importance of libraries, digital humanities projects and cultural organizations to maintain inclusive literary archives reflecting different views and emerging story forms. The paper unites the application of technology, institution and policy-based solutions in laying out the relevance of sustainable digital preservation solutions in ensuring continuity of the literary heritage, as well as in facilitating research, teaching and creative reinterpretation in future. Lastly, the paper demonstrates that successful digital archiving is not only a process, but also a culture necessary to maintain the literary history of the modern and contemporary world.