Digital curation: The emergence of a new discipline

As digital material has become increasingly ubiquitous in the day-to-day lives of normal people, the realisation that it needs to be carefully managed to ensure its survival and continuing access has gradually grown. In the UK cultural and educational sectors, original digital preservation efforts focussed on ensuring that material survived technical obsolescence and organisational mismanagement. Preservation implied a passive state, where material would be mothballed in an inaccessible ?dark archive? to ensure that it retained its integrity and authenticity. Over the last few years, the focus has shifted to ensuring that digital material is managed throughout its lifecycle so that it remains accessible to those who need to use it. Metadata is used to create an audit trail, and control authentication procedures ensuring that it cannot be altered or accessed by those not authorised to do so. This is Digital Curation - management and preservation of digital material to ensure accessibility over the long-term.