Preservation and service in the digital preservation practice of the Hungarian national library

Abstract

The paper analyzes the digital preservation practices of the HNMPCC National Széchényi Library of Hungary, and through it, the status of digital preservation. Digital preservation is necessary as digitalization per se does not guarantee conservation. NSZL aims to implement the internationally accepted OAIS standard. The preservation of digital documents has some parallels with the preservation of physical documents, although the conflict of interest between preservation and service is less direct, since digital documents can be reproduced in any arbitrary number and format. This paper analyzes the methods and tools used in the digital preservation practice of the NSZL. Documents are matched with the metadata and prepared to be preserved by the in-house developed DOTE software. NSZL uses DSpace 5.5 as a preservation system, although that was originally intended to be a service-focused repository, and it cannot support all preservation functions. There are plans to implement Archivematica and to use its functions in preparing digital documents for preservation.