Modular emulation as a long-term preservation strategy for digital objects

The use of emulation as a preservation strategy is often looked upon with skepticism. Although it may be the only way to render digital objects authentically in the future, emulation is thought to be too technically challenging and therefore too expensive and time-consuming. This line of thought has thus far prevented emulation from being developed for preservation purposes. However, the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) and the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands are of the opinion that emulation-based preservation can be worth-while and needs further development and testing. This paper presents the results of a preliminary phase of the emulation project conducted at the KB. It explains and evaluates existing emulators and proposes a new model for emulation called modular emulation. This model provides the basis for the development of a working prototype in the future.