Appraising digital records for long-term preservation

This paper aims to extract lessons from archivists’ experience of appraising electronic records that are likely to have wider application in the preservation of other digital materials, including scientific data. It relies mainly on the work of the Appraisal Task Force of the InterPARES project on long-term preservation of authentic electronic records to develop a picture of the process of appraisal. It concludes that the aspects of assessment of authenticity, determination of the feasibility of preservation, and monitoring electronic records as they are maintained in the live environment are likely to find counterparts in attempts to appraise digital objects for long-term preservation in the scientific community. It also argues that the activities performed during appraisal constitute the first vital step in the process of preservation of digital materials.