A literature review: What exactly should we preserve? How scholars address this question and where is the gap

As well as gaining a deeper understanding of the changes that we make, we need to know more about exactly what it is we are trying to preserve. What characteristics, attributes, essential elements, significant properties – many terms are used – of digital materials do we seek to retain access to? What is the ‘essence’ of digital materials? Whereas this question was a simple one to answer in the non-digital context, where typically we sought to conserve and preserve the original artifact, for digital materials it is not so straightforward. (76)