Potential Strategies for Preserving Complex DH Projects

Digital Humanities (DH) projects are often complex and pose a challenge for digital preservation. Best practices and standard techniques for preserving combinations of databases, user interfaces, and documentation does not yet exist. At Virginia Tech University Libraries (VTUL), we have a group of faculty dedicated to developing and sustaining DH projects ranging from small online exhibits to large research projects. As support for these projects develops, a major component is to incorporate preservation planning early on in the process, including a preservation plan, sustainability plan, and general documentation. Another component is researching and testing technical requirements for packaging and maintaining DH project elements.

The goal of this presentation is to outline our strategy of early planning and documentation to preserve DH projects effectively. We will discuss our current practices and highlight involvement with one or two projects and explore how this may be used as a model for future work.