11 Great Digital Preservation Photos for 2013

Curiously, most of us in the digital memory business are hesitant to visually document our own work. Possibly this has to do with the perceived nature of the enterprise, which involves tasks that may seem routine.  But pictures tell an important story, and I set about finding a few that depicted some of the digital preservation focal points for the past year.

I did a Flickr search for the words “digital” and “preservation” and limited the results to photos taken in 2013. I also limited the results to “only search within Creative Commons-licensed content” and “find content to modify, adapt, or build upon.” There were 2 to 3 dozen results. While most fell into a couple of common categories, I was pleased to find 11 that struck me as especially engaging, unusual or otherwise interesting.

And while digitization is only a first step in digital preservation, I included a couple of shots that depict digital reformatting activities.

Caritat room, Biblioteca de Catalunya. Unitat de  Digitalització. From the ANADP 2013 meeting in Barcelona, by Ciro Llueca, on Flickr

Caritat room, Biblioteca de Catalunya. Unitat de Digitalització. From the ANADP 2013 meeting in Barcelona, by Ciro Llueca, on Flickr

Long-Term Preservation of Digital Art, by transmediate, on Flickr

Long-Term Preservation of Digital Art, by transmediate, on Flickr

Main Room, Biblioteca de Catalunya. Unitat de Digitalització, from ANADP 2013, by Ciro

Main Room, Biblioteca de Catalunya. Unitat de Digitalització, from ANADP 2013, by Ciro Llueca, on Flickr

At Personal Digital Archiving  2013, by Leslie Johnston, on Flickr

At Personal Digital Archiving 2013, by Leslie Johnston, on Flickr

With George "The Fat Man" Sanger at Personal Digital Archiving 2013, by Wlef70, on Flickr

With George “The Fat Man” Sanger at Personal Digital Archiving 2013, by Wlef70, on Flickr

Introducing the Archivematica Digital Preservation System, by Metropolitan New York Library Council, on Flickr

Introducing the Archivematica Digital Preservation System, by Metropolitan New York Library Council, on Flickr

Preservation of Tibetan books, Digital Dharma, by Wonderlane, on Flickr

Preservation of Tibetan books, Digital Dharma, by Wonderlane, on Flickr

Posters, Biblioteca de Catalunya. Unitat de Digitalització, from ANADP 2013, by Ciro Llueca, on Flickr

Posters, Biblioteca de Catalunya. Unitat de Digitalització, from ANADP 2013, by Ciro Llueca, on Flickr

PlaceWorld is the result of collaboration between  artists, social and computer scientists undertaken as  part of the eSCAPE Project, by Daniel Rehn, on Flickr

PlaceWorld is the result of collaboration between artists, social and computer scientists undertaken as part of the eSCAPE Project, by Daniel Rehn, on Flickr

Visualisation Persist: Sustainability of the Information Society, by Elco van Staveren, on Flickr

Visualisation Persist: Sustainability of the Information Society, by Elco van Staveren, on Flickr

Digitization Project at Radio Mogadishu, Somalia, by United Nations Photo, on Flickr

Digitization Project at Radio Mogadishu, Somalia, by United Nations Photo, on Flickr