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Towards a Theory of Information Preservation

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Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries (ECDL 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2163))

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Abstract

Digital preservation is a pressing challenge to the library community. In this paper, we describe the initial results of our efforts towards understanding digital (as well as traditional) preservation problems from first principles. Our approach is to use the language of mathematics to formalize the concepts that are relevant to preservation. Our theory of preservation spaces draws upon ideas from logic and programming language semantics to describe the relationship between concrete objects and their information contents. We also draw on game theory to show how objects change over time as a result of uncontrollable environment effects and directed preservation actions. In the second half of this paper, we show how to use the mathematics of universal algebra as a language for objects whose information content depends on many components. We use this language to describe both migration and emulation strategies for digital preservation.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850

    James Cheney & Carl Lagoze

  2. Cornell University Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850

    Peter Botticelli

Authors
  1. James Cheney
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  2. Carl Lagoze
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  3. Peter Botticelli
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Crete, Leof. Knossou, P.O. Box 1470, 71409, Heraklion, Greece

    Panos Constantopoulos

  2. Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, Institute of Computer Science, Vassilika Vouton, P.O. Box 1385, 71110, Heraklion, Greece

    Panos Constantopoulos

  3. Department of Computer and Information Science, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Ingeborg T. Sølvberg

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cheney, J., Lagoze, C., Botticelli, P. (2001). Towards a Theory of Information Preservation. In: Constantopoulos, P., Sølvberg, I.T. (eds) Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries. ECDL 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2163. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44796-2_29

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44796-2_29

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42537-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44796-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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