Introduction

Developing workflows for digital preservation is a key way to actively manage the digital records you are responsible for. In this workflows guidance, we refer to ‘digital content’ or ‘content’ – this is what we hope to preserve. Digital preservation literature often calls this ‘digital objects’.

The guidance will show you which steps are ‘essential’ and you may prefer to follow only these steps. After all, it is better to do something, rather than nothing. We are not promoting a ‘one size fits all’ approach and expect archives to use and adapt the guidance depending on the needs of their organisation. Each step includes links to software and further guidance such as links to documentation, blogs and videos.

The guidance is arranged in four sections covering the following workflows:

This guidance is also available to download in Word or PDF format as a reference copy, allowing you to adapt it to your own organisation’s needs. In these versions, you will find templates in the appendix that can be presented to your IT departments to make a case for installation of some of the key pieces of software and hardware.

The following summarises the software you may require to carry out these workflows.

Beginner

Intermediate

Same as beginner, plus:

Advanced

Same as intermediate, plus: