Digital Curation

The curation of digital content encompasses a wide array of policies and practices that ensure the ongoing usability and accessibility of digital information. The processes related to digital curation include working with the originators of the content (whether data, text, images, or other) to document key aspects about it that will facilitate its later use by others. Libraries or other stewards need to keep a record of the technical environment in which the content was created, its coding scheme, standards used, and other pertinent metadata. They also need to develop procedures for monitoring the ongoing usability of the content as technology platforms evolve. Technical, social, economic, and policy issues are all important components of digital curation.