Digital Preservation Policy

April 2026 (Roig Blay, Hanke)

Executive Summary

The University of Texas Libraries (UTL) is committed to the long-term stewardship of the digital assets entrusted to its care in support of the learning, teaching, and research mission of the University. This policy establishes principles and responsibilities for ensuring the authenticity, reliability, integrity, and usability of digital assets under the Libraries’ stewardship. It applies to digital content selected for permanent retention, whether born-digital or digitized, and defines the framework within which preservation activities are conducted.

Purpose

UTL implements a comprehensive digital preservation program that provides lifecycle planning and ensures the continued access, usability, and sustainability of born-digital and digitized materials for the foreseeable future, in alignment with the goals and objectives established in UT and UTL’s mission and with the Libraries’ stature as a major national research institution. UTL seeks to actively mitigate and decrease the risk of digital data loss that could occur through bit rot, data corruption, media degradation, media obsolescence, or file format obsolescence. The Libraries’ approach to digital preservation activities is rooted in national and international standards and industry best practices.

Mandate

UT Libraries’ digital preservation program is grounded in the University’s mission as a major research institution and the Libraries’ responsibility as stewards of scholarly and cultural resources. The program fulfills obligations arising from:

  • The Libraries’ strategic priorities and institutional mission
  • Professional standards for research libraries
  • Donor agreements and contractual commitments
  • Legal and regulatory requirements applicable to specific collections

Scope

This policy applies to digital content selected for long-term preservation by UT Libraries, including:

  • Born-digital and digitized material acquired through collecting activities
  • Digital content created or managed under formal stewardship agreements
  • Associated metadata necessary for discovery, access, and preservation

Exclusions to this policy include administrative records subject to UT’s Record Retention Schedule (UTRRS) and commercially licensed content preserved by third-party vendors under contractual agreement.

UTL cannot promise to preserve all types of digital objects, and it cannot promise to preserve digital objects in their original form for future use. Collection decisions must consider the technical feasibility of future use and must accommodate the need for UTL to process and modify digital data for continued stewardship.

Detailed selection criteria and procedures are defined in the UTL Collection Development Policy, Digital Collection Development Policy, and the UTL Metadata Policy.

Guiding Principles

UT Libraries’ digital preservation program is guided by the following principles:

Foundational principles

  • Digital preservation work is perpetual in its nature, and it necessitates an ongoing support system consisting of an organizational strategy, a strong technological infrastructure, and sustainable resources.
  • UT Libraries will comply with existing standards and follow industry best practices. All digital preservation policies, strategies, and workflows will be informed by the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model (ISO, 14721:2012).
  • UT Libraries will support and contribute to the development of the digital preservation field.

Operational principles

  • UT Libraries will provide a scalable, reliable, and sustainable digital preservation infrastructure.
  • UT Libraries will maintain an access-controlled, curated, digital archive for the long-term stewardship of its digital assets.
  • UT Libraries will maintain multiple copies of its digital assets in geographically distinct locations.
  • UT Libraries will ensure the integrity of all digital assets within the digital archive and store said digital assets with the required metadata necessary for future access.
  • UT Libraries will prioritize transparency and interoperability in preservation practices.
  • UT Libraries will ensure proper and consistent documentation of all digital preservation procedures and practices to ensure stewardship of institutional knowledge.
  • The digital preservation program will contribute to the collective knowledge of UT Libraries, and foster collaboration on workflows and documentation between units.

Roles and Responsibilities

Digital preservation responsibilities are distributed across UT Libraries:

  • Governance: Strategic direction and policy approval rest with senior leadership
  • Program management: Day-to-day oversight is assigned to designated staff within the Digital Stewardship Unit
  • Content stewardship: Librarians and archivists across library units identify and transfer materials for preservation
  • Technical infrastructure: Libraries IT provides and maintains the technical infrastructure supporting preservation activities

Specific roles and workflows are documented in the Digital Preservation Procedures Manual.

Review Cycle

UT Libraries digital preservation policy will be reviewed at least every three years or as needed in response to significant changes in technology, standards, or institutional priorities.

Definitions

Bit rot: the decay of digital data over time resulting in loss of information of a digital asset.

Born digital: materials that originate from a digital source and do not have an analog equivalent.1

Dark digital archive: a digital archive that has limited access through user restrictions.

Data authenticity: relating to the trustworthiness of a digital asset through the verification of data provenance and metadata, ensuring that the asset is what it purports to be.

Data corruption: relating to the damage or loss of digital data through bit rot, media degradation, or malware, among other causes.

Data integrity: relating to the trustworthiness of a digital asset through the verification of its data bits, ensuring that it has not been altered from its original form over time.

Digital preservation: series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary, beyond the limits of media failure or technological and organizational change.2

Digitized or digitally reformatted: materials that originate from an analog source, and a digital surrogate has been created to represent it.

File format obsolescence: the risk of digital file formats becoming unusable and rendering digital objects inaccessible due to phasing out of technology and lack of vendor and community support.

Media degradation: the decay of storage media over time resulting in the inability to access data stored.

Media obsolescence: the risk of storage media becoming unusable and rendering digital objects inaccessible due to phasing out of technology and lack of vendor and community support.

  1. Digital Preservation Handbook, 2nd Edition, Digital Preservation Coalition © 2015. https://www.dpconline.org/handbook ↩
  2. What is Digital Preservation? Digital Preservation Coalition. (n.d.). https://www.dpconline.org/digipres/what-is-digipres ↩
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