This Digital Preservation and Technology Timeline was designed by IPCSR and Cornell University for the Digital Preservation Management Tutorial. The timeline was designed to identify significant precedents and milestones- professional, organizational and technological, to illustrate the combination of developments, events and decisions that got us to where we are today, and to help place new and emerging technologies into context for digital preservation programs.
Digital preservation is not a new concern: it began when the first computers were introduced. A number of national archives, data archives, and other cultural institutions in many countries established digital preservation programs as early as the late 1960s. Those programs reflected the prevailing technology and digital content of that time. Each generation of technology brings changes in potential capabilities to both create and preserve digital content—and will affect a suitable institutional response.
Being aware of the context of relevant technology contributes to identifying and weighing options for preserving digital content. The path technology takes from idea, to development, to implementation, to mainstream use, and, in most cases, to obsolescence is an important cycle to appreciate. Knowing something about where a technology came from influences the preservation approach that might work best in a particular organizational setting or for particular digital materials.