UNESCO Releases Vancouver Declaration on Digitization and Preservation
From the UNESCO Web Site:
The introduction and implementation of measures for greater protection of digital assets is the focus of the UNESCO/UBC Vancouver Declaration, The Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation. Adopted by the participants of the international conference held last September in Vancouver (Canada), the Declaration has now been released in its final format in English and French.
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More than 500 participants who included heritage professionals, representatives from academia, government and the information field, legal specialists and others debated strategies that can contribute to the introduction or implementation of measures for greater protection of digital assets.
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Among its recommendations are:
- a cohesive, conceptual and practical digital strategy to address the management and preservation of recorded information in all its forms in the digital environment;
- digital preservation frameworks and practices for management and preservation;
- an international legal framework of copyright exceptions and limitations to ensure preservation of and access to cultural heritage in digital format;
- closer collaboration among international professional associations and other international bodies to develop academic curricula for digitization and digital preservation, and implement training programmes for management and preservation of digital information;
- multi-stakeholder forum for the discussion of standardization in digitization and digital preservation practices, including the establishment of digital format registries;
- strategies for open government and open data that address the need to create and maintain trust and reliance in digital government records;
- cooperation with the private sector for the development of products that facilitate theĀ long term retention and preservation of information recorded in a digital format.
- Through this conference, UNESCO has shown its leadership in the area of long-term preservation. The challenge will now be to follow up and ensure continued political and intellectual leadership in this field.
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UNESCO/UBC Vancouver Declaration (2012)
The Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation by LJ’s infoDOCKET
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Data Files, Digital Preservation, Management and Leadership, News, Preservation

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.