Papers from the WebWise 2007: Eighth Annual Conference on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World are available in the July issue of the peer-reviewed internet journal First Monday. The conference’s theme was ‘Stewardship in the digital age’. The papers explore how to enhance preservation and access to cultural heritage in digital form, including preserving:

• physical objects and intangible forms (language, ritual, etc) of cultural heritage
• digital surrogates used to encapsulate this heritage for access and preservation purposes
• art, music, literature, film, and other creative expressions that are ‘born digital’.

The papers report on projects and case studies in digital preservation, new tools and practices to help with preservation efforts and the challenges ahead. In her wrap-up of the conference’s themes, Diane Zorich writes:

The most overarching theme [of the conference] can be characterized by the aphorism ‘everything old is new again.’ The concepts of curation, preservation, and access discussed throughout the conference are actually age old traditions rooted in our institutions’ missions and core values. Putting the word ‘digital’ in front of these concepts means new challenges, not new changes, to our missions and values.

If this is the space you work in, this issue of First Monday will be a good read.

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