Project Mycelium

In addition to selection, infrastructure choices have a significant impact on sustainability as digital preservation has the potential to consume many environmental resources through computation and storage. My research output in this area developed from a lightning talk in 2018 to a full presentation in 2019, a journal article in 2021, and an active research and development project at MetaArchive in 2022.

These efforts attempt to modernize digital preservation technology, adopting strategies developed in the commercial sector in the past 20-years that have been eschewed by the cultural heritage sector. Libraries have been searching for solutions to these infrastructure challenges for almost thirty years and have attempted to solve them with boutique and siloed solutions; Fortune 500 companies must now regularly deal with managing vast amounts of data at global scales with integrity and the tools they have developed are more efficient, mainstream, and easier to adapt. Without change, the economic and environmental costs of digital preservation are too large to protect long-term access to digital materials.