Digital Preservation 101: A 2026 Guide for Collections Managers
Scanning your collection is only step one. Ensuring those bytes are readable in 50 years is the real challenge. Here is a primer on formats, metadata, and the '3-2-1 rule' of storage.
I often hear clients say, "We have digitized our collection," only to find they have a hard drive full of compressed JPEGs with filenames like `IMG_0404.jpg`.
Digital files are brittle. Formats become obsolete, hard drives rot, and metadata gets lost. For heritage institutions, Digital Preservation is about ensuring that the digital surrogate survives just as long as the physical original.
The Formats That Matter in 2026
Proprietary formats are the enemy of longevity. If you need special software to open a file today, you won't be able to open it in 20 years.
- For 3D Geometry: glTF (The "JPEG of 3D") and OBJ (The ancient reliable standard).
- For Point Clouds/Splats: PLY (Standard, open).
- For Images: TIFF (Uncompressed master) and WebP/AVIF (For delivery).
The Raw Data is King
When we do Photogrammetry or Gaussian Splatting, the final model is an interpretation of the data. The data itself is the set of source photographs.
Always archive the source photos. Algorithms improve every year. In 2030, we might be able to re-process your 2025 photos to create a model with 10x the detail. If you only keep the model, you lose that potential.
The 3-2-1 Rule
Standard IT practice applies doubly to heritage data:
- 3 copies of the data
- 2 different media types (e.g., Cloud + Local NAS)
- 1 copy off-site (in case of fire or flood)
Metadata: The Label on the Digital Box
A file without metadata is a mystery. Embedding IPTC data or sidecar XML files ensures that even if your database crashes, the file itself knows what it is.