Need of Legislation and Digital Preservation Policy Framework in Indian Context

Abstract

This paper provides a comparison between the American and Indian digital preservation programmesbased on the essential building blocks such as national legislation for digital preservation, basic legal framework,national digital preservation initiative, digital preservation tools, standards and practice guidelines, digitalrepository infrastructure, and audit and certification. Selected digital preservation policies of the organisationsfrom UK, USA, Canada, and Australia are also analysed. The gap analysis shows that in the Indian context,legislation on digital preservation of electronic records and institutional digital preservation policies are themissing elements, which need to be addressed on high priority. The preservation policy is a mandatoryrequirement for the audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories.

http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.32.4.2526