Izolo, the new UCT-wide digital preservation service, ensures that digital files created today can be found and used tomorrow. In recognition of imperatives around the safeguarding of digital data, UCT Libraries have implemented a Digital Preservation Strategy . During 2020, UCT Libraries will be launching Izolo, running on Arkivum Perpetua Usability and Preservation modules, to provide business-process driven, structured data preservation workflows for the entire campus community.
Digital Preservation is concerned with providing long-term access to digital objects, preserving continuity in form as well as functionality. It is not simply a backup of data, because long-term digital preservation must consider format, software and hardware obsolescence, among other issues. Although it is possible for anyone to read a page from a book written 100 years ago, the same is not true of (e.g.) a floppy disk containing WordPerfect files from twenty years ago.
