Software Preservation: An Introduction to Issues and Challenges

Many Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMs) have undertaken digital preservation initiatives. Recently increased attention has been placed on expanding this efforts beyond preserving textual documents and images. One aspect of digital preservation that has been receiving increased attention is persevering software. Software preservation and how it differs from the presentation of other digital objects will be discussed in this column. This discussion will include an overview of some of the issues and challenges related to software preservation. Some common strategies for preserving software will also be reviewed.