Preserving Digital Images and Data: Procedural, Policy, and Privacy Issues

21st century media pose challenges to preserving the historical record. Collecting institutions need guidance and new strategies in order to save selective cellphone video, GPS data, and video from surveillance cameras, drones, and police bodycams. In this Talk, Howard Besser will discuss how saving this type of material poses procedural, policy, and privacy issues. And he will demonstrate the ongoing tension between preservation and privacy. The presentation will include a case-study of preserving cellphone videos from the Occupy Movement, and a close look at police body cam videos.

Howard Besser is Professor Emeritus at New York University where he founded the MA program in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation. He has over 30 years of experience as an Information Studies educator, and has published scores of articles and conducted scores of workshops. In 2009 he was named to Library of Congress's select list of "Pioneers of Digital Preservation".  He has taught courses in digital preservation and in surveillance video. He designed the “Policy” course for the Society of American Archivists Digital Archives Specialist Certificate Program. Besser is co-founder of the Library Freedom Institute, a nationwide project to train “Privacy Advocates” to teach digital privacy skills and advocate for enlightened privacy policies.