Introduction PERSIST (Platform to Enhance the Sustainability of the Information Society Trans globally) is a collaborative project of UNESCO, IFLA, ICA and other partners to address globally pressing questions on the preservation of digital information in the public domain related to strategies, technology, selection issues, and roles and responsibilities. It works under the assumption that on these issues a high-level global policy discussion is needed between heritage institutions, IT-industry and government, and that UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program is a unique platform to conduct that discussion.
The idea for PERSIST was born at the Conference The Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation in Vancouver (September 2012). The Declaration adopted by its participants states that
there is a pressing need to establish a roadmap proposing solutions, agreements and policies, that ensure long term access and trustworthy preservation. This roadmap should address issues like open government, open data, open access and electronic government. It should dovetail with national and international priorities and be in full agreement with human rights.
PERSIST was launched as a project at the Conference A Digital Roadmap for Long
Term Access to Digital Heritage in The Hague in December 2013. In its initial stage the project is coordinated by the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO and financed by the Netherlands Ministry for Education, Culture and Science.
The work for PERSIST is divided into three task forces: content, technology and policy. For the technology taskforce ‘preservation strategies’ has been chosen as the first subject of attention. Responsibility for the work in the technology task force is divided between Margriet van Gorsel (National Archives of the Netherlands), Natasa MilicFrayling (Microsoft Research), Jeanine Tieleman (DEN), Michiel Leenaars (Internet Society Netherlands), Jonas Palm (Memory of the World Sub-Committee on Technology) and Vincent Wintermans (Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO).