6. Rescuing Digital Materials

So far this report has discussed the choices available for digital preservation very much in the sense of forward planning—following a set of logical, ordered steps in order to ensure the preservation of digital material. However, this is not always possible. What if one, or more, of these steps has been omitted? Documentation may be missing. Copying, refreshing or routine back-ups may not have been carried out. What if disaster strikes in the form of fire, flood or accident? Or if media have been allowed to deteriorate to the extent that the data they hold are impaired? How can such resources be recovered? In these cases, preservation takes the form of rescue.