I was very interested in the idea of stewardship following our class discussion. Particularly, its role in the process of digital publishing. In The Complexity of the Digital Text, Okkerse mentions the “unseen complexity involved in digital publishing”. Perhaps the most unseen and complex occupation in the realm of digital publishing is stewardship. According to Jaime McCurry, who’s residency project focuses on digital preservation at the Folger Library, digital stewardship “encompasses all activities related to the care and management of digital objects over time” (McCurry). McCurry details the widely different tasks required in digital stewardship, which include everything from “digital asset conception, creation, appraisal, description, and preservation, to accessibility, reuse, and beyond” (McCurry). Each of these is a key component in the digital object lifecycle, which is exactly what it sounds like: the life cycle of a digital object.
The process of digital stewardship differs greatly for various types of digital objects. For example, the process of preserving and updating an audio file is much different than that of an image, video, or text, because each medium has different file formats. Multimedia projects are even more complex, because they require multiple processes due to their various media types. Similarly, the process for born-digital and non-born-digital objects is different. Born-digital objects are digital files that were created originally on a digital platform. Non-born-digital objects are not originally created digitally. Therefore, in order to be able to preserve a medium that is not born-digital, the medium must first become digital, which is another complex process that differs according to the type of medium.
In “What Does 2016 Hold for Digital Publishing?”, Albanese and Reid mention that “it’s also important to note that much of the innovation in publishing is not consumer facing” (5). Just as media is evolving, and digital platforms must evolve alongside them to keep up, digital stewardship also must evolve. McCurry explains that “understanding what types of materials you have on hand is the first step in calculating a proper plan of action” for digital preservation (McCurry). Digital stewardship may be a widely unseen function of digital publishing, but it is a vital piece of the process.
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