Preservation is one of the core values of the library profession

and is, according the American Library Association, central to libraries

and librarianship. Methods of preserving materials, and the materials
that are being preserved are changing and have changed with the rise
of new technologies. The article I read for this assignment examines
how new digital preservation technologies have faired in developing
countries such as Ghana in their efforts to preserve cultural heritage
traditions.
The American Library Associations policy on preservation states
that its goal is based on ensuring that every person has access to
information at the time needed and in a useable format. ALA affirms
that the preservation of library resources protects the public's right to
the free flow of information as embodied in the First Amendment to the
Constitution and the Library Bill of Rights.
The Association supports the preservation of information published in
all media and formats. The Association affirms that the preservation of
information resources is central to libraries and librarianship. 1 In
recent years, digital preservation has become a major new method of
preservation in the library profession. The ALA defines digital
preservation as the practice that combines policies, strategies and
actions to ensure access to reformatted and born digital content
regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change.
1 http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preserv/01alaprespolicy,accessed10/10/13

The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of

authenticated content over time.2

In the article Stakeholders Attitudes Towards the Management and

Preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage Resources in Ghana, authors
Eric Boamah, Danel G. Dorner and Gilliam Oliver analyze the various
factors influencing the management and preservation efforts of digital
cultural heritage resources in Ghana. The paper identifies four main
factors affecting digital cultural heritage preservation (DPCH) including
attitudinal, resources, policy and management factors. The article
focuses on the first factor, the attitudinal factors that affect heritage
preservation.
Eric Boamah is a PhD candidate at the School of Information
Management at Victoria University of Wellington, Australia. He is
originally from Ghana and obtained his Bachelors Degree in
Information Sciences from the University of Ghana. This paper was
written in 2012 under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Dorner, PhD
program director at Victoria University, and Gillian Oliver, Senior
Lecturer at the University.

The article begins by discussing the importance of cultural

heritage resources for a country and its collective memory. Cultural
2http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preserv/defdigpres0408,accessed10/10/13

heritage resources include both tangible objects such as monuments,

manuscripts, and paintings, and intangible material such as oral
histories and traditions, rituals and belief systems. These cultural
resources form a collective national memory and thus it is important
for nations to develop a national approach for methods to preserve
them for past and future generations.

In recent years, institutions and

libraries have been making greater use of digital preservation methods

to preserve cultural heritage resources, which the article refers to as
DPCH (digital preservation of cultural heritage). Developing countries
such as Ghana have struggled with creating and maintaining DPCH
despite the proliferation of digital technologies throughout the country
and the desire to preserve cultural traditions.4 Four major factors have
impeded the preservation efforts in Ghana, according to the authors:
attitudinal, resources, policy and management.

The article focuses on the attitudinal factors that have inhibited DPCH
in Ghana. These include stakeholders interest, traditional behaviors,
political behaviors and various perceptions towards preservation. 5
According to the authors interview data, they found a general lack of

3 Boamah, E., Dorner, D. G., & Oliver, G. (2012). Stakeholders

Attitudes Towards the Management and Preservation of Digital Cultural
Heritage Resources in Ghana. Australian Academic & Research
Libraries, 43(4), 301.
4 Ibid, 302, 308.
5 Ibid, 307.
3

interest towards information management and the use of new

technologies. The interviewees expressed a lack of interest by
stakeholders in many forms and though they expressed interest in
their cultural heritage, they were uninterested in information
management. Additionally, Boamah found that there was a general
lack of interest and respect for textual information and that people
typically felt antipathy towards reading and a lack of regard for
libraries, archives and other cultural institutions in Ghana.6
Political interference and political deception is a major factor hindering
DPCH in Ghana. The authors provide examples of many unfulfilled
campaign promises in which schools were promised laptops and never
received them, or cases in which a current government intentionally
discontinue initiatives by previous governments in order to discredit
them. All these actions inhibit progress and efforts to promote digital
preservation.
Conflicting interests in the information profession in Ghana have
inhibited efforts towards better heritage and information management.
According to Boamah, The Ghana Library Board and the Ghana Library
Association do not agree about ideas related to the establishment of a
National Library in Ghana. Conflicting ideas and interests with the
profession make it difficult to make improvements in information
management in the country.

6 Ibid, 311.
4

A major factor affecting DPCH in Ghana are negative traditional

and cultural attitudes. Certain traditions prohibit the custodians of
culture7 the chiefs, queen-mothers and priests, from interacting with
the young people. The elders are wonderful sources of cultural
information and memory but because they cannot interact with
younger generations, the information is lost to the youth and the
young people of Ghana begin to lose interest in it. The cultural
diversity of Ghana should be celebrated, however this diversity has
created a history of tribal conflicts that prevents various tribes from
interacting with each other and creating a unified national heritage for
Ghana.
Though there are certainly factors that affect digital cultural
preservation efforts in Ghana, there are factors that help to enable it as
well. There is interest in new technologies in the country and a clear
interest in their culture and traditions, which will help efforts to
preserve them.

Digital preservation efforts within the United States, or any other

country, will likely face similar issues depending on the location. One
must consider the interests of the people whose history is being
preserved, and for what purposes. When undertaking digital
preservation of cultural heritage, one needs to consider how to

7 Ibid, 312.
5

accurately render authenticated content over time, as the ALA states

is the goal. Digital preservation projects can help to create and
maintain a national memory, as the project in Ghana aims to do. This
goal and outcome is an enormous task and one that has great
importance for any country. Digital preservation, if accepted and
adopted everywhere, has great potential to preserve a wealth of
information for future generations to share. It is important that
countries develop systems nationally that will enable them to harness
these new technologies and preserve their culture the best ways
possible.