facilities may be more restricted.

Physical carriers require specific hardware which

preservation agencies may not be able to provide. In such cases they will need to decide
whether it is reasonable to require transfers via specific media that they can process, or to
invest in facilities to handle a wider range of media.

Some considerations in deciding on transfer media are included in Table 14-1 below.

If data must remain on transfer media for
medium-term storage
If data will be immediately loaded to another
carrier for storage
If the costs of accommodating a wide range of
media are prohibitive
If workflows are built around specific media
avoid short-term carriers such as diskettes or DAT
tape
short-term media may be suitable for transfer
specify a narrower range of media
specify media that suits workflows, or specify
media that producers will find easy to supply and
adjust workflows

Table 14-1 Decision factors in choosing transfer media

14.15 Transfer strategies

Transfer of data usually involves the preservation programme either receiving files from the
producer (push approaches), or actively taking files from the producers site (pull
approaches).

There are many push or deposit approaches that are used, such as sending files loaded onto a
physical carrier through the mail or by courier; attaching files to email messages; or
transmitting them by FTP directly to the preservation programmes server. Push approaches
have many advantages, as they allow the producer to deposit more easily preserved versions
of their work than may be publicly available, and give producers more opportunity to
influence selection of what will be preserved.

On the other hand, preservation programmes relying on deposit may find that transfers depend
on production factors beyond their control, including changes in personnel, changes in
priority, or declining levels of interest, all leading to inconsistent transfers.

Pull approaches place more control in the hands of the preservation programme regarding
timing and content of transfers. Some producers consider this an infringement of their rights
and either block the software used to copy their files or demand rights agreements, so the
control offered by pull approaches is not absolute. (On the other hand, many producers are
happy to have their material captured, preserved and made available at no cost to themselves.)

Gathering or automated harvesting of material from producers sites is made possible by

communications networks. Using software programmed to search the network for files that
satisfy specified criteria, preservation programmes can copy and download files to their own
computer systems. Such an approach is widely used by Internet search engines and by most
preservation programmes capturing networked material. Various indexing and search and
retrieval software programmes are available, with varying capabilities for defining what
should or shouldnt be retrieved.

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