Abstract

This ground-breaking edited collection explores the challenges of preserving complex digital objects such as simulations, visualisations, digital art and video games.
Drawing on the outputs of the JISC-funded Preservation of Complex Objects (POCOS) symposia, enhanced with specialist pathfinder solutions, this book will cover topics such as the legal and technical challenges of preservation, curation and authority, and digital archaeology. 
Written by international experts from a broad background of library, collecting institutions, information and computer science, and digital preservation backgrounds, this collection showcases the state of the art of the discipline and brings together stakeholder perspectives from across the preservation community. The collection is structured around six parts:

1. Why and what to preserve: creativity vs preservation
2. The memory institution: data archival perspectives
3. Digital preservation approaches, practices and tools
4. Case studies
5. A legal perspective
6. Pathfinder conclusions. 

Readership: Academics and students on digital preservation, digital humanities and information management courses, and those working in preservation and collecting for memory institutions will find this a valuable read. It will also be of particular interest to computer scientists, artists, games and emulation communities, archaeologists and digital forensic scientists.
...a well written and a valuable resource for the preservation field.
Against the Grain
...a landmark summary that is adequately scary but hopeful and constructive at the same time.
Archival Issues

"This book is an essential resource for anyone engaged with digital preservation activities.  It becomes increasingly difficult to focus purely on the preservation of simple digital objects, we have to engage with the complex because developing ICT capabilities provide us with the means to incorporate more and more complexity in the artefacts and genres we create and use.  Keeping up to date with advances in digital preservation know-how is challenge enough in itself; bringing together these outputs from the POCOS meetings in a single print resource provides much needed practical assistance. "

Online Information Review
This collection is a valuable contribution to the digital preservation literature...it is sufficiently practical to be of use to practitioners, particularly those working in memory institutions and faced with issues of digital preservation of complex digital objects.
Elucidate
This ground-breaking edited collection explores the challenges of preserving complex digital objects such as simulations, visualisations, digital art and video games. Drawing on the outputs of the JISC-funded Preservation of Complex Objects (POCOS) symposia, enhanced with specialist pathfinder solutions, this book will cover topics such as the legal and technical challenges of preservation, curation and authority, and digital archaeology. Written by international experts from a broad background of library, collecting institutions, information and computer science, and digital preservation backgrounds, this collection showcases the state of the art of the discipline and brings together stakeholder perspectives from across the preservation community. The collection is structured around six parts; 1) Why and what to preserve: creativity vs preservation; 2) The memory institution: data archival perspectives; 3) Digital preservation approaches, practices and tools; 4) Case studies; 5) A legal perspective; 6) Pathfinder conclusions. Academics and students on digital preservation, digital humanities and information management courses, and those working in preservation and collecting for memory institutions will find this a valuable read. It will also be of particular interest to computer scientists, artists, games and emulation communities, archaeologists and digital forensic scientists.
Janet Delve is co-leader of the interdisciplinary Future Proof Computing Group in the School of Creative Technologies at the University of Portsmouth. She is a member of the Digital Preservation Coalition Technology Watch Editorial Board. 
David Anderson is co-leader of the interdisciplinary Future Proof Computing Group at the University of Portsmouth. He is the Director of CiTECH (the Centre for Cultural and Industrial Technologies Research) in the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries.
"This book is an essential resource for anyone engaged in digital preservation activities. It becomes increasingly difficult to focus purely on the preservation of simple digital objects, and we must engage with the complex because developing ICT capabilities provides us with the means to incorporate more and more complexity in the artefacts and genres we create and use."
Online Information Review
...any information professionals working through the present-day digital revolution, as well as academics and students on information courses will find this book to be a valuable textbook and tool. It provides a much-needed pathway for anyone wanting to learn more about digital preservation. More importantly, in addition to being extremely educational, this book is actually very interesting to read.
Alexandria