Izolo, the new UCT-wide digital preservation service, ensures that digital files created today can be found and used tomorrow. In recognition of imperatives around the safeguarding of digital data, UCT Libraries have implemented a Digital Preservation Strategy . In the course of 2020, UCT Libraries began implementing Izolo, running on the Perpetua Usability and Preservation modules of Arkivum , to provide business-process driven, structured data preservation workflows for the entire campus community.

Digital Preservation is concerned with providing long-term access to digital objects, preserving continuity in form as well as functionality. It is not simply a backup of data, because long-term digital preservation must consider format, software and hardware obsolescence, among other issues. Although it is possible for anyone to read a page from a book written 100 years ago, the same is not true of (e.g.) a floppy disk containing WordPerfect files from twenty years ago. 

All items from UCT's data repository ZivaHub are also preserved on Izolo.

View the slides from our soft launch for World Digital Preservation Day 2020 .