Is it possible to keep digital information available in perpetuity? In the matter of preserving digital materials, the immediate concern would be that of technical obsolescence. The paper age had to contend with deterioration of paper while the digital age has technical obsolescence to overcome.

Tapes, hard drives and floppy discs have very short life spans since refreshing the data on them is only effective as long as the media are still current. The matter of preserving access to the content of documents, regardless of formats, should be considered. At present, it is unclear whether digital media is up to the task of long-term preservation especially under unexpected threats to it.