The Rescue of the Danish Bits: A case study of the rescue of bits and how the digital preservation community supported

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how vulnerable bit preservation is, regardless of how well prepared you think you are, and hopefully to inspire other institutions that may face similar challenges at some point. At the same time, this paper illustrates the importance of research in digital preservation and the need for conferences like iPRES to enable communication about relevant practical experiences and research results. The paper includes an illustrative story about how parts of the Danish digital cultural heritage was rescued after being endangered by accumulating political, environmental and organizational events, and where the final solution involves outsourcing parts of the bit preservation solution. The story includes a description of how the bits were rescued by different means. Firstly, by using research results to convince political management that bit preservation is much more than a storage solution that can be outsourced. Secondly, by initiating various actions to re-establish the wanted level of bit safety. And thirdly, by establishing a contractual and procedural basis for outsourcing parts of the bit preservation.