Purpose

Digital content is a strategic asset that has observed an exponential growth in recent years. Like the physical universe, the digital universe is large. It is doubling in size every two years, and by 2020 the digital universe i.e. all the data we create and copy is tend reach 44 trillion gigabytes. Digital data is useful if it is suitably organized, tagged and preserved. So, to better understand current research trends in Digital Preservation and create awareness among scientists and policy makers the urgent need to explore more possibilities in preserving digital content, Bibliometric techniques are applied for quantitatively evaluating the related literature in Digital Preservation research.

Methodology/ Approach

Using data from the IEEE database between 2001 and 2015, a total of 139 publications were retrieved by searching keyword- “Digital Preservation”. The records were analysed for research trends in Digital Preservation.

Conclusions/ Findings

The preliminary results show that the yearly publications on Digital Preservation have increased exponentially, specifically peak in publications was observed in years 2010 and 2014. Other findings are related to patterns of International research collaboration, research interests, keyword frequency/subject interests to researchers, high impact articles etc.

Novelty/Significance

As observed by authors, this article signifies the vibrant growth of research in Digital Preservation. It is a priority research area that need to be explored more, as mankind in this modern world is dependent on digital technology. Also we believe there seems to be minimal work in Bibliometric mapping of publications related to Digital Preservation. Hence, this article can be considered as a fundamental work within this field of study.

On the author:

Dr. M. Krishnamurthy is Faculty at DRTC, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore. He was Professor at Mangalore University, before taking this assignment he served as librarian of Indian statistical Institute Bangalore centre, and University Librarian, University of Mysore. He did his Mater degree in economics and Master of Library Science from Bangalore University in 1987 and 1989 respectively. He has 18 years experience as Librarian. He is recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship in 2006 and visited Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Illinois (USA), to carry out research in the field of digital library for one year. And also he is recipient of the Open Repository Scholarship to attend Sydney, Australia conference in 2007. He has contributed extensively to national and international journals and conferences (100 articles). He receives Bharath Shiksha Ratana Award in 2102, and ILA CD Sharama Best paper award in 2013.. He has guided 4 Ph.D students in various university.

His research interests are in the uses of emerging information and communications technologies (ICTs) to enhance libraries and education. His research and teaching are in the areas of Social Networking, Digital Archives, Digital Libraries, and Educational Technology. At present he is treasurer for the Association of British Scholars, Bangalore. He visited USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, Scotland for academic assignment.

Web address:

http://www.isibang.ac.in/~krish/