While these far-reaching changes are clearly driven by economic interests, it is unclear how the rich complexity of the world's cultures will be preserved and find new expression. The Getty Information Institute works to ensure that cultural heritage information has a strong presence on electronic networks for research, education, and community development. Collaborating with institutions worldwide, the Institute addresses the research needs, standards, and practices that can bring to the cultural heritage community the full benefits of networked digital information. With regard to preservation, the Institute's work is guided by the following principles. Just as curators use appropriate techniques to protect valuable objects, archival techniques are necessary to preserve text and image data.
Data collection is by far the most expensive part of any digitization project.
Cultural institutions, with traditionally scarce resources, need to maximize their return on a major investment in data collection. It is economically imperative that image and text data be preserved in ways that remain useful over time, despite inevitable changes in hardware and software and potential changes in the uses and audiences for the data. Icons seized by Russian customs officials at Moscow Airport in 1988. Making Information Accessible Getting to the right information online is still not as easy as getting to it in a bookstore or library. Only the most tenacious users will overcome barriers to access such as different command languages and descriptive vocabularies.