Migration is an essential function within any digital preservation strategy. Records should be migrated to new media before the current one deteriorates or become obsolete. The process of migration can degrade data quality and this has implications for the integrity of the data. Protecting the integrity of a digital image must be a top priority for any digital preservation strategy. The preservation of images comprises an example of the ways in which content, defined in terms of structure and format, poses integrity problems for digital archives.
Integrity is also related to the preservation of intellectual content.
This maintains the integrity and authenticity of the information as originally recorded. The user of an image archive will require assurance regarding the quality and integrity of the archive. Digital images that are compressed using lossy techniques are not appropriate for long term digital preservation strategies. The potential for digital media to provide a permanent archive will have been lost. Preservation Strategy Whatever strategy is put in place to ensure the preservation of the digital archive, the main objective must be to maintain the intellectual integrity of the individual images.