Hollerith's "Computer Tabulating Recording Company" is renamed "International Business Machines Corporation" (IBM).
Timeline: Digital Technology and Preservation
1924
1938
First use of the term digital applied to a computer that operates on data in the form of digits or similar discrete elements: "The emitter...differs from the other emitters in that it has twelve digital conducting spots."
1945
Vannevar Bush's article "As We May Think" predicts the evolution of hypertext.
1965
Moore's Law established - Gordon Moore correctly predicts that the number of transistors on a microprocessor will double approximately every 18 months.
1968
The term "microcomputer" is first used in print.
1969
Generalized Markup Language (GML) is introduced.
1972
The programming languages C and FORTRAN 66 are created.
1975
Ohio State University introduces one of the first online catalogs.
1976
Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first world leader to send an e-mail.
Bill Gates drops out of Harvard to devote his full attention to Microsoft.
1978
Dallas Public Library introduces one of the first online public catalogs (OPACs).
1980
FORTRAN 77 programming language is created.
1983
LZW image compression algorithm is developed and is adopted for compression of modem communications and TIFF, GIF, PDF, Zip, and Postscript files. Belated assertion of the LZW patent in GIF files leads to the development of the PNG image file format in 1995.
1984
As personal computers become more powerful, people become accustomed to faster machines and graphical interfaces. Use shifts from centralized mainframes to personal computers distributed over a network.
1986
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) becomes the first supercomputer center in the US.
More than 30 million computers are in use in the United States.
1988
United States agrees to the terms of the Berne Convention, promoting international standards in copyright protection and resulting in the elimination of copyright notice for copyright protection.
1990
TEI P1 "Guidelines for the Encoding and Interchange of Machine Readable Texts" are published.
The early 1990s see an explosion in online publishing and a rush to digitize print materials.
1993
The HTML 1.0 standard is published.
CERN releases the World Wide Web into the public domain.
1994
Fewer than 75 peer-reviewed electronic journals are online.
1995
Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) 1.0 is introduced.
The Xerox DocuTech Publishing System is designed for "print-on-demand" network accessed document publishing.
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative originates.
Java, an object-oriented programming language, is announced by Sun.
Netscape announces Javascript, an object-oriented scripting language.
HTML 2.0, the first formal HTML standard, is published.
1996
Internet2 project is formed to provide a high-bandwith network for the national research community.
1997
The Department of Defense shifts from paper to electronic records.
1999
The Google search engine is officially launched.
2000
Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act is passed in the US "to facilitate the use of electronic records and signatures in interstate or foreign commerce."
PubMed Central and BioMed Central are launched as digital archives of life sciences, biological, and medical journal literature.
2002
75% of journals are online in Science Citation Index®.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is signed into law. "The goal of the act was to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures." The law requires publicly traded companies to closely monitor electronic and paper document retention and imposes criminal sanctions for the destruction or loss of certain electronic records.
2003
The amount of information transmitted globally over the Internet is projected to double each year.
The estimated annual production of materials in Web-ready formats is projected to be "too large to estimate."
A British Library study predicts that by 2007 at least 50% of all theses and dissertations will be submitted digitally.
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher publishes her archives online, a first in politics.
2004
55% of adult internet users have broadband at home or work.
The NITLE Blog Census, begun in May 2003 in order to characterize the burgeoning blogshere, estimates the presence of 1,208,351 active blogs in April 2004.
Final results delivered from PANIC Project, which was one of the first projects to incorporate the use of web services for the preservation function.
2006
The Planets project is launched.
American Counsel of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure in the Humanities and Social Sciences releases "Our Cultural Commonwealth" report (PDF).
Twitter is founded, bringing forth a new social networking tool based on brief updates, or tweets.
2007
The School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosts the first DigCCurr International Symposium on Digital Curation.
NSF implements the Office of CyberInfrastructure, which publishes the Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st century Discovery report.
The Digital Preservation Repository Certification Task Force published the TRAC: Criteria and Checklist (PDF).
2008
Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access is created to address the economic sustainability of digital preservation programs. The Task Force also releases its Interim Report (PDF).
2009
OAIS Version 2 Candidate is released by the Mission Operations and Information Management Services Area (MOIMS) of CCSDS.
The World Digital Library is launched.
Fedora and dSpace launch DuraSpace.
NDIIPP launches a pilot program to test cloud technologies for preserving digital content using DuraCloud.
All Television broadcasting in the U.S. went digital by June 12, 2009.
2010
JISC Digital Preservation Listserv has been in use for 10 years.
The NSF funded Blue Ribbon Taskforce on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access released its Final Report.
Library of Congress acquires Twitter Archives.
The first national Preservation Week is celebrated. Sponsors include the Library of Congress, Society of American Archivists, and Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, and Institute of Museum and Library Services, among others.
2012
PLANETS wins the DPC Award for Research and Innovation for permananently changing the digital preservation landscape by "by shifting the focus to practical, sustainable solutions that are soundly supported by practice-driven research."
One year after the National Science Foundation begins requiring data management plans, the DataUp project is born to help researchers manage, archive, and share data.
2013
Tenth anniversary of the Digital Preservation Management Workshop!
Digital Public Library of America launched.
New National Digital Stewardship Residency sends first ten residents to the Washington, D.C. area.
2015
2nd edition of Digital Preservation Handbook released.