Information has been recorded throughout time in a wide variety of formats as human knowledge, ability, and skills developed. Cave paintings, papyrus scrolls, handwritten manuscripts, and visual or sound recordings in various languages and formats provide information to people and allow knowledge acquired by one generation to be passed to the following generation. Along with the oral tradition, images, sound, and text have assisted in the transfer of personal, educational, political, social, or cultural information. These materials comprise our collective memory and are valuable and necessary to a society or group of people.

It has been impossible to save all information created throughout the history of humankind. The beginning of the twenty-first century represents an era of unprecedented growth in the creation of recorded materials. Consequently, institutions that serve as custodians of cultural and historical information must make decisions regarding...