Overview

The final outcome phase is, as the name suggests, the last phase of the lifecycle. As such it covers two different and diametrically opposed processes which together encapsulate the fate of all information: either its long term preservation or its deletion.

The whole lifecycle concept is founded on the importance of taking a comprehensive and proactive view about information management which seeks to look ahead, as well as dealing with the immediate challenges posed within any given phase. The issues surrounding the preservation of digital information illustrate the importance of this concept perhaps more than any other area due to the speed of technical change and the immense, sometimes unrecoverable, problems which can arise through attempting to deal with them retrospectively.

It is for this reason that there have been specific references to the challenges presented by digital preservation throughout the earlier sections of the lifecycle. However, it is in this last, final outcome phase that we will explicitly address some of the main threats to ensuring access to electronic information in the longer term and the measures which can be taken to address these risks.

The two topics included in this phase cover both of the outcomes possible during the final outcome phase and include: