[Uncertainty of long term preservation of digital documents and how to cope with it]

The development of digital technologies in all activities sectors of our society leads to a growing number of digital documents. A significant part of these documents needs to be durably preserved. This long term preservation has to face the short life expectancy of the technologies and the digital storage media. Large national organizations have already take this problem into account and set up teams, skills and means to face this challenge. At the opposite, the small structures, doctor's offices, individuals, students, etc. are not generally aware of the problem or are stripped to face there. A certain number of simple actions, not requiring specific skills in data processing can nevertheless be undertaken. Without important expenditure, they increase to a significant degree, the security level of the documents over the long term.