Physical, Logical & Conceptual Objects

Librarians, archivists, and information professionals who work in digital preservation often think of digital technologies and digital objects as incorporating three layers: the physical object, the logical object, and the conceptual object. The following definitions are taken from page 35 of UNESCO’s 2003 Guidelines for the Preservation of Digital Heritage

Physical Objects

“As physical objects, consisting of ‘inscriptions’ (usually binary states of ‘on-ness’ or ‘off-ness’) on carrier media such as computer disks or tapes. (Despite the impression of that they exist in ‘cyberspace’, even online resources must exist on physical carriers somewhere)”

Logical Objects

“As logical objects consisting of computer readable code, whose existence at any particular time depends on the physical inscriptions but is not tied to any particular carrier”

Conceptual Objects

“As conceptual objects that have meaning to humans, unlike the logical or physical objects that encode them at any particular time. (This is recognisable as the performance presented to a user)”

Takeaways

This chapter explores the relationship between the logical and conceptual object – pieces of data that the computer translates into a visual representations more easily understood by human users.