Government builds future-proof archive

Future generations should be able to read government documents electronically thanks to a new archiving system for public digital records.

The automated process will appraise, select, catalogue, transfer, store and preserve public electronic records that are identified as worthy of permanent preservation.

The National Archives launched its £3.5m system, the first of its kind, in August, providing the tools to permanently preserve electronic records.

With 95% of information released by the government now coming in digital form, the system will be vital to researchers and information providers in the future.

The new approach follows information from its creation in government departments to online release into the public domain.

David Thomas, chief information officer at the National Archives, said: "We now have the tools to ensure modern records survive the test of time. It is an important step towards guaranteeing the survival of vast amounts of government records."

The system will be rolled out over the next few years to meet the anticipated need to transfer large volumes of digital data to the National Archives.

Charlie Hull, CEO of search engine development company Lemur Consulting, praised the National Archives' digital preservation project but questioned whether it had made the right technology choices.

To explain the potential difficulties that future generations could face if the right technology isn't applied, Hull used the analogy of trying to open older Word documents in a newer version of the program that was unable to read them.

Further details from the website listed below.
http://tinyurl.com/5qp74bt

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