2003 Digital Preservation conference (legacy content for reference purposes)

This legacy information on our earlier conference in 2003 is included for reference and research purposes. It brought together expertise from around the world, and launched The National Archives as an organisation. Information was increasingly being produced digitally in a wide variety of formats, ranging from email and web pages to digital video and virtual reality models. Cultural heritage organisations need to tackle the difficult question of how best to store and preserve these digital materials. When many digital formats have a shelf life of less than a decade, how can we ensure that the information we produce today will be as accessible for future generations as that bequeathed to us by our ancient ancestors? This conference was conceived to investigate and address these challenges and was widely commended as a major contribution to the field.

This conference was jointly organised by The National Archives and the International Council on Archives, and was held at The National Archives in Kew on 2 - 4 April, 2003. It demonstrated practical approaches to digital preservation and featured paper and demonstrations by many leading national and international speakers.