Questions being fielded
Report
This legacy information on our earlier conference in 2003 is included for reference and research purposes.
Wednesday 2 April
The conference began with a set of speakers welcoming delegates to the birth of a new UK institution - the National Archives - formed by the coming together of the Public Record Office and the Historic Manuscripts Commission. Rosie Winterton MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Lord Chancellor's Department, formally announced the launch of The National Archives and described how it "will play a major role in archives locally, nationally and internationally".
Her positive sentiments were echoed by Sarah Tyacke, Keeper of the Public Records, and Chris Kitching, Secretary of the Historic Manuscripts Commission, who explained how The National Archives "will be bigger than the sum of its parts". It will promote and develop access to archives both on site and online.
Discussion of digital preservation was introduced by Peter Hirtle, of Cornell University Library. He presented a review of current activities in the US, characterized by lots of money, huge amounts of data, and enormous planning. Peter stressed flexibility in technology, since we have an enormous variety of information and users; and also evolution of organizations, since many of the most important issues are economic, legal, administrative, and organizational, rather than technical.
Peter Hirtle from Cornell University
The next speaker, Olafur Asgeirrson, the National Archivist of Iceland and Chair of the ICA Committee on IT, talked mostly about organisational issues in international archives. He looked wistfully back on an era before parchment (about 1100) when Iceland relied on an individual who memorized the laws and recited them; at least this limited the length of the legal code to what one man could learn! The more we can produce, the more value there may be in the selection of material by a professional archive staff.
Doron Swade, formerly of the National Museum of Science and Industry, gave a very interesting talk about the nature and integrity of historical objects and the need for their preservation. He used as an example Napoleon's waistcoat button - under what circumstances would it be acceptable instead to collect a replica of the button, a different but contemporary button, a photograph of the button, or a hologram? He concluded that for research and evidence about the past, the original article is essential, but for teaching and explanation, simulations can be enormously valuable.
Following on from Doron's demonstration of 3D simulators of obsolete computer systems, Paul Wheatley of Leeds University talked about the work that the CAMiLEON team have done producing emulators. He looked at the advantages of emulation but saw a range of problems that will require a range of solutions, especially thinking about the long term (the next 100 years).
The Wednesday evening featured a special 'after hours' event showcasing The National Archives collaboration with a group of enthusiasts to produce a Windows PC version of the 1986 BBC Domesday system. This multimedia survey of the UK is often cited as an important case study illustrating the need for digital preservation. Andy Finney, one of the original team responsible for BBC Domesday, opened the session with a summary of the 1986 project. He was followed by Adrian Pearce, a programmer who has produced a modern Windows application that has been populated with data from the original discs.
Thursday 3 April
Thursday's proceedings were opened by Adrian Brown, who described the National Archives' experience of using migration as part of a digital preservation program. He found that migration is a particularly suitable approach for types of data where several popular file formats exist. Reliable conversion tools tend to available in these situations. In other cases, such as for word-processed documents where one file format or application has a near monopoly, the limited demand for conversion tools makes migration more problematic. Adrian finished his talk by giving a demonstration of CAMS - a database system he developed to support the process of migration.
To avoid the problem of having to deal with a plethora of file formats, Jacqueline Slats, of the Netherlands Digital Preservation Testbed team described their work on developing XML-based file formats that can be used by the Dutch government to store emails and word-processed documents. She also described some experiments carried out into Raymond Lurie's Universal Virtual Computer approach of preserving digital material.
Jan Danielsen of the Danish State Archives presented a very practical paper, focusing on his experiences of tape conversion, and the difficulties with physical media deterioration. He pointed out that in the CD-R market there was now severe price competition, leading to producers cutting corners and making media that would not last.
Adrian Williams of the BBC described his work on the EU-funded PRESTO project. The BBC is committed to a massive program of audio digitization, spending 5 million pounds a year on converting 60,000 sound recordings. The original motivation of this project was a desire to preserve the BBC collection, but the economic justification is the reuse of the material on new BBC channels.
David Ryan of the National Archives talked about XML and the use of XML-based technology in The National Archives' new Digital Archive system. He also discussed PRONOM and experience of trying to collect information on software products and file formats from software companies who were extremely keen on keeping their software proprietary.
David Thomas from The National Archives
Richard Boulderstone of the British Library and David Thomas of The National Archives addressed digital storage, and described the co-operation that has taken place between the two institutions on this issue David Thomas outlined the distinction between passive and dynamic digital objects. He described how a wide diversity of digital files had been received by The National Archives, ranging from simple text files to interactive files that contain embedded logic. He demonstrated examples of virtual reality models transferred to The National Archives as part of the records relating to public enquiries.
Kevin Schurer of the UK Data Archive described the recent work done by his organisation to produce an interactive archive delivery system that allows users to browse, interrogate and display the holdings of the archive in ways that are useful to them.
Deborah Woodyard reviewed web archiving, and talked about selection and legal issues. She described different international projects, some of which employed comprehensive harvesting strategies, others which relied on selection. Legal or policy issues she argued could be important as using the right tools.
An in depth examination of digital preservation cost models was provided by Shelby Sanett, an investigator on the InterPARES Project, whilst David Bowen of Audata, also focused on project management and costs in his paper.
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Friday 4 April
The Friday session of the conference was opened by Hans Hofman of ERPANET who described a series of workshops organised to teach skills in digital preservation, based on current best practice.
Claes Granstrom of The National Archives of Sweden and Duncan Simpson, formerly of the Public Record Office, talked about legislation and the need to reflect on legislative agendas in terms of new information technology. Issues such as data protection, freedom of information, and legal deposit all impact archives and libraries considerably.
Jeff Rothenberg
Jeff Rothenberg, a computer researcher who has been writing about digital preservation for many years, presented in his paper a very thorough argument for emulation. Instead of having to understand and migrate hundreds of file formats, emulation means that you only have to understand and imitate a few different hardware platforms. Whilst information about these hardware platforms may be easier to come by than proprietary file format information, legal issues concerning the right to run software on emulators still need to be resolved.
Michael Lesk of the Internet Archive provided the culminating paper of the conference. He spoke about the Internet Archive's aim to collect and store as much data as possible. He argued that over time lower storage and search costs will push us just to save bits, and not to worry so much about understanding them. This can be left to future generations (who will hopefully have better tools). Disk space is cheaper than selection, he argued, and searching is cheaper than cataloguing.
It is hoped that this digital preservation conference has provided more than just an interesting snapshot of work currently underway internationally, and has acted as a catalyst for information sharing between individuals from a diverse range of digital preservation projects and organisations.
