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Switching from goat and calf skin to archival paper, which can survive for up to 500 years, is expected to save around £80,000 a year. Peers said printing two copies of each Act of Parliament, one for the Parliamentary Archives and one for the National Archives, was “extremely expensive”. The House of Lords took the decision to end the practice in 1999 but the move was blocked by MPs. http://bit.ly/1KOhDNJ http://bit.ly/1KOhDNJ+ LONDON — For centuries, acts of Parliament and other important documents have been inscribed on vellum, a parchment made from calfskin. Magna Carta, which King John signed 800 years ago last year, was written on vellum. So was the Domesday Book compiled in 1086, 20 years after William the Conqueror sailed across the English Channel. This ancient tradition has survived wars, revolutions and the rise and fall of the British Empire. Now, the use of vellum, which has been a contentious issue for more than a decade, has fallen victim to austerity. http://nyti.ms/1O8ZTr6 http://nyti.ms/1O8ZTr6+ A House of Lords spokesman defended the decision: “Last year the House of Lords asked the Commons Administration Committee to revisit the issue. Earlier this year the Chairman of the Commons Administration Committee wrote to the Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords to say they considered it plainly a matter for the House of Lords and that it was unlikely time would be found to debate the issue in the House of Commons. http://bit.ly/1obE1GB http://bit.ly/1obE1GB+ The thousand year old tradition of printing Britain's laws on vellum has been scrapped to save just £80,000 a year despite concerns from MPs about ending the historic practice. The House of Lords have confirmed that from April all legislation will printed on simple archive paper instead of the traditional calfskin vellum. http://bit.ly/211Y2Ob http://bit.ly/211Y2Ob+ The last vellum supplier in the UK has been given a 30 day notice period, despite the promise of a Commons vote, a Labour MP has revealed to the House of Commons. http://bit.ly/1QeHQ4g http://bit.ly/1QeHQ4g+ A North East MP is leading calls to save a Parliamentary tradition - by printing laws on parchment made of goatskin. MP Sharon Hodgson is demanding that the nation continues printing Acts of Parliament on vellum, a parchment made of treated animal skin. Public Acts of Parliament are currently printed twice on vellum, with one copy stored in the National Archives based in Surrey and a second stored in the Parliamentary Archives in one of Parliament’s towers. http://bit.ly/1PvSbf1 http://bit.ly/1PvSbf1+ n the case of recording our more important writings on vellum, for example, we know that we have a proven technology that has stood the test of time for millennia. By comparison, there are many modern data storage systems that are much less reliable, such as some of the original CDS and DVDs that are starting to fail. Alternatively, in the case of some relatively modern technologies, we no longer remember how to actually access their data. http://ubm.io/243gDf4 http://ubm.io/243gDf4+ -- Peterk Dallas, Tx [log in to unmask] Save our in-boxes! http://emailcharter.org “If only there were a massive entity that I were forced to fund to tell me how I should live my life, since I’m so obviously incapable of deciding for myself.” M. Hashimoto To view the list archives go to: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK To unsubscribe from this list, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the words UNSUBSCRIBE RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK For any technical queries re JISC please email [log in to unmask] For any content based queries, please email [log in to unmask]