I am posting the following message on behalg of ACALG and ASLAWG to
encourage as many offices as possible to complete the Digital Preservation
Questionnaire. A good number of responses ahev already been received, but in
this case building up as full a pivcture as possible will be really helpful.
Bruce Jackson
Lancashire Record Office
18 September 2008
Message:
Following a meeting with colleagues from The National Archives and the Digital
Preservation Coalition, we agreed to gather a snapshot of current
preparedness for digital preservation within the local authority archive sector.
This survey is the first step in ensuring that the needs of local authority
archive services can be effectively recognised and represented in moves
towards a new alliance of interested bodies to co-ordinate action on digital
preservation. ACALG (in England and Wales) and ASLAWG
(Scotland) have kindly agreed to send out the questionnaire on our behalf as
the best means of reaching archive services within local government. The
questionnaire is also being circulated by the Records Management Society in
order to gather responses from the records management perspective.
We all recognise digital preservation as being one of the fundamental
challenges facing Archives and Records Management. The issue of digital
preservation is also a very important one in the light of the current 30-Year
Rule Review, the revision of the Government Policy on Archives, and in the
future relationship of the local archives network with TNA as Places of
Deposit. The issue of digital preservation is also a very important one in the
light of the Scottish Public Records Review, which will have to address the
problem of digital preservation if it is to have any relevance to the 21st
century.
Even if you do not currently hold any digital archives, we would still like to
receive a response from you - as an incentive, you will have fewer questions
to answer!
The results of the questionnaire will be presented at an open consultation
event at TNA on 12th November 2008. A joint events programme for the UK
archives sector involving the Digital Preservation Coalition and the Society of
Archivists is also being planned for 2009.
Please pass this email to the person best suited to respond within your
organisation. Respondents are not obliged to identify their Service, but it
would help our planning if you feel able to do so. No respondent will be
identified in any published findings.
The questionnaire can be found at
http://www.smart-survey.co.uk/v.asp?i=6957ikypt. The deadline for
completion of questionnaire returns is 1 October 2008.
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