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This article is about archives in the United Kingdom.
From the Domesday Book to modern government papers, the National Archives' collection of more than 11 m historical government and public records is one of the world’s largest. It includes paper and parchment, photographs, maps and paintings, but also a vast number of digital records such as archived government websites, emails and social media posts. Paper may last for thousands of years, but what about the ever-expanding quantity of digital documents?
The National Archives' broad remit under the Public Records Act is to permanently preserve the records of the UK government that have been selected for their historic value.
Our physical records that date back over 1,000 years take up more than 200 km of shelving and require delicate conservation work and careful storage. The digital age on the other hand requires little physical space but presents different challenges – how do archivists cope as we move from parchment to pixels?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @07:41PM
In 2008, LoC took a $3M donation from MSFT and adopted their proprietary Silverlight format.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 17 2015, @09:07PM
To be fair that has more to do with exhibits on the public-facing Web site [microsoft.com] than actual preservation of history.