A guide on how to preserve vital digital archives in an ever-evolving technological world is to be published this month.

Experts from the University of Hull in the UK have been working alongside colleagues from the universities of Virginia, Stanford and Yale in the USA to explore the challenges faced by archivists working with ‘born-digital’ material.

<^{Judy Burg and Simon Wilson}

An increasing amount of data now exists only in digital form, from photos stored on Facebook pages and authors’ novels written and stored on their laptops, to complex databases on corporate servers. This data is created digitally, stored digitally, and doesn’t exist in any other state. All this information tracks the stories of modern life but is extremely difficult to catalogue and preserve for future generations.

Constant developments in technology affect everything from the format of the data to the working practices of archivists receiving and managing it. Records must still be preserved to the same high standard of traditional physical documents – 800 years of paper and parchment are already stored in Hull History Centre.  The project, entitled Born-digital archives: An Inter-Institutional Model of Stewardship (AIMS), was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the USA and allowed a digital archivist at each university to undertake practical research.

This has now culminated in a white paper, offering practical guidance for archivists. It looks at the four key stages in the archive process from liaising with the depositor about the material, undertaking the transfer of the material, reviewing and listing its content, and then finally making the material available to users. The research team found that any decisions made in the initial process would have a major effect on how digital archives could be managed and preserved further down the line.  Sharing their findings is key to the project and the teams have presented their work at conferences in the UK and the US.  

Simon Wilson, digital archivist for the University of Hull, said: “We know that paper material, if stored in the correct physical environment, will survive for hundreds of years. However due to constant changes in hardware and software we cannot be so confident with born-digital archives created last week. This means we need to make fundamental changes to the way we collect archives.

“We realised early on that differences between institutions meant that creating a single ‘model’ of preservation was neither possible nor meaningful. Instead we have created a framework, based on the principles of traditional archive practice, which can be adopted more easily by archivists working in a variety of settings.”

At Hull, archivists worked with two depositors as part of the project; the Socialist Health Association and the novelist and screenwriter Stephen Gallagher. They also worked closely with colleagues who manage and maintain the University’s ‘Fedora’ digital repository which will be an integral part of the solution for born-digital archives at Hull.

Judy Burg, University archivist said: “Working with digital material requires great care from the outset.  With paper material, you can confidently open a file, read it and close it again, knowing that your actions haven’t made any changes to its authenticity.  In many cases, the same action with a digital file will, wipe out crucial details about the file’s creation and use.  Each file format has its own characteristics and challenges.”

An example of the problems the team encountered was some of Stephen Gallagher’s work - created using FinalDraft – a specialist piece of software used by screenwriters. The team were initially unable to view this material until colleagues in the Drama Department confirmed that they had the same software. This allowed the archivists to see the content as it had been created – crucial as staff needed to determine an appropriate format for the long term preservation of this unique content.   

 The teams from Hull, Virginia, Stanford and Yale plan to continue to work together and with others in managing born-digital archives, as they believe a wider approach and collaborative work between archivists is the best way of finding a solution.

 Judy added: “This project has been a real challenge but working with the teams in the US has helped us to question every detail and give us a better understanding of how to approach this area. Every aspect of working raised new questions, but this project will hopefully be a useful guide to others as it outlines the challenges and concepts that archivists will be facing.

“We are now taking our experiences forward and looking to capture born-digital archives before it is too late.”

The white paper can be viewed here.

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