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Councils struggling with e-archives

Kablenet.com

Published: 04 Mar 2008 14:22 GMT

A National Archives survey says that local authorities should introduce strategies to save digital information for posterity.

The first national survey of local authority archive services has revealed that arrangements for the permanent preservation of digital records are presenting a significant challenge for councils.

National Archives, the organisation which sets standards and supports innovation in information and records management, found that local government is a long way behind Whitehall in making arrangements for digital preservation. None of the more than 100 councils taking part in the Local authority archive survey has an operational digital preservation system.

Nicholas Kingsley, head of national advisory services at National Archives, said there were grounds for optimism, however. He said that a lot of local authorities are working quite hard on this issue and putting in place new policies — for example, a vision of how they are going to store digital information.

"A number of authorities are also putting in place systems for the acquisition of material from external sources," Kingsley told GC News. "Councils are taking in records from a wide range of other organisations — for example, schools, churches and central government — so they are receiving material in a wide range of different formats."

Kingsley said that National Archives was working with councils to help them address the difficulties the survey has brought to light and there may be a case for some smaller archives to look at consolidating their services, or move to joint provision.

Natalie Ceeney, chief executive at the National Archives, commented: "Local archives are key to preserving our nation's heritage and the services they provide are invaluable, both generally and in the communities they serve."

"The Local authority archive survey is a great step forward, enabling [National Archives] to show local authorities where they are doing well, how they compare to other services and the areas in need of improvement," said Ceeney.

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How can it be true that doing the work of gathering and concentrating information about a person and placing it in a single database with multiple access routes; makes that information more secure?! I would suggest that most people would make the implicit assumption that that would make it *less* secure.