Archivists from Australia and New Zealand have joined forces to head off a digital Dark Age and to make sure that governments preserve their digital records.

The Initiative will pool resources and expertise to find better ways to ensure that digital records are preserved – and made accessible up to 200 years from now. The Initiative aims to head off a digital Dark Age where the records are lost or not available.

Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Peter Shergold AM, announced the formation of the Digital Recordkeeping Initiative today. He was speaking at the ‘The Business
e-Volution of Government' conference hosted by the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) ACT Division and the Australian Government Information Management Office.

Every one of the national, state and territory public records institutions in Australia and New Zealand have joined together to form the Digital Recordkeeping Initiative.

They have agreed to collaborate on the development, articulation and implementation of a common set of strategies for enabling the making, keeping and using of digital records.

Director-General of the National Archives of Australia, Ross Gibbs, said that it would focus attention on the importance of archival institutions and government agencies working together to preserve digital records.

‘As governments move rapidly from paper to digital records we face a real risk that digital records could be lost,’ Mr Gibbs said.

“Unless we work together to improve the way governments preserve digital records we could enter a ‘digital Dark Age’ where the records and the information about Government business is simply not available,” he said.

The Initiative will promote a single Australasian approach to digital public recordkeeping across all jurisdictions and provide a space for communication and information sharing between the members.

The collaboration will ensure the best possible strategic use of limited collective resources and maximise the wider awareness and impact of the agreed approach to addressing the challenge of digital records.

The collaboration builds on and acknowledges many years of Australasian collaboration in the development of concepts, tools, standards and strategies for good recordkeeping.

The Chief Archivist of New Zealand, Dianne Macaskill, said that an important objective of this common approach was to encourage both whole-of-government and cross-jurisdictional standardisation.

‘Not only will this improve the national efficiency and effectiveness of public administration and service delivery, it should also give a boost to industry by articulating a single set of requirements for software products and support services,’ Ms Macaskill said.

‘In turn, this collaboration will improve the international competitiveness of Australia and New Zealand in this cutting edge and rapidly evolving industry, she said.

Director of the Public Record Office Victoria, Justine Heazlewood, said the Digital Recordkeeping Initiative will blend seamlessly with the work already underway.

‘The Initiative’s approach will add value to the jurisdiction-specific initiatives such as the National Archives’ e-permanence suite of standards, the Victorian VERS Standard and the DIRKS Manual for recordkeeping system design,’ she said.

Members of the Digital Recordkeeping Initiative are: National Archives of Australia, Public Record Office Victoria, State Records New South Wales, Archives New Zealand, Queensland State Archives, Archives Office of Tasmania, State Records South Australia, State Records Office of Western Australia, Territory Records Office of the ACT, and Northern Territory Archives Service.