The Director-General of the National Archives of Australia, Ross Gibbs, today officially welcomed some of the world’s leading archivists to the inaugural Advances in Digital Preservation International Working Meeting in Canberra to discuss the preservation of digital objects around the world.

Digital objects include data stored in digital form, which can be accessed using electronic equipment such as databases, images, sound, video, text-based documents and recordkeeping systems.

‘As an organisation charged with the responsibility of preserving and making available cultural and intellectual heritage, it is vital that the Archives develops a strategy to ensure the preservation of and access to various categories of digital objects’, Mr Gibbs said.

‘To this end, and as a result of the Digital Recordkeeping Initiative launched in May, we’ve invited some of the world’s leading archivists to the Working Meeting to speak about all aspects of the digital preservation sector’, he said.

Those attending include Andrew McDonald, retiring Chair of the International Council on Archives Committee on Current Records in Electronic Form; Fynette Eaton, Change Management Officer at the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); and Richard Marciano from the University of California at San Diego Super Computer Center.

The Initiative, launched in May 2004, has as its objective to develop and promote a single Australasian approach to digital public recordkeeping.

‘Today, an ever increasing quantity of information is created, stored, disseminated and accessed in digital forms. Preservation of digital objects will need to be planned prior to their creation if access to the objects is to be ensured in the long term’, Mr Gibbs said.

‘Looking Back to the Future: 30 Years of Keeping Electronic Records in the National Archives of Australia’ can now be viewed on the National Archives’ Our History website at: ourhistory.naa.gov.au.