Digital preservation hits the headlines
It is not often that stories directly related to my profession make front page news, so it was with mixed feelings that I read following headline on the front of the Guardian this weekend: "Digital is decaying. The future may have to be print" While I agree with one of those statements, I strongly disagree with the other. Having worked in digital preservation for 12 years now, the idea of a 'digital dark age' caused by obsolescence of the rapidly evolving hardware and software landscape is not a new one. Digital will decay if it is not properly looked after, and that is ultimately why there is a profession and practice that has built up in this area. I would however disagree with the idea that the future may have to be print. At the Borthwick Institute for Archives we are now encouraging depositors to give us their archives in their original form. If the files are born digital we would like to receive and archive the digital files. Printouts lack the richness, acces