International Council of Archives

The Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation

The President, Martin Berendse, represented ICA  at this important conference, and here are his reflections:

Only 5 short weeks after the ICA Congress in Brisbane, another international conference was dedicated to "the climate of change" in the information and heritae world. 

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Celebrating the 20th anniversary of UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme, librarians, archivists, museum curators, ICT professionals and scientists convened in Vancouver to discuss digital preservation challenges and strategies. Host of the conference was UNESCO’s assistant Director-General for information and culture, Jānis Kārkliņš. The programme committee of the conference was chaired by the wellknown ICA-activists Luciana Duranti (School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver) and Jonas Palm (Head of Preservation, National Archives of Sweden). IFLA President, Ingrid Parent and ICA President, Martin Berendse, represented the library and archives communities.

According to UNESCO most people are unaware of the risk of loss or the magnitude of (digitized or digital born) resources needed for long-term protection. Mayor IT-companies Microsoft and Google co-sponsored the conference and provided keynote speakers. Digital preservation experts like David Giaretta (Alliance for Permanent Access), Seamus Ross (University of Toronto), Ken Thibodeau (former NARA Washingtion, National Institute for Standards and Technology) and David Rosenthal (Stanford University) shared their latest views and insights. One of the keynote speeches was delivered by Ann Thurston of the International Records Management Trust.

For UNESCO the conference was more than a celebration of the Memory of the World. UNESCO wants to make progress towards digital preservation solutions at a global level, seeking partnerships amongst and with international partners. “Ensuring digital continuity of content requires a range of legal, technological, social, financial, political and other issues to be overcome. It is hoped that the conference will lead to (….) the definition of the respective roles of professions, academics, industry and governments in addressing various issues and of a model for their cooperation”.

On behalf of ICA, Martin Berendse, underlined the specific concerns of ICA with digital born records and their preservation. He underlined the importance of upstream involvement of archivists and records managers with the record creation and management processes and of international cooperation for digital preservation research. He stated that the digital memory of the world issue is “bigger than us” (ICA) and argued for an international coalition, chaired by UNESCO, to realize a Roadmap for the Digital Preservation of the Memory of the World. A draft Declaration, based on the exchanges in Vancouver, will be published very soon. UNESCO, IFLA and ICA will initiate a follow up meeting with key stakeholders to prepare an action plan.

To read the official UNESCO's report, please click here:

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/news-and-in-focus-articles/all-news/news/setting_the_digital_agenda_for_the_memory_of_the_world/

You can read the UNESCO/UBC Vancouver declaration here and you can download the document there.

Comments and observations should be sent to no later than 19 October 2012