The life cycle versus the continuum

I feel that I could know more about digital preservation. To help erode my ignorance, I take every opportunity to trawl the web in search of what other, more talented and better funded, people are doing in this area. There are many projects out there. In fact, the number is almost overwhelming and certainly confusing.

I've been struck by the number of projects that engage the life-cycle as a model for looking at the challenges of long-term digital preservation. At least, this seems to be the case in Europe and America. I'm a continuum person myself and I'm surprised at the lack of take-up of this alternative approach to the RM/Archive function, particularly in an electronic context.

The life-cycle model is unhelpful. The continuum model provides a more useful way of looking at the problem of digital preservation. Reasons for this include:

• it's no longer feasible to divide records creation, use and eventual destruction/retention into time-based stages managed by either records managers or archivists;
• as archivists we can't afford to wait until the end of the cycle to become involved, especially when talking about digital records; and
• the record keeping systems used to manage digital records needs to be conceived of and designed as part of a continual process by all interested parties.

This isn't a question of semantics, as some people think. It's about recognising that electronic/digital records have changed the way we conceptualise and do archival and records management work.

TQA Blog birthday

It's a year ago today that I started this blog.

International Archives Day

Some time ago the ICA and the archive world discussed having an International Archives Day. Well apparently today is it! Yes, 9 June 2008 is the first ever International Archives Day. The date was chosen to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the ICA. I had no idea a date had been decided upon until I serendipitously stumbled across the announcement on the ICA webpage. I feel caught unawares. While I’m pleased that there is now such a thing as International Archives Day, I’m disappointed it wasn’t better publicised.

National year of reading 2008

From April to December of this year it’s National Year of Reading here in England! According to their webpage, the Year “aims to help build a greater national passion for reading in England – for children, families and adult learners alike”. Each month has been given a theme, to help direct our reading activities and ensure we attain measurable benefits from them. The theme for May is “Mind and Body”. This month we’re directed to “celebrate the links between reading and health”. They suggest we do this through the medium of comedy, or more particularly, through the words of comedians. Or, if we’re lucky enough, our local library will have someone read to us while we relax with a massage or workout with a yoga, pilates or aerobics session.

I hope I have the chance to comment on the Year in later blogs.

On holiday

My recent holiday included a trip to Tokyo. I’d never been to Japan before. Tokyo is lovely to look at. It has very impressive, modern architecture. Everything looks new and the streets are clean. The state of their subway really brings home how inefficient, expensive and unpleasant the London Underground is. One thing Japan’s not so hot on though is vegetarian food. 3 days of eating pizza from Italian restaurants and I was ready to leave. While there though, we unwittingly stumbled on the Japanese National Archives. It was opposite the Imperial Palace compound. Being somewhat of an anorak, I took this photo and then popped inside to look at their exhibition.