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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 49| February 2001


British Library borrows Australian expertise

All around the world documentary heritage is increasingly being created and recorded digitally, in the form of CD-ROMs, floppy disks, electronic documents, email, web sites, and digital images. Despite their creation with the latest technology, they can be lost without careful attention. Therefore the work of library and archive staff is changing and the field of Digital Preservation is receiving growing attention.

Deborah Woodyard

The work of one of the conservators at the National Library of Australia is a good example. Deborah Woodyard gained her Bachelor of Applied Science in the Conservation of Cultural Materials and was originally employed by the Library 10 years ago as a paper conservator in Preservation Services, working with traditional materials such as maps, pictures and books. However digital library materials became a prominent part of the collections and she has been working on digital preservation at the Library for the last five years. Deborah’s work concentrates on issues such as the transfer of material on floppy disks, migration issues for online publications, preservation metadata and contribution to the PADI web site at www.nla.gov.au/padi/. The work of the Library on many aspects of digital preservation is highly regarded internationally and Deborah is about to take up the newly created position of Digital Preservation Coordinator at the British Library in London.

The British Library is committed to serious advancement in the area of Digital Preservation. Part of this initiative is the creation of a position for a Digital Preservation Coordinator within their Preservation Services Branch. Deborah is looking forward to working with the British Library’s new Digital Library System and building the international relations and knowledge base.

Above: Deborah Woodyard, Digital Preservation Section, in the stacks with some digitally preserved material

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

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