Libraries Tasmania safeguards archive collections

Efficient and effective management of the 150 TB digital collection held by Libraries Tasmania had become difficult, placing the organisation at risk of not meeting the required standards to ensure ongoing preservation and accessibility of its digital cultural materials.

The Tasmanian Archives holds hundreds of thousands of items of significant historical and cultural value, in various formats, that are actively degrading. These contain content unique and integral to Tasmanian history and must adhere to industry standards and compliance requirements to support business processes for the secure capture, storage, management, identification, access, delivery and long-term preservation of its digital collections.

To overcome the issue, Libraries Tasmania has partnered with active digital preservation software vendor Preservica under a multiyear contract which will see the organisation accept, preserve and store digital government and non-government records as archives.

Preservica worked with local partner Document Management Tasmania (DMTAS) on the formal tender and procurement process. The digital preservation service will be hosted on the AWS Asia Pacific (Sydney) region.

“Our commitment is to preserve the continuing memory of Tasmania as the lead provider of history, research and information services,” said Allegra Huxtable, Manager Government Archives & Preservation at Libraries Tasmania, Department of Education.

“We are thrilled to partner with Preservica to preserve archives and heritage items to fulfil our legislated role as the keeper of Tasmania’s memory, and generate opportunities for lifelong learning and cultural inspiration available to anyone around the world.”

The digital preservation system will form part of the State Library and Tasmanian Archives infrastructure that will support the receipt of transfers from Tasmanian State Government Agencies and non-government organisations of digital records in all forms, including digitised versions of hard-copy records as well as unstructured and structured born-digital records.

This also includes published digital assets acquired through legal deposit or purchase (where these items are not suitable for inclusion on the National E-Deposit System).

Public access to the Tasmanian Archives collections includes government records, private records and cultural heritage items in a large number of formats including hard copy documentary items, physical items and their digital surrogates (digitised versions), audio recordings (including analog and born-digital), film and video (including analog and born-digital), maps, newspapers and photographs.

Online access to digital materials has become increasingly important for many Australian government, academic, cultural and commercial organisations. Libraries Tasmania is part of a growing community of institutions using Preservica in the region, including The National Archives of Australia (NAA), The National Library of Australia (NLA), the State Library of South Australia (SLSA), Moore College, and many other government, cultural and academic institutions.

“We are delighted that Libraries Tasmania is part of a growing number of customers in our user community in Australia,” said Mike Quinn, CEO of Preservica.

“Preservica’s preservation system is a key part of the total environment needed to provide their digital collections with the best chance of long-term survival.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/AndSus