Last week, the eyes of the world were drawn to a single momentous contest: who would be the winners of this year’s Digital Preservation Awards? Wonder no more: you can find a full list of winners on the Roll Of Honour. You can also click on the embedded clip above to hear about finalists for the award for Safeguarding The Digital Legacy, sponsored by the National Archives. The eventual winner was the UK Web Archive.
Derbyshire Record Office has been preserving paper and parchment records for the full length of our history – but it’s fair to say we are still at the early stages of preserving records digitally. It’s one thing to have a preservation copy of an original (printed reproductions, microfilm copies of parish registers, digital images of archive sources and so on) and quite another to look after a record that has only ever existed in its digital form. The pace of technological change simultaneously solves old problems while creating new ones! That’s why it’s good to know the UK Web Archive is shouldering the preservation burden when it comes to online content.
The archive has been going strong for fifteen years now, aiming to collect as much of the UK web as possible. What you can find on the internet changes rapidly and regularly, and the idea behind the UK Web Archive is that future generations will be able to put themselves in our shoes, and experience an authentic representation of our present-day information environment. There are sixteen sites maintained by Derbyshire County Council which we have specifically asked the web archive to capture. These are:
Arts Derbyshire (for arts events and information)
The Derby and Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership
Derbyshire Economic Partnership (facilitating economic development across the county)
Derbyshire Information, Advice and Support Service (DIASS – supporting young people with special educational needs and disabilities)
Derbyshire Music Education Hub
Derbyshire Partnership Forum (the local strategic partnership aiming to improve the quality of life for the people of Derbyshire)
Derbyshire Safeguarding Adults Board (information for anyone concerned about adult abuse or neglect)
Derbyshire Spirit (positive examples of people finding a way to thrive despite the pandemic)
Digital Derbyshire (improve the county’s broadband coverage and speed)
Donut Creative Arts Studio (youth arts facility)
Live Life Better Derbyshire (helping us all get healthy and stay that way)
Our Derbyshire (the staff website of Derbyshire County Council – the Web Archive only preserves the public-facing bits)
Park Smarter (information on parking, and a place to pay up if you have received a penalty charge notice)
Safer Derbyshire (the website for community safety)
Schoolsnet (services and information for schools)
Our congratulations to all the winners!