WIREDGOV

Managing, preserving and providing access to born-digital records (records natively created in a digital format, such as emails, documents and spreadsheets) is a major challenge for archives across the world.

The National Archives has been exploring innovative digital technology and practices to ensure digital public records are available for future generations. As part of this work, we have published two reports to support organisations in understanding and addressing the challenges of born-digital records.

The first report is a snapshot of the digital landscape in the UK government, highlighting some of the current challenges experienced by government departments in the management and transfer of born-digital records.

The second report showcases how technology-assisted review could help address some of these challenges. We built on current research, expert interviews and trialled existing commercial software, typically used in the legal sector for eDiscovery purposes.

eDiscovery is the discovery or disclosure of electronic information for the purposes of litigation. This process is known as eDisclosure in the UK, but most current software tools are branded eDiscovery. These tools are designed to extract meaning from large, unstructured digital collections or identify sensitive information.

Both reports are free to download and will be of interest to individuals within UK government or those in the legal, information technology, academic, archive and records management professions.

If you have any questions about either report please email us.