International archives select UK preservation technology

The British Library and the National Archives of Malaysia have selected digital archiving technology from UK-based software business, Tessella.

The so-called Safety Deposit Box technology - developed in conjunction with the UK National Archives - is designed to help confront problems around digital preservation.

'As anyone who has faced the problems of trying to read digital material written over ten years ago can testify, such material is hard to preserve owing to the short lifetime of formats, software, operating systems and storage media,' explained Robert Sharpe, Tessella's head of digital archiving solutions. 'We are looking forward to working with more institutions to be able to apply our technology in a new context, which will provide further invaluable experience in this new and emerging field.'

'The Library will be working with Tessella over the next few months to implement the Safety Deposit Box... This will eventually allow us to offer services to the public based on our ever-increasing volume of digital materials,' added Richard Masters, Programme Manager at the British Library.