1. National Archives of Australia Digital Preservation Update
Cornel Platzer
Director Digital and Audiovisual Preservation

2. The NAA Approach Translate into openly documented formats
Keep the original
Store both with metadata
Manage and preserve authentic, reliable and durable digital records 2

3. Xena Conversions Data Data <metadata> <metadata> Xena
<XML> 3

4. Digital Preservation Objectives
Preserve any type of digital record
Created using any type of application
On any computing platform
Delivered on any digital media
From any agency and any donor
Provide discovery and access
For current and future generations

5. Some Preservation Formats
ODF - Open Document Format
XML – Extensible Markup Language
PNG – Portable Network Graphics
FLAC – Free Lossless Audio Codec

6. XENA
Open source – freely available from sourceforge:
University of Sydney – D-Space Repository
City of Perth – integrated into TRIM with customised Xena metadata wrapper

7. Digital Archive

8. Priorities
Development of an audio normaliser and processing of digital audio files copied from deteriorating analogue audiotapes;
Researching the development of a video file normaliser for Xena;
Securing Highly Protected accreditation for the Digital Archive – systems and infrastructure;

9. Priorities (cont)
Internal Auditors Report on the Digital Archive using the Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification: Criteria and Checklist published in by CRL and OCLC;
External Code review of Digital Preservation Software Platform focusing on standards, processes, testing regime, documentation etc.

10. In Conclusion National Archives seeks to:
Preserve at risk born digital records
Transform at risk analogue content to a digital format
So that digital content is available for use by:
Government
Education sector
Digital content industry
The Information Economy generally
To successfully achieve these outcomes requires dedicated funding equal to the task.
Longevity for digital resources is only achieved through intentional preservation.
Without preservation intervention, much that is digital will be lost forever.
The use of openly documented file formats greatly increases the chance that data will be readily accessed in the future.
NAA is using the Xena software to drive the prototype Digital Repository.
The software is open source. Download it. Try it. Give us feedback on your experience with it. 10

11. Resources http//:naa.gov.au http://xena.sourceforge.net
The NAA website contains information about the NAA approach to digital preservation.
Our preservation software products are all based on Java, which gives us the flexibility to deploy on almost any operating system. The Java runtime environment is a free download from Sun microsystems.
The Xena software is a free download from sourceforge. Simple instructions are available at the xena.sourcefirge.net site.
The full article from the January 1995 Scientific American magazine from which I quoted Jeff Rothenberg may be found on the web at the informatics review site.
Comments or questions, please use the digipres address.
Thank you. 11