As archivists we are often taking in documents long after the events they relate to have passed, sometimes hundreds of years later! But as the way we create and store documents has changed we have changed our practices to include more proactive collecting. Modern media, including digital files, are much more fragile than paper and parchment. Risks include file corruption, loss and obsolescence. We are trying to capture these types of records much sooner to improve their chance of survival.
Dorset History Centre uses an active digital preservation system called Preservica to securely store and manage our digital archives. Preservica makes copies of files, monitors files for corruption and can migrate files to new formats if necessary.
We knew when the Coronavirus escalated that we wanted to ensure the Dorset dimension of the pandemic is reflected in our collections. Alongside our Corona Diaries project we are also archiving the official response to the virus. The regularly updated council websites seemed like a good place to start.
We are using webcrawling technology to take weekly snapshots of the Coronavirus related pages on the Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council websites. The webpages describe the impact of the virus on local services and reflect the changing national advice. Once captured, the archived webpages are safely stored in our digital preservation system. Details of the webpages are added to our catalogue for researchers to find.
We are also archiving newsletters produced by both Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. These include more detail about some measures the Councils have taken both initiating lockdown and, more recently, easing restrictions. The newsletters also contain some news stories not focused on coronavirus to remind us that other things are still going on!
We will continue to add to this collection and hope these records will provide future researchers with a window into this strange time and how the pandemic affected Dorset.