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UNESCO RESOLUTION on DIGITAL PRESERVATION



Dear Colleagues: Thanks to Barbara Reed's posting on the Australian Archives
list, I have become aware of a UNESCO RESOLUTION on DIGITAL PRESERVATION that
is planned to be put before UNESCO in its upcoming October 15 meeting in
Paris. This is a most important resolution that deserves the strong support
of the US through its UNESCO Observer, whom I understand is Ms. Shirley M.
Hart hartsm@state.gov (Shirley M. Hart).  

An excerpt from the resolution states:

"1.Urges the Member States of UNESCO, governmental and non-governmental
organizations and international, national and private institutions:
a) to assume responsibility of ensuring the identification, preservation and
transmission to future generations of the digital heritage produced on their
territory and belonging primarily to the Member State;
b) to assure that preservation of their digital heritage be given high
priority at the national policy level;
c) to ensure the infrastructure and procedures are in place to preserve our
digital heritage and to support national memory organizations, such as
national libraries and national archives, in their efforts to do so;
d) to  adapt regulations for national deposit and archival legislation to
ensure that preservation of digital heritage can be carried out effectively;
e) to promote the use of open standards, adherence to standards in the
creation of materials, and the development of standard solutions in
conjunction with the IT industry,

2. Invites the Director General
a) to increase in UNESCO'S programmes recognition and awareness of the
digital dimension of the cultural heritage;
b) to extend UNESCO's programmes with an action line specifically aimed at
safeguarding the digital heritage, covering such actions as:
     i) raising awareness among governments, information producers, the
IT-industry, preservation specialists and the general public of the need to
safeguard the digital heritage, which includes materials of critical
administrative, economic, social, cultural and artistic value;
    ii) developing strategies for pro-active approaches to prevent
obsolescence of the digital heritage, on the basis of generally accepted
principles governing cultural heritage preservation;
   iii) promoting the exchange of information between Member States of good
practices and preservation methods, and facilitating the training of
specialists in digital preservation;
  iv) promoting the participation of libraries, archives, museums and other
institutions concerned with the heritage in this endeavour;
c) to take steps to make sure that digital repositories are set up for
publications, archives and documents of UNESCO and other United Nations
Agencies.

As a matter of Net etiquette, I do not send attachments to discussion lists.  
However, I have placed the full text of the resolution on my website in the
News & Media section.  

I have sent Ms. Hart and Mr. Carlin an em urging their support of this
resolution. But I am just one private citizen. What is needed is a clear and
strong statement of support on the part of the SAA, speaking for the whole US
professional community. And it is needed on a fast track. I hope that others
on this list will join me in urging SAA to act positively on this matter
right away, if it has not already done so.  It is also my hope that
international members of this list will carry this message back to their own
professional associations and urge them to do the same.

Regards,

Rick Barry
www.rbarry.com