Society of Archivists

Excerpt from DPC Annual Report 2008-2009

The Society of Archivists (SoA) is the principal professional body for archivists, archive conservators and records managers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It exists to: promote the care and preservation of archives and the better administration of archive repositories; to advance the training of its members; and to encourage relevant research and publication. Archives professionals are increasingly tackling the challenges presented by the need to preserve digital material. Over the last year associate membership of the DPC has acted as a focus for a number of collaborative activities which raise awareness and provide solutions for digital preservation activities. A series of Digital Preservation Roadshows, are being run in collaboration with the DPC, The National Archives (TNA), the National Archives of Ireland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Planets Project. These popular events demonstrate affordable and achievable solutions to the problem of Digital Preservation within archives. In addition a framework of IT standards relevant to the digital preservation of archives is being developed in conjunction with the Digital Curation Centre (DCC), which is accompanied by a series of monthly expert articles in the society’s ARC magazine.