Dr David Willcox and Lucie Jordan, The National Archives

Born-digital records pose fundamentally different challenges for UK government compared to paper records. Methods for appraising, selecting and sensitivity reviewing paper records for transfer to The National Archives are long understood. However, the recently piloted born-digital records transfer process shows that high volumes coupled with poor structure is a challenge even for starting to make sense of collections. Add the fact that born-digital records will also need to be sensitivity reviewed before they can be released to the public and the challenges appear overwhelming.

The presenters will outline these major challenges and discuss the exciting opportunities, provided by technology, currently being explored by The National Archives. These opportunities could see an even more accurate process than the one established in the paper world.