Born digital 2016

Collecting for the future: 8 – 12 August

Since the first public website was published 25 years ago, there has been an explosion of digital content and digital formats have evolved rapidly.

In a world where our lives are largely online, what’s our digital future?

Join us for a week of discussion and debate as we and the other National and State Libraries of Australasia examine the technical, social, and philosophical questions of our digital lives.

See the Library's events for Born digital 2016

Visit the National and State Libraries of Australasia site

What’s digital preservation?

Just like the physical items we hold, digital collections need care and attention to make sure they’ll be preserved and accessible in the future.

These digital files include almost all the photos we take today, records we keep, drafts of books, the letters we send each other, and other social, economic, and creative endeavours.

Ongoing use requires preserving not only the digital files, but the software and hardware they were made with. Loss of that infrastructure, from formats becoming obsolete to everyday software updates, increases the risk of being unable to keep using the important things we’ve made.

The Library’s National Digital Heritage Archive team keeps our digital collections safe in a world-class system, while actively researching constantly changing risks and solutions.

Our digital present and...