The Lost Digital History

Earlier this week I mentioned the great plethora of resources available to me online in my area of research. It got me thinking of the huge amount of history which is currently stored online.

I read this article a few weeks ago but was able to find it again by searching online, Legal delays have blown a hole in UK's digital heritage (The Guardian, 4th October 2009). It is UK specific as it concerns the failure to implement the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 which would have forced the British Library to record and store digital material.

The article suggests that six years of digital history has been (potentially) lost as the government has not enforced the 2003 act giving the British Library (and others, including Trinity College Dublin) the ability to store digital material in the same way that these libraries currently store books and journal articles etc.

"At least 26 other countries, including France, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Norway, now have similar laws in force."

Digital history is becoming more important as more of our resources originate online, and thus its beneficial to a historian to see this 2003 Act enforced and copied internationally.