Catalogue description The National Archives: Records of the Preservation and Digital Preservation Departments

Born digital records are generally arranged and stored differently to paper records. References for born digital records are automatically generated and display a 'Z' after a forward slash, which distinguish them from traditional references allocated to paper and digitised records.

Born digital records are arranged within deep and complex folder structures. The folder names for each record appear under the arrangement information, providing context and a provenance trail.

Descriptions for born digital are generally file names saved as they were in the original metadata. Therefore they may not be in a natural narrative form. Many records in this series display the original identifying reference from the Electronic Document and Records Management system in brackets, as part of their file name.

From 2003 to 2008, The National Archives utilised a functional file plan in its Electronic Document and Records Management system: Objective. The records filed under the Preservation chevron of the file plan relate to the preservation of archival records, both paper and digital. While the functional file plan meant that records could be added to the Preservation chevron by individuals across the organisation this area of the file plan was predominately used by the Preservation Department who had responsibility for paper records and the Digital Preservation Department.

Between 2003 and 2004 these functions sat in the Government and Archival Services Directorate. The Archival Services Department had responsibility for both paper and digital preservation. A separate team, Conservation, sat in Archival Services with responsibility for paper preservation; the newer discipline of digital preservation did not have a separate defined structure at this time.

In 2004 Government and Archival Services Directorate became the Government and Technology Directorate and the Archival Services Department became Archiving Services. At this point both the paper and digital areas had defined teams sitting in Archiving Services: Preservation (looking after paper records) and Digital Preservation (preparing for the influx of archival digital records).

In 2005 the Archival Services Department was abolished and Preservation and Digital Preservation became departments in their own right, with both still sitting in the Government and Technology Directorate.

In 2006 the Preservation Department was renamed as Collection Care. Collection Care had three distinct teams: Conservation, Preservation and Research Strategy. Conservation worked to protect and repair records that had already suffered damage, Preservation worked on preventative measures to reduce the incidence of damage to records, and Research Strategy worked to provide the evidence to underpin decisions about the preservation of paper records.