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Forum 1: Integrity and Authenticity of Digital Objects

The first DigiCULT Forum was held in Barcelona on May 6th, 2002, in the context of the DLM-Forum 2002. The Forum concentrated on a question that is critical to all organisations that archive and provide access to cultural heritage objects: How to preserve and prove the integrity and authenticity of digital objects?
The implementation of new technologies have presented organisations with unparalleled opportunities to support administrative, scholarly, educational, as well as commercial uses of 'born-digital' and digitised objects.
These opportunities, however, bring with them critical issues relating to the heterogeneity, life cycle, and in particular integrity and authenticity of digital objects.
The challenge is most acute for e-archives that have a highly structured working relationship with public administrations, institutions or businesses. They need to be involved strategically in the management of the life cycle of the digital objects, to implement appropriate policies and working proce-dures necessary for the preservation and re-use of records, cultural objects, research results and other assets.
For public records archives, preserving authentic records in the digital environment demands the set-up of a system of controls that extends over the entire life cycle of records, from creation to permanent preservation, which for archives servicing the broadcast industry has also become mission critical as they partner in the production context. Both examples figured prominently in the expert round table.

Participants

Julien Van Borm

UIA-Bibliotheek Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium

Nils Brübach

Archivschule Marburg, Germany

Luciana Duranti

Professor in the Master of Archives Studies Program, School of Library, Archival & Information Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada

Paul Fiander

BBC Information and Archives, United Kingdom

Annemieke de Jong

Head of Information Policy Netherlands Audiovisual Archive, Netherlands

Hans Hofman

Rijksarchiefdienst, Netherlands (Moderator)

Max Kaiser

Austrian National Library, Austria

Adelheit Stein

Fraunhofer Institut Intergrierte Publikations-und Informationssysteme, Germany

Kenneth Thibodeau

Director Electronic Records Archives Program National Archives and Records Administration, USA

We also want to thank
-- Mr. Ulrich Kampffmeyer (AIIM International European Board Executive Director and President of Project Consult, Germany), and
-- Mr. Hartmut Weber (President, Bundesarchiv, Germany)
who took the time for an interview at the DLM-Forum. These interviews are included in DigiCULT Thematic Issue 1.