Girling, R

Sunday Times; 8 Dec 2002, Magazine p.22-3, 25, 27, 29

Report on Alecto Historical Editions' facsimile of the Domesday Book, contrasting its production with that of the original in the 11C. It is also being made available as a CD-Rom.

Kahle, B; Marks, P

New Scientist; 176 (2370) 23 Nov 2002, p.46-9

Reports an interview with Brewster Kahle about his work in creating The Internet Archive [URL:http://www.archive.org/]: a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artefacts in digital form. Like a paper library, it provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars and the general public. The archive was conceived to counter the problem of the relatively short lifespan of Web sites before they are either modified or removed.

Long, D

Image Technology; 83 (5) Jun 2001, p.13-15

Describes the resources and activities of the ITN Archive covering the impact of digital technology, the archive's website and the arrangement of the material into themed collections.

Hunter, P

Computer Weekly; 7 Dec 2000, p.34-6

For many years Companies House has harboured a rich collection of corporate information, now exceeding 25 million documents, of 1-time information about company registrations and incorporation, and continually accumulates data such as annual accounts and details of directors joined, and if they have been struck off. The customer base is broad and includes specialist company search agents, lawyers, accountants, banks, credit controllers, investigative journalists and government agencies. Until March 1999, these archives were a secret for many people, because of their inaccessibility. Information was held on microfiche, which was cumbersome for searching, and involved delay as documents could only be ordered by post, phone or fax. The Internet has changed all that within 18 months, and the agency has been transformed into a viable information business. In fact, the agency offers 2 services, 1 subscription-based for signed-up clients called Companies House Direct, and the other a public Web site where anyone can order documents by credit card or perform free company searches. The success of the transformation, the rate a new audience has been established, the quality of content and the performance of the service, all combined to win Companies House the Computer Weekly E-business Award for Excellence 2000 in the e-government category. (Abstract quotes from original text)

Flint, J

Daily Telegraph; 30 Apr 1998, Connected p.8-9

The Vatican Library is to make its archives available on the Internet. The library houses 150,000 ancient manuscripts and 1.5 million printed books, many of which are deteriorating with age, so digitization will be part of the preservation of such documents. IBM and the Vatican Library have completed a pilot project exploring the feasibility of scanning these documents and making them available online. Scanning is not straightforward, due to the size of many of the manuscript pages and the fact that the parchment pages do not lie flat. Every time a page is turned the camera must be refocused, making it a very time-consuming process. Often, manuscripts are written on both sides, resulting in a dark shadow behind the text. IBM has developed a process which can remove this effect on screen. The digital copy is then better than the original. (Abstract quotes from original text)

Fisher, P

Daily Telegraph; 8 Apr 97, Connected p.8-9

The National Sound Archive (NSA) has a vast store of recordings, including current CDs and digital tapes, radio broadcasts, plays and speeches. The recordings are catalogued on `Cadenza', the 24Gb database. Keyword searches can pinpoint the location of the recording required by visitors. Older parts of the collection, such as wax cylinders, are now being transferred to computer media, providing easier storage and access and giving the material indefinite life. The NSA hopes to create a global virtual library, which would link other European archives via dedicated ISDN lines. CDs have been chosen as the main storage medium as tests have shown that well-kept discs will last for millions of years.

Dunlop, A; Papiani, M; Hey, T

Computing and Control Engineering Journal; 7 (5) Oct 96, p.221-6

The Winston Churchill Archives Project will consist of electronic copies of an estimated three million personal, literary and political papers, complete with the family's photographs and an as yet uncharted collection of audio and film. Reformatting information held in databases into Web pages requires significant effort in creating the pages and their subsequent maintenance. These costs have been avoided in the Churchill Archives Project by coupling a Web server indirectly to the multimedia database using additional software. This software layer translates requests for information into standard query language and generates Web pages dynamically to display the results to the user. (Abstract quotes from original text)

Whatley, P

Journal of the Society of Archivists; 22 (1) Apr 2001, p.53-69

The project 'The Drawn Evidence: Scotland's development through its Architectural History from Industrialization to the Millennium, 1780-2000', scheduled for completion by August 2002, is led by the University of Dundee, working closely with the University of St Andrews. It is producing a fully indexed, inter searchable, web based digital resource, primarily for academic use within a wide range of disciplines. Assesses the research potential in the project's digital surrogates of architectural drawings from Scottish collections; looks at preservation issues relating to the original media; describes the project, its aims, objectives, management and procedures; and addresses technical issues surrounding the large scale production and dissemination of photographic and large format images. (Quotes from original text)

Gilfoyle, I

Planner; 77 (18 Jan 91) p.9-11

With recent developments in IT and falling computing costs, there is scope for the Geographic Information System, which it is argued is the direct descendant of the Domesday Book. (SJK)