LADT is a recently established Victorian firm involved in the emerging discipline of digital archiving.

Digital archiving is a term that describes the conversion of either paper or electronic records to an electronic format which has “archival” quality, that is, the record can be later authenticated as the official record of the organisation.

The discipline has three central features:

the ability to retrieve, quickly, any archived record;
the use of standards based, long term file formats, ensuring accessibility for long periods of time; and
files are “self-describing” so that they are independent of any software storage system or database, and capable of being easily moved from system to system as necessary in the future.

There are a very broad range of archiving needs.

very simple jobs - minimal file description/ storage in a folder
ranging up to
complex jobs - using digital signatures, time/date stamps, high resolution/colour digitising, custom metadata schemas, etc., etc., leading to progressively higher levels of file authentication and integrity

Our work involves the proper preparation of (electronic) files. These files can be located anywhere, depending upon the needs/resources of the client. We do not sell or promote software storage/management systems. Storage is important, but there are many possible solutions, and many at little and often no cost. Many clients will already have adequate software.

Who and in what circumstances can we assist?

Where there is a legal requirement to retain business/organisation records over a particular time period in an authentic form
Where there is a need to have records retain evidentiary integrity
Where there is a desire to eliminate storage costs of paper records
Where access to records is desired quickly from any location
Where a paper archive is to be digitised and published to the web
Where high degrees of authenticity and integrity are not necessarily required, but the organisation just wants accessibility and/or to eliminate paper storage costs
Where the organisation wants to turn untapped records into an accessible resource
Where sophisticated retrieval of individual records is required.

VERS:

LADT adopts the principles at the heart of the Victorian Electronics Records Strategy (VERS).

VERS, an initiative of the the Public Records Office of Victoria, has gained worldwide recognition. Its two central principles are, first, that archived electronic files should be self-describing and therefore not dependent upon any software system which will in time inevitably become obsolete. In a practical sense, this means that a complex external database is not required; all that is required is a simple search engine. Files can accordingly be easily moved from one software system to another when the first becomes obsolete or a change is desired. Secondly, the archived file should be in an appropriate long term, non-proprietary, electronic format.

VERS in its full implementation (ie, usually for government records) is designed to keep records accessible indefinitely. However, for most business purposes a storage period of perhaps up to thirty years is sufficient. Accordingly, it is not generally necessary to adopt the full implementation of VERS. It is sufficient for most practical purposes to adopt its core principles.