Preservation of born-digital data

The Danish National Archives is an important partner in the data management of Danish public authorities and research institutions and we work internationally to enable standardised, high quality and competitive digital archiving solutions.

Digital archiving covers activities in all parts of the data life cycle: from the time data are created and then transferred to archives, where data are preserved and disseminated, to the time the data are reused when needed by the individual citizen, for research or society in general.

Archiving is an extraordinarily complex and important process. The Danish National Archives has for many years worked purposefully on preserving born-digital data to secure that data are preserved in a form, which makes them understandable and reusable both in the short and long term.

Data must be transferred to the Danish National Archives according to regulations for metadata and data among other file formats and information package structure. Read the regulations:

We must ensure cost-effective preservation of

• several types of data worthy of preservation
• in a way that ensures greater reusability for users
• enables faster access to data

The policy explains the overall frame and conditions for the Danish National Archives’ archiving of born-digital data.

The strategy explains specific areas of action for the long-term preservation of data in which the Danish National Archives prioritises to develop and cooperate on until 2025.

We make sure that data from our society of value for historical, research or legal reasons are preserved. In other words, we preserve to enable answers to those questions, which contemporary or future citizens, researchers and others pose.