Sounding more like a warrior princess than an innovative software application, the National Archives of Australia today released what it hopes will be the answer to one of the key challenges in the digital age — obsolescence.

Speaking at the Chief Information Officer Forum in Canberra, the Director-General of the National Archives, Ross Gibbs said that Xena (XML Electronic Normalising of Archives) would ensure that our digital heritage survives into the future.

‘As the official custodian of Commonwealth records, the Archives has a significant role to play in ensuring the preservation and accessibility of digital records well beyond their creation,’ Mr Gibbs said.

‘In 2002 the Archives determined that digital records of archival value, created in any format, were to be preserved. This principle has guided our research and development of software and hardware infrastructure to support digital preservation.’

This year the R&D work culminated in a working prototype of a digital archive, including Xena, which converts digital file formats into a small number of open formats based on XML.

Cornel Platzer, the Archives’ Director of Digital Records, says every day most of us interact with digital technology at work and in our private lives.

‘Rapid change in technology means that we quickly experience the benefits, but there is a downside — software and hardware obsolescence,’ Ms Platzer said.

‘Imagine that you wanted to read a digital document created 20 years ago. The record would have been created on a personal computer running DOS (a common operating system at the time) using something like WordStar, an early word-processing application. It’s the sort of thing you may have saved to a floppy. Here’s the problem — PCs 2006-style don’t read floppies!’

The National Archives’ digital preservation facilities comprise a secure environment that houses processing networks, a digital archive, and a separate laboratory for staff. The facilities are located in two access-controlled and network isolated rooms, with a back-up power supply, environmental monitoring and a fire suppression system.