Lessons on digital preservation from iPres 2025

In November 2025, the iPRES conference, hosted by the Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa / National Library of New Zealand and Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga / Archives New Zealand, brought together an international community of digital preservation researchers and practitioners. The conference themes of Haerenga (Journey), Tūtaki (Encounter), and Tūhono (Connect) were thought provoking and attracted many presenters from across the globe to reflect on how these themes related to their work in digital preservation.

Attendees spanned the entire digital preservation community: archivists, programmers, web preservation specialists, software engineers, community collection curators, emulation experts. This diversity reflects the range of skills and perspectives needed to safeguard digital heritage. Their insights and innovative work inspire us to reflect on the collective effort across Government to preserve digital records and where we go next.

The following paper and panels especially resonated with us and our own digital preservation efforts, closely tied to our Digital Record Transfer program, through the lens of the conference themes.
 

Haerenga (Journey) – Paper Session 1 – Ctrl+Alt+Evolve: The Digital Rebirth of Records Transfer

The UK National Archives (TNA) presented a paper on their born-digital records journey - from agency to archive - and explained how they streamlined the transfer process to make it faster and more intuitive. By overhauling their processes and supporting infrastructure, TNA now enables more frequent and, in some cases, daily transfers from public offices. This work highlights an appetite for small and frequent transfers of born-digital records: “a little and often” is their mantra! They transformed their  service over time by having a user-centred, multidisciplinary approach, a focus on records, and incremental rollout of the transformed service.

At PROV, we’re seeing similar trends. A significant increase in requests for born-digital record transfers has signalled that agencies are keen to tackle their own growing ‘digital heap’. We’ve worked with several agencies to build regular digital record transfers into their record lifecycles to address this head on. And while we do have a longstanding Digital Record Transfer program, we are always looking for ways to alleviate the pressures felt by records teams. More frequent transfers in some contexts may be beneficial. 

Check out our Digital Record Transfer process.
 

Tūtaki (Encounter) – Panel 7 – Preservation.exe: Working with ICT in Digital Preservation 

A panel of experienced digital preservation practitioners spoke about building strong relationships with their ICT teams to overcome digital preservation challenges such as accessing obsolete media and using crowdsourced software. Getting “buy-in” and support from ICT is a hurdle many records and information managers face. The panel gave practical advice around aligning priorities and fostering collaboration with ICT teams. 

At PROV, we have long recognised the need for ICT involvement in digital transfer projects. Recent transfers have shown that ICT teams need to not only be included in the technical side of the transfer, but also in the planning and scoping of a project. This ensures they can allocate the time and support needed to contribute to a transfer project without compromising their delivery of services and cybersecurity obligations. Building trust and shared understanding is vital to achieving this. One panel member highlighted the value of weekly informal catchups with their ICT manager to maintain a strong working relationship.

See collaboration in action: read our digital record transfer case study on the successful collaboration between records and ICT teams.

Get practical guidance on planning and securing the right ICT involvement for your next digital transfer project.
 

Tūhono (Connect) – Panel 5 - From the South: A New Alignment for Digital Preservation

This panel, hosted by Robin Wright, Head of Digital Preservation Coalition Australasia and Asia-Pacific, explored how institutions across the region have been working towards incorporating Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS) principles within their digital preservation systems and processes. 

The National Archives of Australia (NAA) presented on the work they have been doing to adapt and update their archival management systems – ensuring records are appropriately described and identified in line with IDS principles while managing access to records within the confines of legislative requirements. This program of work includes managing cultural sensitivity and restrictions by applying richer metadata and adding cultural sensitivity flags, among other plans for further enhancement.

Indigenous Data Sovereignty is front of mind here at PROV too, as we begin the transfer the digital records of the recent Yoorrook Justice Commission. Recent changes to the Victorian legislative framework places authors of submissions to the Commission at the centre of access decisions and processes for these records. PROV has worked closely with the Commission to ensure that First Peoples submissions to Yoorrook will be preserved and shared according to their wishes. This transfer, along with recommendations from the Yoorrook Justice Commission, will drive enduring and positive changes in how PROV manages the preservation and access to Indigenous cultural material.