How University of Highland and Islands brings its dispersed online learning community together through digital excellence

The University of Highlands and Islands has selected Arkivum Perpetua to preserve and safeguard archive materials and research data across a vast region that stretches from Shetland to Argyll. Arkivum will give Scotland’s newest university the expert guidance and system capabilities needed to preserve and safeguard its growing research and archival data

The Need

“The University of the Highlands and Islands is Scotland’s newest university, and we’re already finding challenges in handling our growing volumes of research data and archive materials,” says Ruth Priest, Academic Librarian. “We’re a widely-dispersed partnership of colleges and research institutes, and each institution has a significant amount of autonomy. We want to encourage proactive staff who are setting up their own archives locally, while putting in place more central oversight to comply with funding requirements.”

From the earliest days of the university, online learning has been very important. “Our higher education provision is largely delivered through virtual learning and video conferencing,” says Ruth. “Online learners may need access to all of our archive materials and research data, whether they’re in a library in Fort William or a lighthouse in the Orkney Islands”

The Solution

The university sees Arkivum Perpetua as crucial in supporting these challenges. Arkivum Perpetua is a digital preservation and archival safeguarding solution designed with the needs of higher education in mind. “It scales from entry level to the largest collections, making it ideal for the University of the Highlands and Islands as it manages its accelerated growth at this critical stage,” says Paula Keogh, Vice President and Sector Lead for Higher Education at Arkivum.

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