Jersey Heritage tells the story of island life with digital archiving and preservation

Jersey Heritage has chosen Arkivum to archive and preserve huge volumes of digital records.

Holding the complete public record of States of Jersey, a photo archive of around 1.5 million images and digitised artefacts such as registration cards from the German occupation during World War Two, Jersey Heritage tells the story of life on the island up to the present day.

“We were looking for a digital preservation system that would help us meet our legal obligation to look after all archive materials,” says Linda Romeril, Archive and Collections Director at Jersey Heritage. “That meant managing the items we digitise as well as the born-digital assets we increasingly receive. The digital archive had grown so much that our local servers were holding 20 terabytes of data. Processes such as authenticity checks had to be run manually, which was time-consuming. And the risk of data loss and corruption was an overriding concern.”

“Archives such as Jersey Heritage now handle an array of formats – from images, videos and audio material to documents such as PDFs,” says Paula Keogh, VP of Heritage & Higher Education at Arkivum. “They have to test for authenticity, manage format obsolescence, and above all keep all their digital assets secure. With Arkivum Perpetua, Jersey Heritage can now reassure the organisations and individuals contributing to the archive that their irreplaceable materials are in safe hands.”

“We felt that Arkivum really listened to us and understood what we needed,” says Linda. “Our new system will give us all peace of mind. We’re having a new physical strong room built at the moment, and I see Arkivum Perpetua as its digital equivalent, giving us confidence that we can preserve a vital part of Jersey’s history for decades and centuries to come.”

About Jersey Heritage

Jersey Heritage is a charity that protects and promotes the Island’s rich heritage and cultural environment. The organisation aims to inspire people to nurture their heritage in order to safeguard it for the benefit and enjoyment of everyone.

Under Jersey’s public records legislation, Jersey Heritage Archives and Collections is responsible for archiving records of central government, local government, court services, customs and immigration. It also holds the Jersey Evening Post photo archive of around 1.5 million images, an important visual history of the 20th century life on the island.