'Save our data' campaign launched

Digital preservation campaigners are calling for greater industry co-operation to ensure the electronic information generated today will be available in 20 years.

The Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) has been launched by prominent UK institutions, such as the British Library, to lobby the Government for new laws to safe-keep digital material.

Helen Shenton, head of Collection Care at the British library said the IT industry is partly to blame for the enormous task the coalition is facing.

"The IT industry is out to make money on technology short term, but they should also consider the preservation of our digital heritage for the next generations too. They should make sure there will be a way of accessing all the electronic information in 20 years time," she said.

She claimed the coalition was necessary to make sure there will be a way of accessing electronic information in the distant future and that the important pages on the internet today don't disappear into cyberspace.