Archives abroad: National Archives of Australia implement data management system to cope with growing digital needs

A significant increase in the amount of film, audio and digital formats has led the National Archives of Australia to begin procurement of an audiovisual archive management system (AVAMS).

The National Archives of Australia collects and preserves audiovisual records created by Australian government broadcasting authorities, other government agencies and media units. Its 600,000 audiovisual physical and digital assets are stored in four offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Perth. Department documents state that this equates to over 26,000 metres of storage space.

Developments in the digital domain with the increase of digital television and digital audio content created by government production agencies, digital preservation processes, and the demand for digital online access delivery have expedited the process to acquire an AVAMS.

The functions of the AVAMS include storage, preservation and access to audiovisual assets. It will also be used to improve searching of archives. As part of the implementation, suppliers are expected to work with Archives to migrate data from external sources into the AVAMS, including database tables, database records, field structures, field values, spreadsheet data, and image files.