Digital Domesday book unlocked
BBC Micro was
a popular computer in the 1980s
A rich digital
archive of British life in the 1980s has been brought back to
life by researchers from the UK and the US. They have developed
a way to access the information gathered by the BBC's Domesday
project which had been stored on outdated technology.
The project
was developed by the BBC to create a computer-based, multimedia
version of the Domesday Book, marking the 900th anniversary of
the 1086 archive. But the snapshot of in the UK in the mid-1980s
was stored on two virtually indestructible interactive video discs
which could not be read by today's computers.
Preserving
the past
The team at
Leeds University and the University of Michigan in the US say
they have now found a way to access this rich digital archive.
They have
developed software that emulates the obsolete Acorn Microcomputer
system and the video disc player. The research is part of the
Camileon project. For the past three years, the team has been
looking at methods of digital preservation and testing them with
materials like
the BBC project.
The Domesday
Project highlights the problems of digital preservation.
Databases
recorded in old computer formats can no longer be accessed on
new generation machines, while magnetic storage tapes and discs
have physically decayed, ruining precious databases. "BBC
Domesday has become a classic example of the dangers facing our
digital heritage," said project manager Paul Wheatley. "But
it must be remembered that time is of the essence. We must invest
wisely in developing an infrastructure to preserve our digital
records before it is too late." "We
must not make the mistake of thinking that recording on a long-lived
medium gives us meaningful preservation," he warned.
Book vs
discs
Domesday
Book of 1086 is in fine condition. The information gathered by
the Domesday Project has been difficult to access for 16 years.
The video discs feature about a million people in the UK. They
contain video clips from the BBC and ITV companies as well as
200,000 pictures and tens of thousands of maps. By
contrast, the original Domesday Book, an inventory of England
compiled in 1086 by Norman monks, is in fine condition in the
Public Record Office in Kew, London.
The software
and hardware needed to access the Domesday discs is to be deposited
at the Public Record Office once the project is completed.
Article from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/