It's Public Knowledge: The National Digital Archive of Datasets

  • Patricia Sleeman

Abstract

This article describes the history and development of the National Digital Archive of Datasets, a service run by the University of London Computer Centre for the National Archives of England. It discusses the project in light of the context in which it emerged in the 1990s, its departure in approach from traditional data archives, and the range of archival functions. Finally, it offers reflections on the project as whole.

 

RÉSUMÉ
Cet article décrit l'histoire et le développement du National Digital Archive of Datasets, un service offert par le centre informatique de l'Université de Londres pour les Archives nationales de l'Angleterre. L'auteure présente le contexte dans lequel le projet a émergé dans les années 1990, son approche qui diffère de celle des archives de données informatiques traditionnelles, ainsi que la gamme de ses fonctions archivistiques. Finalement, elle offre des réflexions sur le projet dans son ensemble.

Author Biography

Patricia Sleeman
Patricia Sleeman has worked at the National Digital Archive of Datasets since 1998. She was employed previously at the National Archives of Ireland, working on the records of the Ordnance Survey and Valuation Office of Ireland. She trained as an archivist at University College Dublin. Ms. Sleeman has also worked and studied in Ireland and Spain as an archeologist. She completed her studies in Archaeology and Textiles in Galway. She is Chair of the International Affairs Sub-Committee of the Society of Archivists, as well as an elected member of council. She has just been elected as a member of the SPA committee of the International Congress on Archives. In September 2001, she obtained a Sharing Museum Skills Millennium Awards Scheme fellowship under the auspices of The Millenium Commission and completed a six-week secondment in the Flinders Petrie Museum of Egyptology, UCL, London. She was an invited member (representing the archives sector) of the steering group to draft Resource’s International Strategy, 2002. Her publications include "Archives and Statistics," a chapter in The Internet Research Handbook: A Practical Guide for Students and Researchers in the Social Sciences (London: Sage Publications, 2001).
Archivaria 58 front cover
Published
2004-08-01
How to Cite
Sleeman, Patricia. 2004. “It’s Public Knowledge: The National Digital Archive of Datasets”. Archivaria 58 (August), 173-200. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12483.
Issue
Archivaria 58 (Fall 2004)
Section
Notes and Communications

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