Agenda item

As requested at the Joint Archives Committee meeting on 5 March 2025, a briefing paper was presented by the Head of Culture to provide further detail on the investment required into the Archives Service to support the storage and preservation of born digital, and other digitised material held by Teesside Archives.

Preservica had been identified as the best system to meet the digital repository needs. The New Burdens funding had a current balance of £115,991 which would allow the service to purchase the system and support the running costs for three years, (the minimum initial contract) with a total cost of £66,810. There would also be a requirement to invest in staff resource and a recommendation had been put forward for an initial one-year fixed contract for a Digital Archivist to manage the set up and initial population of Preservica, also funded through New Burdens with a total cost of £43,172.  This would result in a total investment from the New Burdens fund of £109,982 leaving a small balance of £6,009 to cover any contingencies that may have arisen.

It was noted that there would need to be a further commitment from the partners in the Archives Service to support the ongoing annual cost of Preservica beyond year three, at a cost of £15,250 pa. There would also be an ongoing requirement for staff resource beyond the first year to manage the system and the archiving of digital records, estimated at £25,000 pa and would equate to circa 22 hours per week. The hours required would be determined by what the partners agreed around the system’s use and the records it would receive from each LA/other partners.

From year four onwards, the costs would increase to £40,250 pa to include the annual Preservica fee. The costs would need to be funded from a mix of increased income to the service which may arise from the implementation of the system, the introduction of new partners and/or a review of the current staffing structure.

The Archives Service had taken the first step on the digital preservation journey by creating a Digital Materials Register; 20,976 files or 248.12GB of ‘born digital’ data had been identified. In addition, there was a quantity of digitised material, currently less than 1TB, but expected to grow in future. Once more than 1TB of data was held, Preservica would charge an additional £460 pa for storage.

The committee discussed potential options for future funding, emphasising the need for a stronger business case to support these opportunities.  It was agreed that the system’s capacity would be explored further, with suggestions that it could support and enhance wider service delivery and storage functions beyond the Archives Service alone.  The Lead Officers meeting would consider this and officers would brief their member on the findings.

Further work was required for Local Authority partners to identify sources of additional investment, in order for a formal proposal to be presented to the Joint Archives Committee. Opportunities should be explored through the proposals detailed in the Heritage Feasibility Report, which would be released in due course, and through conversations with potential partners including TVCA and the LA Museum Services. Should additional investment be identified, a formal proposal would be presented at the October meeting of the Joint Archives Committee.

AGREED that:

1.     The information provided was received and noted.

2.     Local Authority partners consider sources of additional investment.

3.     A formal proposal is to be presented at the October 2025 meeting of the Joint Archives Committee.