The UAE has taken great care to ensure that its vital documents are kept safe. As The National reported yesterday, the National Archives building in Abu Dhabi is fully secure thanks to a sophisticated surveillance network and alarm system that monitors it around the clock.
It would be easy to suggest that there is no great need to preserve the dusty photos, papers and books of the past, along with more recent material on videotape. After all, they can be easily digitised and kept on a hard drive or in the cloud.
But that is problematic given that computer storage formats have changed dramatically in just a few decades. Few of us now retain the ability to view files stored on CDs, Zip drives or floppy disks. Besides, there is something special about tangible documents, be they personal letters or documents of state. They offer a direct conduit to the past. Future generations will be grateful for the care being taken today to preserve these precious fragments of history.
