The National Archives says we are facing a crisis in record keeping. Photograph: Scott
Barbour/Getty Images
By 2020 the British Library reckons that 90% of books and research papers will be available in some kind of electronic format. Only 10% will be available in hard copy only.
Such stats makes some giddy with enthusiasm about the brave new digital world. Information will be so much more accessible and we can do away with filing all those dusty bits of paper, the theory goes. But others aren't so sure.
Family historians, for example, are concerned that we're in danger of wiping out our collective memory by over-relying on emails and other transient electronic formats.
And the head of National Archives says we are facing a crisis in record keeping unless we get to grips with the switch from a paper world to a digital one.
So are archives still relevant? If not, can we rely on Google not to mess with our collective memory? I went down to the London Metropolitan Archives to find out. Hear what the experts had to say here.
