404 page not found. It’s a message you will undoubtedly have seen many times across the World Wide Web, but have you ever thought about the implication of what is lost when you find a broken link? Unless the page has been indexed by the Wayback Machine (part of the Internet Archive), you might struggle to find the information that was there previously. And even if you can find the information you’re looking for, it might not be in the same format, be missing illustrations and context vital to its understanding. We might think of the internet as lasting forever, but 25% of webpages that existed between 2013 and 2023 no longer exist (Stokel-Walker, 2024).
Archives (both digital and physical) are a way to preserve this information. An archive is, simply, an ‘accumulation of records’ and there are over 2500 of these repositories across the UK, and many hundreds of thousands more globally (Collis, n.d). The National Archives in London, for example, hold records relating to everything from medieval history to the operations of the Home Office. Archives serve as repositories of knowledge, and as the UNESCO Director General, Audrey Azoulay, puts it, ‘Archives are essential for the collective memory of humanity and preparing for the future.’ (Azoulay, 2023)
So how do archives fit into UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals? Preservation of Knowledge has clear links to Quality Education, in that it ensures long-term accessibility of learning resources, but it also impacts various other goals which might not seem so obvious. For example, records of historical weather data contribute to a greater understanding of climate change, assisting with the work associated with Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action).
Staff and research students can help preserve knowledge by submitting their peer-reviewed work to the University of Derby’s online, open access repository: UDORA. This will ensure enduring access to information and increase the reach and impact of research (University of Derby, n.d).
We can all be good record keepers in different aspects of our lives: backing up important digital files, transferring data where necessary (e.g., when changing jobs). Consider things like what would happen to your photographs if Instagram became obsolete. Ironically, well-kept physical copies of photographs might be more resilient to loss than digital files hosted online. Think about storing your photographs on an external hard-drive or printing out your favourites.
It is likely you have access to printed photographs of family and friends – it can help future generations understand these images if you write some details on the back of them in a soft pencil (don’t press down too hard!) about who the people are, where and when the photograph was taken, and any other context you might know.
Another way to contribute to the preservation of knowledge is to actively seek out and use primary source material available to you. The University of Derby provides access to various online archives, rich in unique information, which you can use in your research (University of Derby, 2023).
Rebecca Moore, University of Derby Archivist, 2025
Azoulay, A (2023). UNESCO Archives: Preserving Our Heritage for Future Generations. [online] Unesco.org. Available at: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-archives-preserving-our-heritage-future-generations.
Collis, P. (n.d.). Glossary. [online] archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Available at: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/glossary/.
Hazelwood, S. (2019). Man Sitting on Black Chair Grayscale Photo. Available at: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-sitting-on-black-chair-grayscale-photo-1999352/.
Stokel-Walker, C. (2024). We’re Losing Our Digital history. Can the Internet Archive save it? [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20240912-the-archivists-battling-to-save-the-internet.
University of Derby (2023). A-Z Databases. [online] Derby.ac.uk. Available at: https://libguides.derby.ac.uk/az/databases?q=archive [Accessed 14 Apr. 2025].
University of Derby (n.d.). Welcome to University of Derby Repository : University of Derby Repository. [online] repository.derby.ac.uk. Available at: https://repository.derby.ac.uk/.
