Future Work
Considering the exponential growth of technology in recent times, and making
emphasis on the short period of time this growth has been achieved in, it is difficult
to make predictions about the development of new technologies in the short term i.e.
over the next ten to twenty years. It follows that a prediction about long term or very
long term future technologies is a virtual impossibility.
Future work nevertheless, will
focus on making the Archon system core evolve in tandem with the higher
technologies of the future. Examples of future higher technologies may be Artificial
Intelligence engines run from Quantum Computer systems. The term Quantum Computer here may
be interpreted as “… computation that is primarily about information, probabilities, and
observables, and how they relate to each other.”3
The Archon database currently manages close to 200,000 records,
a large number of images and videos as well as audio records of
first hand testimonials
of the evacuation of the Gibraltarians during World War Two
and more.
Work to complete the task is expected
to continue for some years to come.
A W Pitaluga
Archivist
Gibraltar National Archives 2014
References
1. Archon from the Greek Arkheion:”… initially a house, a domicile, an address,
the residence of the superior magistrates [in ancient Athens],
the archons.
The archons were considered to possess the right to make or to represent the law.
On account of their publicly recognized authority,
it is at their home,
that official documents' are filed."
The Arkheion, the dwelling, this place where documents' dwell permanently, marks the institutional passage
from the private to the public.” (Derrida 1995)2
2. Jacques Derrida Archive fever: a Freudian Impression
1995 The John Hopkins University Press
ISBN-13:978-0-226-14367-5(paper)
Originally published as Mal d'Archive: une impression freudienne
3. Scott Aaronson Quantum Computing Since Democritus
S.Aaronson 2013
Published by Cambridge University Press
www.cambridge.org/9780521199568
ISBN 978-0-521-19956-8
Gibraltar National Archives
Archivist Preface
In 2012 the Gibraltar National Archives initiated a long-term digitisation programme of its physical holdings.
The aim is to create, a linking passage, that extends the physical, the “real world” of the Archives into the
digital realm. To provide permanent, long term, digital as well as physical preservation and access.
We are at the initial stages of creating a comprehensive catalogue of all our holdings with the intention of
establishing an electronic repository to disseminate and gather information freely and publically via the Internet.
Digitisation and Dissemination Strategy
Archon1 
Gibraltar National Archives collections database management system
is based on the Consultative Committee
for Space Data Systems, Open Archival Information System – OAIS.
Archon has been created around the OAIS paradigm that has proved useful not only to space data systems but also to a wide
variety of other organizations and institutions with digital archiving needs. At its rawest the model employs a trilogy of
components; production, ingestion and consumption.
Archon already provides and gathers information and resources remotely.
In addition, future work will also focus on how to mitigate the biggest technological revolution of all times, en route to
a higher technology era, where new advancements will very quickly make previous models extinct while at the same time not
compromising service.
The purpose of Archon is to establish and preserve a core, long term Gibraltar digital repository that is useful, usable and securely
accessible for both the academic and the general public alike well into the future.