The growing problem of accessing old digital file formats is a “ticking time bomb”, according to Natalie Keeney the chief executive of the UK National Archives notes a BBC article today.

Apparently some of the digital documents held at the archives have already been ‘lost’ due to the loss of programs that read them. Natalie puts the problem down to the plethora of proprietary file formats that were around at the start of the digital age.

I first came across this issue when I’d heard that the data from the BBC’s Domesday Project’s Laser Discs , created in 1986 was being recovered in 2002. (For more on this see an article in Aridane).

Microsoft are now working with the National Archives to ensure that old formats can be read in the future.