Saving History: RCN’s Innovative Use of Digital Preservation During COVID-19
The Royal College of Nursing diligently captured and stored events and data in real-time during the pandemic, ensuring that future generations can relive and learn from this historic chapter of human history.
Executive Summary
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the world’s largest nursing union and professional body.
Representing over half a million nursing staff and students in the UK and internationally, its members are spread across over 100 branches in 12 countries and regions, with 2,000 acting as workplace representatives. The RCN faced unprecedented challenges in 2020 as COVID-19 emerged, including giving timely advice as scientific understanding evolved. The RCN's archive team understood the importance of documenting events, actions and communications to ensure accountability and facilitate future improvements.
The RCN archive team has been using Preservica since 2016. They upgraded to Professional Plus (previously known as Cloud Edition Professional) in 2020 as their requirements changed and storage increased. They created a collection plan covering key governance areas and new initiatives prompted by the pandemic. Supported by Preservica's additional 250GB of free storage, the RCN diligently captured events and data in real-time. This effort ensures that future generations can relive and learn from this historic chapter of human history.
Preserving RCN's Pandemic Response
The RCN Digital Archive holds the most important collection of nursing history in Europe. The archive has an extensive collection which contains the RCN corporate archive, personal papers and oral histories from nurses and members of the RCN, as well as photographs, postcards and badges.
Fiona Bourne, Archive Manager at RCN, shared her main motivation for the team’s proactive collecting efforts. "In February 2020, we started saving emails, press releases, web pages and clinical guidance resources. As an archive team, we did this from instinct knowing that these records would form a significant part of our contemporary collecting."
Without a formal records management system, a crucial aspect of their daily responsibilities involved ensuring the collection of essential records for permanent preservation in the archive, particularly as the pandemic intensified. The archive team devised a comprehensive COVID collection plan to actively capture and preserve various pandemic-related records, including website bulletins concerning COVID-19. They also collaborated with the RCN's communications team to gather frontline nurses' testimonials shared with national media. This initiative aims to document the college and its members' contributions for future generations, providing evidence of the RCN's pivotal role and actions during the pandemic.
Impact and Accessibility of RCN's Pandemic Archive with Preservica
As a response to the pandemic, Preservica launched the #ourcovid19story initiative to support its user community, who were diligently capturing and preserving the pandemic's story for future generations. To aid in this effort, an additional 250GB of free cloud storage was offered, along with extra training and support. This initiative enabled users, such as the RCN, to surpass their goals by gathering approximately 100,000 new digital records related to COVID-19. These records include documents, web pages, and audiovisual files such as position statements, press releases, news stories, and online resources. They are now publicly accessible through the RCN's digital archive page.
For RCN nurse members, these records are available via a dedicated member digital archive, accessible through login credentials. While regular governance records and certain emergency committees, working groups and task and finish groups remain private to the organization, they are also accessible to a select audience.
“If anyone had said to us at the start that archiving the website was actually going to be the easiest part to complete, I wouldn't have believed them. However, they would have been completely right. That's a testament to the simplicity and user-friendly nature of the Preservica system and workflows” - Fiona Bourne, Archives Manager at RCN
The COVID-19 Inquiry: Evidential Records and Staff Testimonials
The UK and Scottish governments are currently running public inquiries into how each responded to the pandemic. The RCN has been called to give evidence to both inquiries. With the need to answer specific questions to tight legal deadlines, the RCN produced thousands of evidential records about the organisation’s activities relating to each module topic. The RCN legal team was given secure access to the digital archive where they could retrieve records with a persistent digital location. With the support of the archive team they have been able to respond promptly and effectively.
The RCN and the COVID-19 Inquiry | Royal College of Nursing
Transitioning from Pandemic Response to Ongoing Documentation and Future Preparedness
Using Preservica’s online digital preservation and discovery platform, the RCN efficiently captured, preserved and made materials securely accessible to members across various devices and locations.
In anticipation of future public inquiries into the government’s pandemic response, the RCN is well-prepared to promptly and effectively provide evidence. This evidence underscores the RCN's advisory and support roles for nurses and care workers within the NHS and independent sectors, showcasing the contributions of key staff to government advisory committees.
Explore how Preservica's Professional Plus can meet all your core requirements for successful long-term digital preservation, including seamless public and secure access. Discover how our integrated application, easily deployed and hosted in the cloud, ensures your organization preserves and provides access to critical digital assets efficiently.