Ms Beatrice Kelly:

On the question of digitisation and preservation, the local authority museums need a national infrastructure of some form on which to stash these things. Digitisation brings with it responsibilities in the area of digital preservation, which is a significant expense and headache. It requires long-term planning. We all need to consider this issue, which extends beyond the cultural sector. That is a discussion for another day. Research from Europeana has shown that digitisation deepens existing links with objects and things, but does not widen audiences. This brings us back to the point that was made earlier about the value that people place on items. If people do not know that a collection is available online, they will not find it or look for it. Education is the key to making people curious. Denying people their right to their history is a form of denial of human rights. That is how we should be looking at this. It is clear from looking at the difficulties we have had in this country when people have been denied their pasts that we need to look at the collective basis of what we are now possibly replicating by denying.