Artefactual is pleased to announce the launch of a new commercial service. Building on the success of our Bag Bags, starting April 1st 2024 we will be delivering all of our customers checksums by post. This approach will allow us to connect more closely with customers than ever before, while ensuring that we remain committed to our core practice of documenting preservation actions. On postcards.
“Digital preservation should be a personal experience. Fixity is important in digital preservation,” says Managing Director Justin Simpson. “But honestly it’s a bit boring. By bringing you your integrity information on the back of a beautiful postcard, our customers will feel more of a sense of connection with their digital collection. You need reliability, and we’ll deliver. Or the post office will. Eventually.”
To commemorate the launch of this new service, Artefactual has commissioned the production of new Artefactual branded postage stamps.
That’s right – starting today, for every AIP that is preserved by one of our customers, we’ll send the checksum in the mail (some restrictions apply)*. And you will know it is a valid checksum† by the Artefactual postage stamp.
“The durability and trustworthiness of the mail system is just the next phase in Artefactual’s work to support long-term preservation,” says Chief Archivist Kelly Stewart. “Just like how we use Cakematica to enable open-source, community-led Cake-as-a-Service, we really see a role for our new Validators team to expand our reach into the physical sphere by making sure your checksum is in the mail.”
The new Validators team is standing by to post your checksums, so don’t delay!
* valid only for AIPs made with the files in the images folder of the Archivematica sample data
† validity not guaranteed upon arrival