Teollisuusliitto, the Industrial Union in Finland, actively promotes and advocates the rights and benefits of employees in industries such as metal, chemical and wood product as well as many others. With a rich history over 100 years, the organisation needed a clever solution for its historical documents.

CHALLENGE

Like many organisations, the Union had collected documents and photographs that show the development of the Union, and the development of the industrial workforce in Finland over the last 100 years.

This important history can be easily lost if not digitised and preserved appropriately for the future.

The Union had previously relied on microfilm as a medium designed to last for a long time. Though microfilm historically has proven its benefits as a stable and authentic long-term storage medium, its short comings when it comes to also storing a more diverse range of digital information was a problem for the union archive.

The Union wanted a long-lasting solution, while ensuring access in the future to the digital files.

SOLUTION

The Union decided that Piql offered the best of both worlds, a permanent digital storage medium with simple access through piqlConnect, our new client platform.

In this archival project, the Union stored 50 GB of data, including documents, as both one digital copy and a copy of visual representation on the flexible piqlFilm (similar to traditional microfilm).

By choosing Piql over another round of microfilm, the Union now can store the files digitally as well as in analogue form, with better documentation of metadata as well as storing a broader range of file formats. In addition they are provided easy access to their archival files while enjoying a significant cost saving.

The Union also received complementary access to piqlConnect. Through the platform, the Union can view all the preserved data on piqlFilm with the registered metadata and easily get an overview of the archive which is being stored offline for security and archival purposes.

FUTURE

In the future, the Union can benefit from using the easy to use software platform to upload the data they wish to archive, assign appropriate metadata (suggested metadata schemes are provided), and select a range of preservation options.

This gives them a simple opportunity to store more archival information on the preferred piqlFilm storage medium and use the platform to request access to the offline data while also enjoying instant access to any data stored online.