Session C7
Tracks
Track C: Challenging Collections
| Thursday, August 28, 2025 |
| 4:25 PM - 5:25 PM |
Overview
Individual Papers
Chair: TBC
Harmonising existing knowledge with modern innovation: advancing archival storage on a truly sustainable path
Mr Mark Barry, Director, Architype
Ms Gael Dundas, Imperial War Museum
The environmental impact of digital information management: it's time to think about sustainable practices
Ms Joy Siller, Managing Director, Siller Systems Administration
Chair: TBC
Harmonising existing knowledge with modern innovation: advancing archival storage on a truly sustainable path
Mr Mark Barry, Director, Architype
Ms Gael Dundas, Imperial War Museum
The environmental impact of digital information management: it's time to think about sustainable practices
Ms Joy Siller, Managing Director, Siller Systems Administration
Speaker
Miss Jessica Taylor
Business Development
Architype
Harmonising existing knowledge with modern innovation: advancing archival storage on a truly sustainable path
4:25 PM - 4:45 PMAbstract
The foundational knowledge needed to care for archives can be found in archives themselves.
Firstly, we will look at those archives that have survived incident over the centuries and millenia without leaning on modern methods of construction or mechanical plant equipment to regulate their environment. Are there key principles from thermally robust buildings, crypts and alike that can be revived to underpin the design strategy of modern archives? Looking at the content within archival sources and the ideas that they present, we will also share the success of applying these theories practically, alongside modern sustainability practice to care for archives and deciding when to innovate.
Mark Barry, director and architect from Architype and Gael Dundas, assistant director of Collections Management at Imperial War Museums demonstrate the advantages of passive preservation, showcasing outstanding results from some of their built projects, including paper stores and chilled and freezer stores, where consistent and exemplar environments have been established. Critically many of these standard wartime buildings are widely in use, enabling this knowledge to be applied universally.
Mark and Gael will evidence how approaches that were cited nearly 50 years ago (Thompson, 1976) have underpinned their ongoing development that delivers incredibly resilient and flexible environments with radical financial savings in capital and operational costs.
The final element of the presentation will share how bespoke software has been created to maximise efficiency with storage types and layouts, and how AI can be used to enhance this, including retrieval times and mitigating risks to collections in transit.
Firstly, we will look at those archives that have survived incident over the centuries and millenia without leaning on modern methods of construction or mechanical plant equipment to regulate their environment. Are there key principles from thermally robust buildings, crypts and alike that can be revived to underpin the design strategy of modern archives? Looking at the content within archival sources and the ideas that they present, we will also share the success of applying these theories practically, alongside modern sustainability practice to care for archives and deciding when to innovate.
Mark Barry, director and architect from Architype and Gael Dundas, assistant director of Collections Management at Imperial War Museums demonstrate the advantages of passive preservation, showcasing outstanding results from some of their built projects, including paper stores and chilled and freezer stores, where consistent and exemplar environments have been established. Critically many of these standard wartime buildings are widely in use, enabling this knowledge to be applied universally.
Mark and Gael will evidence how approaches that were cited nearly 50 years ago (Thompson, 1976) have underpinned their ongoing development that delivers incredibly resilient and flexible environments with radical financial savings in capital and operational costs.
The final element of the presentation will share how bespoke software has been created to maximise efficiency with storage types and layouts, and how AI can be used to enhance this, including retrieval times and mitigating risks to collections in transit.
Biography
Mark Barry is an architect with 25 years experience and is director of sustainable architectural practice and building performance consultants, Architype.
As lead architect on the Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre in 2012, Mark and his team were the pioneers of the UK’s first Passivhaus certified archive; lessons and
evidence from which have initiated a growing movement for the methodology of passive preservation.
In 2019, Mark and team completed the Imperial War Museums Passivhaus Paper Store that made architectural headlines for its simple and bold beauty on the Duxford landscape.
As well as delivering radical new build projects to preserve our history, Mark has also worked with many existing buildings around the UK with varying levels of intervention to significantly improve environmental performance, resilience and space optimisation.
The practice continues to work within this sector with their expert team of designers rethinking how architectural design and integrated engineering use passive methodology to yield long-term sustainable results.
With over 25 years of leadership experience in collections management for national museums, Gael Dundas is currently serving as the assistant director of collections management at Imperial War Museums, leading innovative projects to enhance,
preserve, and utilize digital and analogue Collections. With a background in Museum Studies and History of Art and Architecture, Gael has a strong foundation in managing
collections, establishing disciplines, and contributing to the success of public, learning, and commercial programs. Prior to her role at Imperial War Museums, Gael held positions at National Maritime Museum and York Merchant Adventurers Company.
Mr Mark Barry
Architect And Director
Architype
Harmonising existing knowledge with modern innovation: advancing archival storage on a truly sustainable path
4:25 PM - 4:45 PMBiography
Ms. Gael Dundas
Harmonising existing knowledge with modern innovation: advancing archival storage on a truly sustainable path
4:25 PM - 4:45 PMBiography
Ms Joy Siller
Managing Director
Siller Systems Administration
The environmental impact of digital information management: it's time to think about sustainable practices
4:45 PM - 5:05 PMAbstract
Information managers should be committed to improving the ways information can be captured, organised, accessed, maintained and retained. Developments in digital technology have rapidly transformed the way we communicate and manage information using processes that, for some of us, could have only been imagined in science fiction.
Despite technology's inarguable benefits, we also need to consider the impact of the digital information management world on the environment. Is there anything that we, as information managers and good global citizens, can and should do?
Based on various sources, this paper will raise awareness of current sustainability issues including digital waste, energy use, the surge of artificial intelligence and cloud use, and the consequences of information appraisal, storage and preservation decisions and actions.
Finally, it will discuss possible action and further steps that need to be taken by information managers and their colleagues.
Despite technology's inarguable benefits, we also need to consider the impact of the digital information management world on the environment. Is there anything that we, as information managers and good global citizens, can and should do?
Based on various sources, this paper will raise awareness of current sustainability issues including digital waste, energy use, the surge of artificial intelligence and cloud use, and the consequences of information appraisal, storage and preservation decisions and actions.
Finally, it will discuss possible action and further steps that need to be taken by information managers and their colleagues.
Biography
Joy Siller is the Managing Director of Siller Systems Administration, a private information management consulting business.
Joy has almost 40 years’ experience in information management field having started in the NSW State Archives Office in the 1980s. She has undergraduate and post-graduate qualifications in library science (BA Lib Sc) and business/marketing (Master of Business); has worked full-time as a consultant, part-time as an academic at university; and chaired and participated in various committees and boards.
Joy has presented at over thirty conventions/conferences, both within Australia and in England (International Society for Knowledge Organisation London University 2015), New Zealand (AIC 1997) and at the International Council on Archives (2012).
Within her field of information management, she is also a trainer, facilitator and published author. She also holds a voluntary role as a local ambassador for RIMPA Global.
