The public interest in multimedia and visual information has increased. Since relatively recently, various institutes, both in the private and in the public sector, have started to improve accessibility of their collections by digitising them. Digitizing the photographic collections of public historical archives will offer the European citizens litterally a view of the past'. In Europe, the state of preservation of the collections vary and so does the degree of accessibility. In general there is no standard description for historical photo collections according to archival standards.
Access is usually extremely limited.
The archival services have a commitment to the public as to the integrity of a digital file. Archiving means also the need to take care of the contextual environment in which the objects have been created and filled. The emerging standards need experience in the field. The digital world challenges our notion of preservation and accessibility. Increasingly archivists must preserve a variety of formats of new media.