On the 28th of last month (local time), at the International Convention Centre of Barcelona (CCIB) in Spain, during the General Assembly of the International Council on Archives (ICA).
It was a "World Records Olympics" that brought together about 2,000 people, including national archives and culture ministry officials from countries around the world and records experts. This year's theme was "Know the past, create the future."
At the opening ceremony, taxes Cuffs, ICA president, said, "There is no justice or democracy in a society that is not recorded." Jordi Martí, representative of the Department of Culture of the State Governments of Catalonia in Spain, stressed, "The preservation of memory determines the future of society."
They discussed the direction for the global records management industry, including digital archives that preserve national records and cultural assets using advanced technologies such as AI, as well as green archiving that can help address climate change.
◇ ICA Barcelona, the "World Records Olympics"… "Green archiving" emerges as a key topic amid the climate crisis
The theme of this assembly was "sustainable records preservation."
As AI-based digital archives spread and energy use surges, the importance of "green archiving" has come to the fore.
Morgan Attias, head at the French records management company Infotel Software, said, "The digitization of records is increasing energy consumption," and noted, "A resource-saving preservation system is urgently needed."
They also discussed the impact of climate change on documentary heritage. An official at the National Archives of Brazil said, "There are more cases of records being damaged by heavy rain," and pointed out, "Physical preservation technologies to respond to the climate crisis are urgent."
◇ The only Korean participant at ICA, "BioMist"… showcasing eco-friendly disinfection technology for records
BioMist Technology was the only Korean corporation to take part in the ICA General Assembly. It showcased the "Bio Master," equipment that disinfects national records and cultural assets using a natural disinfectant. The equipment uses plant-based agents extracted from herb essential oils to disinfect national cultural heritage items made not only of old documents but also of leather, iron, and wood.
BioMist's booth was packed that day. In response to explanations from Chief Executive Choi Yeong-sin, officials from the national archives of Poland, Brazil, and Oman on site kept shouting, "Good! Good!"
"Conventional cultural asset disinfection used harmful chemicals that required cultural asset managers to wear gas masks. But Bio Master is a natural disinfection system harmless to people and the environment, so anyone can use it easily and conveniently."
Founded in 1995 by Chief Executive Choi Yeong-sin, the company was the first in Korea to launch businesses in natural insecticides and natural antimicrobials using ingredients extracted from plants.
In the early 2000s, with technical support from the National Archives of Korea, and together with the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) and the Chungnam National University Agricultural Science Research Institute, it developed the "Bio Master," a natural-ingredient-based disinfection device for records.
Bio Master is an eco-friendly disinfection system that replaces the carcinogenic chemicals methyl bromide (MB) and ethylene oxide (EO) used by existing corporations, completely eliminating substances whose use is banned internationally. It also applies a precision heat-control vaporization system and vacuum/atmospheric pressure control technologies so that disinfectant components are designed to penetrate uniformly into the interior of records.
BioMist also unveiled for the first time that day the "Bio Master X," which drastically reduced the existing disinfection process, which took an average of 20 hours to as long as three weeks, to five hours.
BioMist supplies Bio Master not only in Korea but also to the national archives and culture ministries of Japan, Malaysia, the UAE, Oman, and Lithuania. That day, it also signed a contract with a local Polish corporation and with an agency covering four Eastern European countries, including Poland.
Choi said, "The value and preservation management of original records are becoming as important as digital archives," and added, "We are accelerating our push into overseas markets with BioMist's eco-friendly disinfection system as our weapon."
The ICA General Assembly was assessed to have opened the future of the records industry with digital technology while also posing new challenges.
Merce Crosas, a data scientist at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, said, "AI also carries the risk of generating incorrect metadata," and said, "We need to set legal and ethical standards and apply them step by step."