The UIC Documentation Group, composed of representatives of railway documentation centres, libraries and archive centres, met in Lisbon on 4 – 5 June 2009. 13 member companies attended the meeting.
This year the Documentation Group Information Session tackled the issue of preserving documents in digital form.
The seminar, followed by a sharing of experiences allowed the group:

– To gain an overview of the archiving policies for digital documents in place in various companies,
– To identify whether certain companies have implemented structured, standardised policies for the production of documents, and how they have dealt with this,
– To highlight the development of the various parties’ respective roles and of the links between archive centres and documentation centres in this context.
Participants had the opportunity to discover the New Digital Archive Management System (SAP DMS) at Portuguese Railways and learnt from the experience of the General Secretariat already using the system.

A technical visit to the “Hemeroteca Municipal” of Lisbon was organised on 4th June. The project “Hemeroteca Digital” aims to set up a digital library of newspapers and magazines entered into the public domain. With this project the Lisbon Municipal Library intends to create a reference place for the online consultation and public diffusion of the fascinating universe of the Portuguese periodic press.
Those interested were also able to discover the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Banco de Portugal and the “Museu do Oriente”.