I'm worried about the fragility of what archivists call ''born-digital records'', that is, electronic information that was originally created in a digital format.

In this age of digital revolution, information is more abundant than ever. International Data Centre research figures show information volumes are increasing by 57 per cent annually. There is a digital-records black hole looming over us because we don't have the strategies in place to preserve our born-digital records.

I'm discovering in my work as a historian that born-digital records created in the past 10 years are much more difficult to access than paper records from 100 years ago. We need our records to make informed decisions to avoid the mistakes of the past, to plan for the future, and to keep governments accountable.

Social media, for example, is rapidly becoming a standard business tool. Yet there are critical issues with information and access. Just one year after Egypt's 2011 revolution, nearly 11 per cent of the social media content documenting this civilian uprising disappeared.

Closer to home, a survey of NSW government departments last year revealed 79 per cent of them use social media, yet 60 per cent weren't capturing social media records.

History can only be told from the records that survive or are preserved. Archivists around the world have been working hard to educate governments about the urgency of capturing born-digital records and preserving them.

UNESCO recognises preservation and access to digital records as a global challenge. Rapidly changing technology raises the stakes as it creates redundancy and limits access. Challenges we face include obsolete platforms, system migration and orphaned digital records where extracted data makes no sense, not to mention the exponential growth of digital information being created and the need to manage and dispose of this information.

So what can we do? We need leaders to take stewardship of this issue to prioritise and value our digital records.

We can all take responsibility for our own digital records. Do some digital housekeeping: delete, back-up, use open-source or ubiquitous software to minimise redundancy, and be aware of the platforms you store and share your information on and what access you have.

We need to hold governments to account and remind them of their responsibilities. They have to invest in and maintain well-funded, official archives for our born-digital records. The National Archives of Australia and Public Records Victoria are the only two government agencies in Australia to have functioning, funded digital archives for government records, supported by preservation strategies.

The NSW State Records Act requires the government to preserve and make accessible government records. It costs $1 million a year to run the State Digital Archive, including OpenGov.

It's true millions of dollars are dedicated to digital preservation, to make paper and photographic records accessible online in the digital age. But we can't confuse this with the digital archive. Digitisation projects do nothing to solve the problems of storage, preservation and access to born-digital records.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states each individual has the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. We need to future-proof the memory of the world so we can access our digital records for years to come.

Lisa Murray is the city historian at the City of Sydney.