Inside the Archive #61: European Public Domain Day and extended downtime

On 15 January 2026, Annie Shaw, Public Access Researcher, and Louise McAward-White, Collections Data Manager, joined a great line-up to discuss all things public domain for European Public Domain Day at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) in Brussels. Public Domain Day celebrates the heritage works that come into the public domain each year as their copyright terms expire, by examining how people are working with public domain material and highlight the legal, financial, and technical hurdles that prevent public access.

Annie and Louise presented the work of the Graveyard Shift events, held as part of the Our Screen Heritage project. At these events, members of the public research filmmakers in the BFI collection to record their dates of death. Death dates are essential for establishing the length of copyright, as in most cases copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the author. They are therefore crucial for understanding which heritage works make up part of the public domain.

Our presentation focused on copyright rules for films and how the length of protection has changed over time under the different copyright acts in the UK, how we run the Graveyard Shift events, and the responses from our generous and diligent volunteer researchers.

The response to the presentation was great – many attendees told us our presentation was the “most fun”, and highlighted how great it was to see how interested and keen the attendees at the Graveyard Shift events were and how good it is to see ways to get the public interested in copyright. It was a fascinating day, with policy updates and discussions about the current landscape followed by presentations showcasing how public domain works are being used in imaginative and creative ways.

European Public Domain Day 2026 was supported and organised by COMMUNIA, Meemoo, Wikimedia Europe, Wikimedia Belgium, the Europeana Initiative, Creative Commons, CREATE, Internet Archive Europe, the Royal Library of Belgium and Open Nederland.

– Louise McAward-White, Collections Data Manager, and Annie Shaw, Public Access Researcher

Book tickets for the next Graveyard Shift free event at BFI Reuben Library on 2 March 2026.

Extended downtime is something we rarely schedule at the BFI National Archive. Our systems support daily archive operations, research, and preservation work, so availability is always a priority. However, just before Christmas, we made the deliberate decision to plan a short period of extended downtime in order to carry out essential work that would significantly improve the security and resilience of our digital infrastructure. While most people were preparing for mince pies and end-of-year wind-down, a small group of what might best be described as “data centre elves” were preparing for something rather different.

At its core, good cyber security is about good cyber hygiene. That means using strong, complex passwords that are unique to each system, applying appropriate access controls, both logical and physical; and ensuring that software and hardware are kept up to date with security patches.

A vulnerability is a flaw in software or firmware that can be exploited by a malicious actor to gain unauthorised access. Keeping on top of vulnerabilities is an ongoing challenge. Although the archive operates a relatively small network, it is a complex one. We rely on a combination of legacy equipment, which allows us to work with older technologies, and high-end infrastructure more typically found in much larger organisations. Over the past year, significant work has gone into reducing and managing vulnerabilities across this environment. However, a small number remained deep within the network core.

At the heart of the network sit the core switches – the devices responsible for moving data between servers, storage, and workstations. Patching and upgrading these systems safely required them to be taken offline. To do this properly, and without introducing additional risk, we needed a planned five-day network outage. This kind of extended downtime is unusual for us, but it allowed the work to be completed thoroughly and safely in one controlled window.

During this pre-Christmas shutdown, the work went well beyond applying security updates. The data centre – now approaching its tenth birthday – was given something of a seasonal winter clean. Old and obsolete equipment was removed, standards were applied consistently across racks and cabling, and the environment was rebuilt in a way that is easier to secure, audit, and maintain going forward.

Physical security was improved by ensuring all racks can be properly locked, and the network was redesigned to build in greater resilience. These changes mean that, in the future, critical infrastructure can be patched and upgraded more easily, often without the need for extended downtime. As part of the work, network capacity was also improved, allowing increased speeds to some workstations.

As the data centre enters its second decade, this work marks an important step in making sure it remains fit for purpose. While cyber security work often happens quietly behind the scenes, this was a rare opportunity to step back, improve the foundations, and future-proof the systems that support the Archive’s digital collections.

Thanks to some careful planning and a dedicated group of festive data centre elves the Archive now enters the new year with infrastructure that is more secure, more resilient, and far easier to maintain. It may not have involved tinsel or fairy lights, but it was very much in the spirit of preparing for the future.

– Will Pook, Cyber Security Engineer

Our Screen Heritage and the Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.