# Piql Storage

> Continuing the story of Piql technology. Data recorded on film is stored in the Arctic World Archive on Svalbard – underground in the permafrost, protected for centuries.

- Canonical page: https://shorin.me/en/blog/2024/06/piql-storage/
- Page language: English
- Published: 2024-06-19
- Tags: BibliotecaApostolicaVaticana, Preservation, Library, DigitalTransformation
- Russian version: https://shorin.me/blog/2024/06/piql-storage/index.md

In one of my previous posts, I explained that the Vatican Library had chosen technology developed by the Norwegian company [Piql](https://shorin.me/en/blog/2024/06/piql/index.md) for its project to preserve 500 of the greatest manuscripts for 500 years.

A question came up in the comments about how the film reels are stored, since so much depends on it.

And that is a very good question. Piql has a solid answer.

Piql records data on film and places it in a special case – piqlFilm. As a Piql representative wrote in the comments, the latest generations of film are fire-resistant. Piql can hand the piqlFilm over to you, and you are free to store it however you wish.

But there is another option. Piql can place these film reels in the Arctic World Archive, or AWA, which the company founded. The archive is located on Svalbard in Norway, underground in one of the mines.

This type of storage offers several advantages:

- Svalbard’s remoteness reduces vulnerability to physical threats such as natural disasters, theft and vandalism, helping to keep the data safe.
- The permafrost’s naturally low temperature provides an ideal environment for long-term data storage.
- The advanced cooling technology does not rely on energy-intensive systems but instead harnesses the power of nature.

Together, these factors provide secure and stable data storage for centuries.

Alongside the Vatican Library, organisations storing their data in AWA using Piql technology include:

- The European Space Agency;
- The National Museum of Norway;
- Yale University Library;
- GitHub (yes, GitHub keeps an archive of its repositories in the permafrost);
- The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts;
- The Embassy of Kazakhstan in Norway;
- UNICEF;
- CERN;
- …

## Media

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## Original posts

- LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/posts/oleg-shorin_bibliotecaapostolicavaticana-preservation-activity-7209064872230146048-TVtt>