Digital Government: Proposal for a Workshop to Develop a Research Agenda on Digital Archiving and Preservation

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

EIA-0214690 Margaret L. Hedstrom University of Michigan Digital Government: Proposal for a Workshop to Develop a Research Agenda on Digital Archiving and Preservation Archiving of digital records in the Federal government is rapidly outstripping the need for archiving of physical objects - for example, it is expected that in the next year or so, the National Archive and Records Administration (NARA) must be prepared to accept, index, and make searchable over 20 million Federal emails. Few agencies are thinking beyond the next 2-3 years, though many, such as NARA, will be required to maintain electronic records in perpetuity. Many issues arise, such as the natural 3-5 year obsolescence cycle of computintg systems, and the perhaps longer cycle of operating systems and applications and associated file formats. Research in this area is clearly needed - the question is one of identifying topic areas in detail, and assigning some priority. That is what this workshop is intended to accomplish. Several other agencies will actively participate in this workshop: the National Library of Medicine, the Library of Congress and the National Agricultural Library.