Building an Electronic Records Archive at the National Archives and Records Administration Recommendations for a Long-Term Strategy (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B “Summary and Recommendations” Chapter from the Committee’s First Report
Appendix B “Summary and Recommendations” Chapter from the Committee’s First Report
Pages 76-86
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From page 76... ...
, which resulted in a series of archival preservation demonstrations. Building on this experience and that of other institutions studying digital preservation, NARA's new ERA Program Office plans to begin initial procurement for a production ERA in 2003.
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From page 77... ...
As NARA recognizes, it is critical to start developing new electronic records preservation capabilities quickly in order to continue to fulfill NARA's mandate to preserve federal records. With the rapid increase in federal records in digital form -- and with many records born digital or existing only in digital form -- it is clear that solutions must be found for preserving these records in order for NARA to continue to fulfill its mandate.
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From page 78... ...
The requirements of NARA's ERA program have much in common with those of other digital preservation systems. Although NARA's statutory mandate to preserve federal records is unique, many organi zations need to preserve digital objects and are taking steps to design and implement systems that address this need.
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From page 79... ...
help grow the cadre of professionals trained in digital preservation and build ties that would help NARA recruit them to work on the ERA program.
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From page 80... ...
Importantly, the intent of this recommendation is not that the ERA program should be significantly delayed to conduct detailed surveys; only rough esti mates are needed, and order-of-magnitude estimates will suffice in most cases. Examples of the required data include these:
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From page 81... ...
· Mechanisms for delivering records to NARA. While today's and future records can be delivered to NARA using secure networking techniques, records generated over the past 30 years or less may reside outside network-connected systems on media that are rapidly becom ing obsolete.
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From page 82... ...
These derived forms can readily be created for many common record types by making use of existing export functions or conversion software. Derived forms are, however, no substitute for preserving and providing access to the original bits.
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From page 83... ...
Over time, it should become possi ble to use single, consistent access tools to search all the records in the custody of NARA, be they physical or digital. Indeed, over time, some current physical records may even be trans ferred to digital form.
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From page 84... ...
To supplement its in-house expertise, NARA should recruit an advisory group of government, academic, and commercial experts with deep knowledge of digital preservation and IT system design. A standing ERA advisory committee focused on digital preservation issues would provide an ongoing way to supplement NARA's IT capabilities.
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From page 85... ...
A proper modular design allows components to be upgraded without disrupting the oper ation of the system. An overall structure for the ERA is suggested by the OAIS reference model, but a design for the ERA will need to be much more detailed in order to exploit the benefits of modularity.
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From page 86... ...
, so that they may eventually coalesce into a smaller number of more comprehensive systems as experience and confidence grow. It is especially important that the data model -- the data types and related metadata -- conform to the architecture so that the digital data obtained by ingesting records into one of the early systems will carry forward into future evolutions.
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