Albany, NY -- To solve the problem of how to manage and preserve the terabytes of digital information generated by state government each year, the New York State Archives is participating in a grant project through the Library of Congress's National Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIP). New York is one of only four states in this demonstration project.
State Archivist Christine W. Ward, who will be giving testimony before the State Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations on Tuesday, February 12 on state records in the digital age, said: "We are pleased to be on the front lines addressing a situation that is shared by all states. If a viable solution to our electronic records problem is not found soon, much of the history of our age is at risk of loss."
The goal of the project, entitled Persistent Digital Archives and Library System, is to develop a digital information system to collect, store, and preserve electronic records and publications from New York and the other participating states of Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin. The system will be a low-cost, highly automated information network that will tie these states’ digital storage systems together. The storage systems will hold government records, court case files, Web-based publications, and geospatial data, all of which provide valuable information that is more usable and accessible if maintained in electronic form.
When the system is operational, it will allow government to automatically retrieve and transfer massive quantities of electronic records into the storage system. Digital copies of these records will be stored across the nation at different points in the network, which will protect them in case of a catastrophic disaster in one state. The preservation of these records, ordinarily something too large and time-consuming to do manually, will be done automatically.
This project is one of a number of projects recently funded through NDIIPP to address digital preservation issues in state government. The total amount of the funds being made available is $2.25 million. Details can be found at www.digitalpreservation.gov.
The State Archives is a program of the State Education Department. At its
facility in the Cultural Education Center in Albany, the Archives cares for
more than 200 million archival records of New York State government dating from
the 1630s to the present. Through its nine regional offices and its support
of the Documentary Heritage Program, the State Archives also provides services
to help 4,300 local governments and 3,000-community organizations care for their
records.