With thanks to David Ryan PRO for drawing this to the attention of the list. Members of the list will be interested in the recent report of the US General Accounting Office(GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, entitled "Information Management: Challenges in Managing and Preserving Electronic Records" see http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02586.pdf In this report, the GAO considered the efforts of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) towards digital preservation, particularly those focused on the Electronic Records Archive (ERA) initiative. A summary of the key findings from the report is given below. NARA has taken action to respond to the challenges associated with managing and preserving electronic records. In 2001, NARA completed an assessment of the current federal recordkeeping environment; this study concluded that although agencies are creating and maintaining records appropriately, most electronic records (including databases of major federal information systems) remain unscheduled, and records of historical value are not being identified and provided to NARA for preservation in archives. As a result, valuable electronic records may be at risk of loss. Part of the problem is that records management guidance is inadequate in the current technological environment of decentralized systems producing large volumes of complex records. Another factor is the low priority often given to records management programs and the lack of technology tools to manage electronic records. Finally, NARA does not perform systematic inspections of agency records and records management programs, and so it does not have comprehensive information allowing it to identify records management implementation issues and areas where its guidance needs to be strengthened. NARA plans to improve its guidance and to address technology issues. However, NARA’s plans do not address the low priority generally given to records management programs nor the issue of systematic inspections. Recognizing the limitations of its technical strategies to support preservation, management, and sustained access to electronic records, NARA is planning to design, acquire, and manage an advanced electronic records archive (ERA); however, this project faces substantial risks. NARA is behind schedule for the ERA system, largely because of flaws in how the schedule was developed. Further, to acquire a major system like ERA, NARA needs to improve its information technology (IT) management capabilities, and although it has made progress in doing so, its efforts are not yet complete. Regarding alternative archiving technologies for electronic records, we found that archival organizations now rely on a mixture of evolving approaches that generally fall short of solving the long-term preservation problem. Appendix II provides a detailed discussion of these approaches. In light of the continuing challenge of managing federal records, both electronic and otherwise, we are recommending that the Archivist of the United States develop a strategy for raising awareness of the importance of federal records management programs and for performing systematic inspections. In addition, to mitigate the risks associated with developing the new archival system, we are recommending that the Archivist reassess the schedule for this effort. In commenting on a draft of this report, the Archivist stated that more must be done to address the enormous challenges in managing and preserving electronic records and agreed with the report’s recommendations. He also offered clarifications concerning records management priority, inspections, and the ERA schedule that we have incorporated as appropriate. ****************************************************************************** ******* Neil Beagrie JISC Digital Preservation Focus Programme Director Secretary, Digital Preservation Coalition JISC London Office, Tel/Fax/Voicemail :+44 (0)709 2048179 King's College London email: [log in to unmask] Strand Bridge House url: www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/preservation/ 138 - 142, The Strand, www.dpconline.org London WC2R 1HH email list: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/digital-preservation.html ****************************************************************************** *******