The Lifecycle and Preservation of Electronic Records
November 30, 2017, is International Digital Preservation Day (Twitter hashtag #IDPD17). The National Archives is participating in this worldwide initiative to promote digital preservation by talking about its work with electronic records. Today’s post comes from Ted Hull (Electronic Records Division), Leslie Johnston (Digital Preservation), and John Martinez (Policy and Standards Team).
The National Archives and Records Administration has a long history of working with born-digital electronic records—as far back as 1970. An integral part of this work is the issuance of extensive guidance on all aspects of Federal electronic records eligible for transfer to NARA, including media types, file formats, and metadata.
The development of this guidance is now complemented by a greater focus inside NARA on digital preservation. NARA has recently issued its first agency-wide digital preservation strategy. We are also developing file format preservation plans that align with the guidance issued to agencies to inform both the processing and the preservation of its electronic records holdings.
Here’s an introduction to the lifecycle for one category of electronic records—textual—from start to preservation.