April 2005

The Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany has created a toolkit to aid in the preservation of digital content. The project was funded by an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, and the toolkit will be distributed to states and territories by the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.

Federal laws specify requirements for the preservation of paper documents, but the arena of electronic records remains largely unregulated. According to Brian Burke, the Center for Technology in Government's project manager, this results in inconsistent procedures from state to state for preserving digital material. Librarians and archivists from around the country are saying that "there's tons of information that's being lost or predicted to be lost," said Burke. The toolkit focuses on establishing predictable policies and communication among states and territories so that various agencies can work together to preserve digital content consistently.

Further information is available at the Center for Technology in Government web site at this URL: http://www.ctg.albany.edu/projects/lc.