Preserving information long-term: digital archiving

A panel discussion regarding digital archiving efforts by the U.S. Library of Congress (LC). In December 2000 Congress authorized LC to develop and execute a plan for a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). LC developed a plan, in collaboration with other federal and nonfederal entities, to build a national network of organizations with responsibilities for collecting digital materials, and to identify the policies, protocols and strategies needed for digital preservation. In January 2005 LC launched official partnerships with eight institutions and their partners to identify, collect, and preserve digital materials within a collaborative digital preservation network. The institutions will share responsibilities for preserving at-risk digital materials of significant cultural and historical value to the nation, including digital content relating to political web sites, public television programs, geospatial data, culture and history collections, social science data, and legal and business materials relating to the birth of the dot com era. The National Science Foundation has, in May 2005, awarded the first grants under the joint NSF/LC Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation (DIGARCH) program. These awards will address three critical areas: 1) Digital repository models; 2) Tools, technologies and processes; and 3) Organizational, economic and policy issues. LC is also exploring collaborative strategies for preservation of significant state and local government information in digital form. During 2005, the Library will sponsor collaborative workshops to help states identify their needs and priorities for digital preservation. A toolkit will be made available to each state to enable this analysis. This session will provide an update on NDIIPP overall with a focus on the three initiatives noted above. A speakers from the Library will outline goals for the partnerships and review progress in meeting those goals. A speaker from the Georgia Institute of Technology will discuss activities under one of the eight partnerships. A speaker from the University of Michigan will outline goals of a project funded by the DIGARCH program. And a speaker from the Center for Technology in Government will discuss the LC states initiative.