NARA's Electronic Records Archive (ERA) - The Electronic Records Challenge

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation’s recordkeeper. NARA is a public trust that safeguards the records of the American people, ensuring the accountability and credibility of their national institutions, while documenting their national experience. Today NARA holds an estimated 4 billion records nationwide. The Archives consists of the permanently valuable records generated in all three branches of the Federal Government. These record collections span this country’s entire experience, across our history, the breadth of our nation, and our people. While paper documents presently predominate, NARA holds enormous numbers of other media, such as reels of motion picture film, maps, charts, and architectural drawings, sound and video recordings, aerial photographs, still pictures and posters, and computer data sets. It is that last medium, the electronic records, that is the fastest growing record keeping medium in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Since 1998, NARA has established key partnerships with Federal Agencies, state and local governments, universities, other national archives, the scientific community, and private industry to perform research enabling better understanding of the problems and the possibilities associated with the electronic records challenge. The challenge of electronic records encompasses the proof and assurance of records authenticity and assurance of record persistence and ready access to records over time. 1. Background/General Project Description