MitjaDečman UniversityofLjubljana,FacultyofAdministration,Gosarjeva5,1000Ljubljana,Slovenia,[email protected] Theuseofinformationandcommunicationtechnologyanditswidespreadpresencecauseavastamountofdatatobecrea- tedinthepublicandprivatesectorseveryday.Thewidespreadpresenceofe-governmentsites,servicesandcommunication inthedevelopedworldaddevenmoredata.Thisdigitaldatadoesnotonlyrepresenttheaccountabilityandreliabilityofthe processes,stepsanddecisionstakenbyorganisations,butalsoasourceofinformationforfuturegenerations.Thispaperdis- cussestheissueoflong-termdigitalpreservationwithaspecialfocusonlong-termdigitalpreservationinpublicadministra- tion.Itanalysesproblematicissues,currentdevelopmenttrendsinthisarea,andprinciplesandsolutionsthatcanbefound aroundtheworld.ThepaperfocusesonSloveniaasoneoftheEUcountriesthathasmosteffectivelydevelopeditse-govern- mentduringthelastdecade.ItanalysesthesituationinSloveniathroughlegal,organisationalandotherchangesthathave appearedoverthelastfewyears,andconsidersthisasamodelforpossiblelong-termdigitalpreservation.Todescribethe situationfordigitalpreservationinSlovenianpublicadministration,theresultsofempiricalresearchmadein2007areused. Thepaperusestheoreticalbackgroundfromthefieldofdigitalpreservationandempiricalresultstoshowtheimportantlink betweene-business,e-government,e-governanceanddigitalpreservation.ItdemonstratesthatsinceSlovenianpublicadmi- nistrationhasstrictlyspecifiedbusinessprocesses,thetaskofimplementingdigitalpreservationismucheasier.Thesame conceptscanbetransferredtotheprivatesectorinSloveniaoranywhereelseintheworld. Keywords:digitalpreservation,e-government,e-governance,archiving,long-term

The­use­of­in­for­ma­tion­and­com­mu­ni­ca­tion­tech­no­logy­and­its­wi­des­pread­pre­sen­ce­cau­se­a­vast­amount­of­data­to­be­created­in­the­pub­lic­and­pri­va­te­sec­tors­every­day.­The­wi­des­pread­pre­sen­ce­of­e-go­vern­ment­si­tes,­ser­vi­ces­and­com­mu­ni­ca­tion­ in­the­de­ve­lo­ped­world­add­even­more­data.­This­di­gi­tal­data­does­not­only­re­pre­sent­the­ac­coun­ta­bi­lity­and­re­lia­bi­lity­of­the­ pro­ces­ses,­steps­and­de­ci­sions­ta­ken­by­or­ga­ni­sa­tions,­but­also­a­sour­ce­of­in­for­ma­tion­for­fu­tu­re­ge­ne­ra­tions.­This­pa­per­discus­ses­the­is­sue­of­long-term­di­gi­tal­pre­ser­va­tion­with­a­spe­cial­fo­cus­on­long-term­di­gi­tal­pre­ser­va­tion­in­pub­lic­ad­mi­ni­stration.­It­analy­ses­prob­le­ma­tic­is­sues,­cur­rent­de­ve­lop­ment­trends­in­this­area,­and­prin­ci­ples­and­so­lu­tions­that­can­be­found­ around­the­world.­The­pa­per­fo­cu­ses­on­Slo­ve­nia­as­one­of­the­EU­coun­tries­that­has­most­ef­fec­ti­vely­de­ve­lo­ped­its­e-go­vernment­du­ring­the­last­de­ca­de.­It­analy­ses­the­si­tua­tion­in­Slo­ve­nia­through­le­gal,­or­ga­ni­sa­tio­nal­and­ot­her­chan­ges­that­have­ ap­pea­red­over­the­last­few­years,­and­con­si­ders­this­as­a­mo­del­for­pos­sib­le­long-term­di­gi­tal­pre­ser­va­tion.­To­des­cri­be­the­ si­tua­tion­for­di­gi­tal­pre­ser­va­tion­in­Slo­ve­nian­pub­lic­ad­mi­ni­stra­tion,­the­re­sults­of­em­pi­ri­cal­re­search­made­in­2007­are­used.­ The­pa­per­uses­theo­re­ti­cal­back­ground­from­the­field­of­di­gi­tal­pre­ser­va­tion­and­em­pi­ri­cal­re­sults­to­show­the­im­por­tant­link­ bet­ween­e-bu­si­ness,­e-go­vern­ment,­e-go­ver­nan­ce­and­di­gi­tal­pre­ser­va­tion.­It­de­mon­stra­tes­that­sin­ce­Slo­ve­nian­pub­lic­ad­mini­stra­tion­has­strictly­spe­ci­fied­bu­si­ness­pro­ces­ses,­the­task­of­im­ple­men­ting­di­gi­tal­pre­ser­va­tion­is­much­ea­sier.­The­same­ con­cepts­can­be­trans­fer­red­to­the­pri­va­te­sec­tor­in­Slo­ve­nia­or­anyw­he­re­else­in­the­world.