From NextGov:
The National Archives and Records Administration must provide more detailed information on its progress creating a system to store the federal government’s electronic records, and develop a better contingency plan in case the system fails, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
Auditors found NARA’s 2009 spending strategy did not specify the [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Digital History category.
GAO: Weaknesses threaten Electronic Records Archive program
Students can help archive the Internet
From the Library of Congress:
There is a growing awareness among libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions of the importance and urgency of preserving the often transitory digital cultural artifacts distributed over the Web. But so far, the vast majority of decisions about what Web sites will live into the future have been made by adults, [...]
Government to ensure information preserved for future
From Information World Review:
Justice Minister, Michael Wills, announced the publication of a new Code of Practice on managing digital and other records and the government’s plans.
The updated code is a step in ensuring good record keeping for preservation and greater transparency. It recommends public bodies across the country introduce a strategy for the preservation of [...]
Lost page of American history found at The National Archives
From the UK National Archives:
A rare print of America’s Declaration of Independence has been found among files at The National Archives at Kew.
Printed on 4 July 1776, the Dunlap print is one of only 26 known copies in the world and is named after John Dunlap, the printer whose name is at the bottom of [...]
European institutions come together to ease mass digitisation
From Information World Review:
The British Library and the University of Salford, along with 15 other European institutions are starting a project – IMPACT – to remove the barriers that stand in the way of mass digitisation of the European cultural heritage
Project IMPACT (Improving Access to Text) follows EU’s i2010 vision to significantly improve access to [...]
Library of Congress to Archive All Sotomayor Confirmation Tweets
From the ABA Journal:
The Library of Congress intends to compile all tweets about U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor during the confirmation process.
From the UK – Row looms over digital public archive strategy
From Information World Review:
The government has launched a consultation on how public archive services should respond to the challenges of the digital age and make themselves accessible to a wide range of people.
The consultation, which will run until 12 August 2009, will canvass views on how to build a sustainable future for archival services. Michael [...]
Budget helps to deal with the ‘digital deluge’
National Library of Australia Press Release:
More than $800,000 has been allocated in the federal Budget to the National Library of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Archives of Australia to help collect and preserve huge volumes of digital information.
This will also assist in progressing towards the digitisation of our important cultural [...]
Federal Guidelines – Agencies Collaborate on Digitization
From the Library of Congress:
Saving the nation’s cultural heritage is an increasingly important matter for government agencies that hold large amounts of material documenting the national record. While saving traditional printed archival materials continues to be important, the exponential growth of digitization projects has created a new set of challenges related to producing and preserving [...]
Association of Research Libraries & American Libraries Association Support GPO Project to Digitize Legacy Documents
ARL & ALA Letter to Congress:
On behalf of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), we are writing to express our strong support for a project that will digitize our nation’s historical public domain government works and make these broadly available to the American public. The U.S. Government Printing Office [...]