On April 13-14, Fynnette Eaton (NHA) and Kevin Devorsey (NWM) participated in a stakeholders meeting of the Unified Digital Format Registry (UDFR), held at the Library of Congress, along with 22 cultural memory institutions concerned with digital preservation. UDFR aims to pool the expertise of these archival communities to document characteristics that can be used to identify file formats, and then to document the information in an authoritative knowledge base.

In every instance over these years NARA has collaborated with agencies with much larger research budgets in funding research projects. NARA has often contributed “pennies on the dollar” to such projects.

Being a journalist in this digital and new media age presents challenges and frustrations of tracking down and accessing Federal, State, and Local government information needed to produce responsible and accurate news products. Read today’s blog for an invitation to a free conference co-sponsored by NARA and Duke University on April 12, focusing on ways that journalists and researchers may better discover, access, and use digital government information.

My bottom line: I want to believe the next generation of public servants will do right by the American people by managing and preserving the government’s born-digital records, and providing the means for continuing access to them, so as to ensure that the history of the 21st century is properly preserved.

NARA has a long history of involvement with the development of international standard related to electronic records and other digital information.

Claims of trustworthiness are easy to make but are thus far difficult to justify or objectively prove. Establishing more clear criteria detailing what a trustworthy repository is and is not has become vital.

NARA’s Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST) now has its very own official Facebook page. You can find it at https://www.facebook.com/NARACAST. On our page you will find, among other things: Links to papers, reports and presentations by our Research Partners Links to sites where you can download or try online free software  developed by [...]

The key to successfully pairing fine wine with food is to pick flavors that are complimentary. So, what do you get when you mix an Archivist with Computer Scientists and Engineers? We get great minds cooking up some exciting (and artistic) new things to add to our technology knowledge menu.

Last month, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) submitted their report to the President and to Congress, “Designing a Digital Future: Federally Funded Research and Development in Networking and Information Technology.“ In this report, the PCAST provides recommendations – with specific mention of NARA’s role in Digital Democracy – regarding IT research priorities, challenges, and opportunities for the Federal government in the years ahead.

Today’s post is a Tech Tribute to a NARA pioneer in the field of electronic records preservation.  Dr. Ken Thibodeau, after a distinguished career in the Federal Government, has retired from NARA as of 1.1.11. In 1975, Ken joined NARA’s Machine-Readable Archives Division, where he became part of a team that surveyed federal agencies on [...]

Yesterday, The National Archives (TNA) of the United Kingdom and NARA issued simultaneious press releases about the development and release of a significantly expanded PRONOM registry, which supports digital preservation. The announcement highlights the successful partnership between TNA and NARA’s Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST) research partners, at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Army Research Lab.