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National Association of Legislative Information Technology (NALIT)

   
Digital Preservation Resources

States and state legislatures face critical challenges in preserving digital information and official records.  This site offers links to information to raise awareness and provide tools and resources that will help legislatures with efforts to preserve significant government information.

View resources from:
NALIT | American Association of Law Libraries | Center for Technology in Government | Library of Congress 
Minnesota State Archives' Preserving the Records of the E-Legislature Project

National Association of Legislative Information Technology

NALIT Newsletter, Summer 2005
Managing Electronic Records, by Terri Clark, Kansas Legislative Computer Services

NALIT Professional Development Seminars--Digital Preservation Sessions and Session Handouts

2007 Professional Development Seminar Springfield, Illinois, Sept. 26-29, 2007  Authentication of and Permanent Access to Electronic Documents Explore issues and solutions to ensure that electronic versions of documents are authentic and to provide for permanent accessibility of electronic documents regardless of technology changes.  Authentication of and Permanent Public Access to Electronic  Documents, Keith Ann Stiverson, Director, Chicago-Kent College of Law Library, Chicago, Illinois and Mary Alice Baish, Associate Washington Affairs Representative, American Association of Law Libraries, Washington, D.C. State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources, American Association of Law Libraries, Washington, D.C.  2006 Professional Development Seminar Washington, D.C., Oct. 10-14, 2006

Digital Records Preservation State governments are creating vast amounts of information solely in digital form, including legislative records. Much of this material is of permanent value, yet is at risk because of fragile media, technological obsolescence, or other hazards.  Information technology professionals play critical roles in managing and preserving digital information.  This session will provide tools IT  professionals can use when considering or planning for a digital preservation initiative. Digital Records Preservation & Digital Preservation Resources- Theresa Pardo, Deputy Director & Brian Burke, Program Associate, Center for Technology in Government, Albany, New York

2005 Professional Development Seminar Rapid City, South Dakota, Oct. 5-8, 2005

Data Management and Preservation of Digital Records This session will cover the preservation of digital records and publications and tools available to states--an electronic recordkeeping plan/template, a Library of Congress Capability Assessment, and the OAIS Reference Model.  The session will provide a closer look at how states are approaching the issue and discussion of the differences in these approaches. (Click here for information about how to print the presentations linked below.) Kansas Digital Material Preservation Efforts - Terri Clark, Legislative Administrative Services, Kansas Preserving the Records of the E-Legislature and Building State Government Digital Partnerships - Robert Horton, State Archivist, Minnesota

American Association of Law Libraries

State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources, 2007
The comprehensive report examines the results of a 50-state state survey that investigated whether government-hosted legal resources on the Web (including state statutes and administrative codes) are official and capable of being considered authentic.

State-by-State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information, 2003
This report researched and reported what, if anything, state governments were doing to meet the enormous challenges of ensuring permanency and public accessibility of government information on the Web.

Center for Technology in Government (CTG)

The Center for Technology in Government's state government digital information resources include  Preserving State Government Digital Information: A Baseline Report, 2006 (which includes a aseline analysis of state government digital information preservation capabilities and activities), and  State Government Digital Preservation Profiles, 2006 (which provides profiles of state government digital information preservation efforts within the U.S.

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
The national digital preservation program being led by the Library of Congress is dedicated to ensuring that the digital information that conveys our history and heritage is available and accessible for generations to come.  NDIIPP seeks to provide a national focus on policy, standards and technical issues as they relate to digital preservation.

Technical Tools and Services
The network of collecting and preserving partners has identified tools and services that are needed to preserve digital content. One of the most important services is storage for large volumes of files. Others include tools to work with metadata, tools to examine and verify file formats.

Preservation of State Government Digital Information: Issues and Opportunities
The Library of Congress convened three workshops with representatives from all 50 states during 2005 to listen and learn about how states are coping with the digital preservation challenge. Findings from the workshops are outlined in this report.