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A Publication Featuring The Information
Services Technology of Maine State Government
| Volume V, Issue 11 | December 2002 |
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Jim Henderson, Director, Maine State Archives
Since so much of the State's official business is in digital form, the Maine State Archives is struggling with the problem of long-term preservation of that small proportion of the resulting records that have "permanent" value -- think 300 years plus (our oldest paper record is 363 years old). These include databases, documents, images of documents, spreadsheets, photo images, e-mail, and many other formats.
We can be absolutely certain that current digital technology (hardware, operating systems, programs, media) will have vaporized when another 300 years hve passed. Even the concepts behind these media will have been replaced. Who heard of "operating systems" in 1639? Whatever happened to the CP/M OS of a few decades ago? Spatial data held in the State's geographical information systems (GIS) are official State records since they fall within the definition: "all documentary material, regardless of media or characteristics, made or received and maintained by an agency in accordance with law or rule or in the transaction of its official business." 5 MRSA 92-A (5)
While not all, much of that data undoubtedly should be retained permanently, and it may offer an opportunity to create a model archival process for State digital records, because
Current Process The Archives' current objective is to understand the status of the data, determine the best initial preservation strategy, identify specific systems and expertise to retain the data in digital form, estimate costs, and seek funding from state and/or federal sources. The Maine State Archives’ strategic plan for managing digital records recommends retention in digital form initially for as long as it is cost-effective; then move to other media if practical. It also suggests a model that would have the Archives contract with the appropriate agency to retain and provide access to these records. The data/records selected would be treated as "current business records" for the Archives, to be migrated as needed to maintain their accessibility. We would not simply store media for future use since dynamic changes in operating systems, storage media technology, and retrieval software will render content obsolete relatively quickly.
Initial Findings A September meeting with MEGIS staff members provided the opportunity for a general orientation on preservation options for GIS records. Bob White, Kate King, and Dave Kirouac provided an overview of MEGIS' role and direction in GIS technology, including the increasing move to SDE standards. I learned that "versioning" (changing the data) essentially leads to a loss of the ability to 1) reconstruct the older "picture" (e.g., the road layout), and 2) to track changes over time, unless specific action is taken to retain data no longer of interest to the owner agency.
Ellen Jackson at LURC expressed concern about retaining and easily accessing data, considering the huge and growing content and the limits in transferring large files from off-site repositories.
To be continued next month … more issues involved in preservation and an emerging model.
