Building an Electronic Records Archive at the National Archives and Records Administration
Recommendations for Initial Development
Robert F. Sproull and Jon Eisenberg, Editors
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C. www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
Support for this project was provided by the National Archives and Records Administration under Contract No. NAMA-02-C-0012. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations that provided support for the project.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation of Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
COMMITTEE ON DIGITAL ARCHIVING AND THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
ROBERT F. SPROULL,
Sun Microsystems,
Chair
HOWARD BESSER,
University of California, Los Angeles
JAMIE CALLAN,
Carnegie Mellon University
CHARLES DOLLAR,
Dollar Consulting
STUART HABER,
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
MARGARET HEDSTROM,
University of Michigan
MARK KORNBLUH,
Michigan State University
RAYMOND LORIE,
IBM Almaden Research Center
CLIFFORD LYNCH,
Coalition for Networked Information
JEROME H. SALTZER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MARGO SELTZER,
Harvard University
ROBERT WILENSKY,
University of California, Berkeley
Staff
JON EISENBERG, Study Director and Senior Program Officer
STEVEN WOO, Program Officer
DAVID PADGHAM, Research Associate
JENNIFER M. BISHOP, Senior Project Assistant
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
DAVID D. CLARK,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Chair
ERIC BENHAMOU,
3Com Corporation
DAVID BORTH,
Motorola Labs
JOHN M. CIOFFI,
Stanford University
ELAINE COHEN,
University of Utah
W. BRUCE CROFT,
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
THOMAS E. DARCIE,
University of Victoria
JOSEPH FARRELL,
University of California at Berkeley
JOAN FEIGENBAUM,
Yale University
HECTOR GARCIA MOLINA,
Stanford University
WENDY KELLOGG,
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
BUTLER W. LAMPSON,
Microsoft Corporation
DAVID LIDDLE,
U.S. Venture Partners
TOM M. MITCHELL,
Carnegie Mellon University
DAVID A. PATTERSON,
University of California at Berkeley
HENRY (HANK) PERRITT,
Chicago-Kent College of Law
DANIEL PIKE,
GCI Cable and Entertainment
ERIC SCHMIDT,
Google, Inc.
FRED SCHNEIDER,
Cornell University
BURTON SMITH,
Cray Inc.
LEE SPROULL,
New York University
WILLIAM STEAD,
Vanderbilt University
JEANNETTE M. WING,
Carnegie Mellon University
MARJORY S. BLUMENTHAL, Director
KRISTEN BATCH, Research Associate
JENNIFER M. BISHOP, Senior Project Assistant
JANET BRISCOE, Administrative Officer
DAVID DRAKE, Senior Project Assistant
JON EISENBERG, Senior Program Officer
RENEE HAWKINS, Financial Associate
PHIL HILLIARD, Research Associate
MARGARET MARSH HUYNH, Senior Project Assistant
ALAN S. INOUYE, Senior Program Officer
HERBERT S. LIN, Senior Scientist
LYNETTE I. MILLETT, Program Officer
DAVID PADGHAM, Research Associate
CYNTHIA A. PATTERSON, Program Officer
JANICE SABUDA, Senior Project Assistant
BRANDYE WILLIAMS, Staff Assistant
STEVEN WOO, Dissemination Officer
For more information on CSTB, see its Web site at <http://www.cstb.org>, write to CSTB, National Research Council, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001, call at (202) 334-2605, or e-mail the CSTB at cstb@nas.edu.
Preface
Like its constituent agencies and other organizations, the federal government generates and increasingly saves a large and growing fraction of its records in electronic form. Recognizing the greater and greater importance of these electronic records for its mission of preserving “essential evidence,” the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) launched a major new initiative, the Electronic Records Archives (ERA). NARA plans to commence the initial procurement for a production-quality ERA in 2003 and has started a process of defining the desired capabilities and requirements for the system.
As part of its preparations for an initial ERA procurement, NARA asked the National Academies’ Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) to provide independent technical advice on the design of an electronic records archive, including an assessment of how work sponsored by NARA at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) helps inform the ERA design and what key issues should be considered in ERA’s design and operation.
CSTB’s Committee on Digital Archiving and the National Archives and Records Administration has been tasked with preparing two reports. This first of the two reports is intended to provide quick, preliminary feedback to NARA on lessons it should take from the SDSC work and to identify key ERA design issues that should be addressed as the ERA procurement process proceeds in 2003. The committee’s second report, anticipated in late 2003, will provide longer-term strategic recommendations to NARA on how to meet its electronic records archiving challenges.
In order to provide feedback as soon as possible, this report has been developed on a very tight time line. In preparing it, the committee received briefings from NARA staff and a number of other experts in archiving and related technologies. It conducted two site visits to supplement information received in the briefings: Members of the committee participated in
visits to SDSC in San Diego and to NARA’s College Park, Maryland, facility. The committee’s second report will provide longer-term strategic recommendations to NARA on how to meet its electronic records archiving challenges. A number of topics in the committee’s charter, such as advice on NARA’s research program, are deferred to the second report.
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
William Y. Arms, Cornell University,
Eric W. Brown, IBM Research,
Paul Conway, Duke University,
James Gray, Microsoft Bay Area Research Center,
Gary King, Harvard University,
Butler W. Lampson, Microsoft Corporation,
Michael E. Lesk, Internet Archive,
Peter G. Neumann, SRI International,
Jeff Rothenberg, RAND,
William Scherlis, Carnegie Mellon University, and
Jeffrey D. Ullman, Stanford University (emeritus)
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Robert
J. Spinrad, Xerox Corporation (retired). Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.