Please excuse the cross-posting. Two recent documents highlight White
House awareness of the critical need to address electronic records
issues. As archivists and records managers we should be able to use
these documents to point out to our resource allocators the importance
of addressing electronic records issues at our own institutions.  1.The
Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD)
Program Supplement to the President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2008 has
been released.  (See
http://www.nitrd.gov/pubs/2008supplement/08Supp_FINAL-August.pdf).  The
Annual Supplement to the President's Budget (referred to as the Blue
Book until FY 2005), which is required by law, lays out the President's
priorities for networking and information technology research and
development investments for the coming year and highlights recent
accomplishments. The NITRD agencies coordinate their investments of over
$3 billion in research and development.  Among the highlights in the FY
2008 addition: "Since the publication of the FY 2007 Supplement, the
NITRD Subcommittee has welcomed the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) as a NITRD member agency." (pg. 1) Pages 10 and 11
make reference to: "Next-generation methods, technologies, and tools are
needed to fully integrate and efficiently manage massive stores of
distributed, heterogeneous information (e.g., science and engineering
research data, Federal records)." "Data interoperability and integration
of distributed data; usability; provenance and integrity (metadata);
generalizable ontologies; accessibility."  "Efficient integration,
maintenance, and access to complex, large-scale collections of
heterogeneous data; scalable technologies; integration of policies
(differential sensitivity, security, user authentication) with data;
integrated distributed data repositories; long-term curation, data
preservation; testbeds for evaluating approaches; sustainability and
validation of complex models"  "Decision-support technologies, including
rules-oriented systems, for high-confidence processing of large
collections (e.g., Federal records)"  2. The White House has released
the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
report entitled, Leadership Under Challenge: Information Technology R&D
in a Competitive World. (See http://ostp.gov/pcast/NITRD%20Review.pdf)
The report serves as both the legally prescribed periodic assessment of
the NITRD program and also as the platform for PCAST recommendations to
the President concerning specific priorities for future federal
technology research. Of particular interest to archivists and records
managers are the recommendations found on the pages numbered 35-37
(pages 45-47 of the pdf file) labeled, DATA, DATA STORES, AND DATA
STREAMS. For example: Recommendation: The Interagency Working Group on
Digital Data, in cooperation with the NITRD Subcommittee, should develop
a national strategy and develop and implement an associated plan to
assure the long-term preservation, stewardship, and widespread
availability of data important to science and technology. Collaborators
in this national planning process should include academia, professional
and scholarly societies, curatorial institutions, national laboratories,
foundations, and industry. As part of this effort, NITRD Program
agencies should develop a multiagency R&D plan for managing and using
data, which would include technologies and tools for data curation,
trustworthiness assessment, data organization, usability, and
interoperability; and user-oriented tools for mining, synthesis, fusion,
analysis, and visualization.
 
Mark Conrad
Electronic Records Archives (ERA)
NHER 
The National Archives and Records Administration
Building 494 Second Floor
310 State Route 956
Rocket Center, WV  26726
 
Phone: 304-726-7355
Fax: 304-726-7361
Email: [log in to unmask] 
ERA Website: http://www.archives.gov/era/

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