Amber has asked an important question here. I think the most important
ER issue is acquiring the resources to acquire and *sustain* electronic
content for business purposes and also for cultural preservation. Far
more than "selling the system", which involves significant periodic
investment, you need the right combination of people with technical
skills and the commitment of their time to get the job done. People cost
money every day. If you believe digital needs to move from production
environments to ERMS or archival recordkeeping systems the justification
is a real challenge.

(I think there's a really big question about whether it is feasible to
sustain ER work by repurposing existing people dealing with paper, or
whether a substantial new investment is necessary. I think the latter,
if only for the near/mid term. We're trying to do the former here and
we're struggling to get the job done in the face of our existing
commitments to paper.)

A close second is acquisition of metadata from creators of content.
Descriptive, technical and preservation metadata is necessary to enable
appropriate selection, timely destruction and/or automated preservation
actions. Some of the technical metadata can be generated automatically
but the description tells us so much about whether its temporary or
permanent, and whether the content deserves the investment. We're going
to have to be much more strategic about what we save.

Rob Spindler
University Archivist and Head
Archives and Special Collections
Arizona State University Libraries
Tempe AZ 85287-1006
480.965.9277
http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives 

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