Anderson Archival strives to stay up to date on the standards and practices of leading archival organizations. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the primary archive for the US federal government and the organization that produced the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI), which most US archives use as the standard guide to quality digitization. NARA’s Digital Preservation Strategy 2022-2026 is a forward-thinking initiative designed to protect citizens’ rights, ensure government accountability, and document the national experience. This strategy provides valuable insights into the practices other archival organizations should consider adopting to ensure their digital preservation efforts are effective and sustainable.
Strategic Objectives
Digital preservation is a key strategic objective in NARA’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, which focuses on advancing physical and intellectual controls for the agency’s holdings, enabling effective digital preservation risk planning and mitigation. Other organizations should similarly prioritize digital preservation in their strategic planning to ensure they have clear objectives and controls in place.
Digital preservation includes maintaining born digital records and creating digital surrogates. These records should remain usable, retain their authenticity, accuracy, and functionality.
Key Strategies
NARA employs several strategies to achieve its preservation goals, which serve as a model for other archival institutions:
Documentation of Standards and Procedures
NARA meticulously documents internal procedures and standards for managing born-digital records, digital surrogates, and public use copies. This includes guidance on creating digital surrogates, minimum metadata requirements, and preferred file formats.
Does your organization have standards for file type, file names, and metadata? Standardization and consistency not only makes searching a collection easier but it also improves efficiency and reduces confusion for staff. Now is a great time to establish these standards and document the process of applying them to any existing collections.
Infrastructure and Data Integrity
Ensuring the appropriate infrastructure for digital preservation functions is a priority. This includes ongoing risk assessment and preservation planning to maintain data integrity. Even the most carefully digitized files can suffer from bit rot if not continually maintained. Regular fixity checks through the use of checksums allows you to verify that your files haven’t been altered or degraded.
Have you invested in robust digital preservation infrastructure that serves the needs of your staff and audience? How do you regularly assess and mitigate risks to ensure the long-term integrity of your digital holdings?
Collaboration and Training
As a major organization involved in setting digital record standards, NARA collaborates with other national archives, libraries, and museums, and participates in international consortia. They also emphasize continuous staff training and process improvement to keep up with evolving standards and technologies.
Likewise, other archival organizations should seek collaborative opportunities and prioritize staff training to stay current with advancements in digital preservation. Being a part of the archival community not only gives you access to experts and other archivists but it also allows you to share your collection with more people.
Goal Setting and Impact
By 2026, NARA aims to digitize 500 million pages of records and make them publicly available online. The strategy also includes resolving 95% of customer requests within the promised time and organizing metadata tagging efforts to promote equity for records related to underrepresented communities. This strategy is designed to adapt to ongoing changes in scale, technology, and standards, ensuring the effective preservation and accessibility of NARA’s digital holdings.
Whether your organization’s goal has a digitization number as large as NARA’s or your focus is much smaller, setting and meeting goals is an important part of any archival-forward organization.
By closely examining NARA’s Digital Preservation Strategy 2022-2026, other archival organizations can gain insights into best practices and emerging trends in the field. Adopting similar strategies can help ensure that their digital records are preserved effectively, maintaining their usability, authenticity, and integrity for future generations.
Need help getting started or meeting your goals? Reach out to Anderson Archival for a free consultation call.
