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Albany, NY - The University at Albany's Center for Technology in Government (CTG) has received an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to work with the U.S. Library of Congress to develop strategies for states and territories to preserve state government digital information.

"One of the results of the past generation's shift from paper to electronic work is that the public record is more often found in a digital form, and is no longer stored in the file cabinets of traditional government offices," said CTG Deputy Director Theresa Pardo, the lead CTG researcher on the project. "We are working with the Library of Congress in this project to develop preservation programs that keep pace with government's creation and use of electronic information."

State and local governments now create vast amounts of information solely in digital form. For example, land and property data, school records, official publications, and court records are stored in and made available through web sites, data bases, and geospatial information systems. In many cases this information has permanent legal or cultural value, yet the information is at risk of loss due to government’s lack of awareness and inability to deal with such digital information hazards as fragile media and technological obsolescence. Preserving this digital information has become a major challenge and a top priority for the Library of Congress.

The Library’s current National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) operates through collaborative partnerships with public and private institutions aimed at building a national preservation network. CTG's work with the Library is part of NDIIPP and will focus on helping U.S. states and territories form collaborative arrangements and develop strategies for preserving significant state and local government information in digital form. For Library of Congress information on this project, see http://www.DigitalPreservation.gov. 

Within this project, CTG will be working with the Library to develop and deploy a toolkit to support state government digital information preservation initiatives. The toolkit will enable state teams to systemically assess current digital preservation capabilities, identify targets for enhancing preservation capability, and develop action plans for preserving specific digital content. All 50 states and territories will be invited to participate.

The mission of the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany is to foster public sector innovation, enhance capability, generate public value, and support good governance. We carry out this mission through applied research, knowledge sharing, and collaboration at the intersection of policy, management, and technology. 

The University at Albany-SUNY has a broad mission of excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, life-enhancing research and scholarship, and a commitment to public service. A University at Albany education brings the world within reach to students through nine schools and colleges, and an honors college. A student body of more than 17,000 students has a global connection to more than 140,000 alumni. For more information about this internationally ranked institution, visit www.albany.edu. For UAlbany's extensive roster of faculty experts, visit www.albany.edu/news/experts.php.

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. Through its National Digital Library (NDL) Program, it is also one of the leading providers of noncommercial intellectual content on the Internet (www.loc.gov). The NDL Program’s flagship American Memory project, in collaboration with other institutions nationwide, makes freely available more than 8.5 million American historical items.