Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records

Digital Government Information Initiatives

Richard Pearce-Moses
Director of Digital Government Information
Voice: (602) 926-4035 · Email: rpm@lib.az.us

Current Projects

Persistent Digital Archives and Library System (PeDALS): The Arizona State Library is building the capabilities to store and provide access to digital information in all forms, including public records and reports created by state and local governments, as well as personal papers, photographs, and other historical records. The materials may be born digital or may be digitized.
An Arizona Model for Web Preservation and Access: The Library and Archives is developing a new model for curating a collection of Web documents. The model considers how the basic processes of identification and selection, acquisition, description, reference, and preservation will change in the digital era. It also explores how the fundamental principles underlying those activities must be reconsidered. The model is based on the observation that the organization of Web sites parallels the organization of an archival collection and on the assumption that archival principles of provenance and original order are useful to curate and to provide access to documents in the collection. The model is described in the white paper published in DttP: Documents to the People 33:1 (Spring 2005). Library and Archives staff have been asked to speak about the Arizona Model at the State GILS Conference, the Western Round-Up Archives Conference, the Library of Congress, and the American Library Association, and the model is an important component of the ECHO DEPository Research Project (described below).
Web SafetyNet Archives: In collaboration with the Illinois State Library, the Arizona State Library and Archives is testing software to capture state agency websites. This software spiders agency websites on a monthly basis to download new and changed documents. Agencies or the public can request copies of web pages that have been captured by contacting the Library staff. This project is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Model Assurance Statement for Electronic Recordkeeping Systems: The Library and Archives is developing a program to review agencies' electronic recordkeeping systems to ensure that archival records in those systems are maintained in a trustworthy manner and that they can be transferred to the Archives for permanent preservation. Agencies that wish to keep archival records in an electronic recordkeeping system will enter into an agreement with the Library and Archives that assure they will follow a prescribed methodology to maintain and transfer the records.
Web Archives Workbench: In collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and OCLC, the Arizona State Library is developing a set of software tools to identify, select, acquire, describe, provide access to, and preserve state agency web publications. This project is part of the ECHO DEPository research project funded by the Library of Congress' National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program and administered by the National Science Foundation.; Much of this work is based on the Arizona Model.
: In collaboration with the California Digital Library, the Arizona State Library is developing a set of tools for use by libraries to capture, curate, and preserve collections of web-based government and political information, including state agency publications and campaign literature. This project is funded by the Library of Congress' National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program and administered by the National Science Foundation.

Projects

New Skills for a Digital Era

A joint project of the Arizona State Library and Archives, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the Society of American Archivists, this colloquium brought together librarians, archivists, and records managers with significant experience working with digital information to discuss the practical knowledge these professionals will need to thrive in the digital era. Proceedings will be published in late 2006.

Arizona Electronic Recordkeeping System (ERS) Guidelines

The ERS Guidelines describe specifications for recordkeeping functionality that should be incorporated into any electronic recordkeeping system to ensure the records are accepted as evidence, well managed, and preserved, and that benefits are appropriate to the costs. These specifications are organized into three broad sections.

Specific functional requirements, including requirements for system administration, origin/creation of records, security and trustworthiness, access, maintenance and preservation, and disposal.
General requirements for recordkeeping, including trustworthiness, records management, legal requirements, business requirements, security requirements, administrative considerations, and human factors.
Background to help designers balance the compliance with the requirements with resources and value of the records.

Arizona Electronic Records Thesaurus

The original thesaurus grew out of a practical need to ensure that different disciplines working together to address problems of electronic records could understand each other. The definitions of key terms are dependent on the context in which those terms are used. 'Record' means one thing to a database program, another to an archivist. The legal definition of 'public record' is broader than the vernacular understanding. The original thesaurus has been superseded by A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (Society of American Archivists, August 2005). The new glossary was developed with support from the Arizona State Library and Archives and from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Papers and Presentations

Joint Meeting of the Society of American Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and the Council of State Archivists in Washington, DC, August 2006.: 4 August 2006. Janus in Cyberspace: Archives on the Threshold of the Digital Era.
American Library Association, Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT): 27 June 2005. Full text of presentation and PowerPoint slides
Society of Southwest Archivists, May 2005: Pearce-Moses was invited to give the keynote at this association of professional archivists. The paper, "A Bridge to the Future: Committing Intentional Acts of Memory," considers how the archival and records professions must transform itself to survive in the digital era.
Library of Congress, May 2005: Pearce-Moses was invited to make a presentation about the Arizona Model to Library of Congress staff.
National Historical Publications and Records Commission Fellows Symposium: Pearce-Moses was invited to present early results of investigations into the analysis of state agency websites. This research led to the development of the Arizona Model. Pearce-Moses is a past NHPRC Fellow and a member of the current Fellows Advisory Board.
Arizona 'Lectronic Records Taskforce (ALERT), May 2003: Presentations by Carolyn Purcell, CIO for the State of Texas, and by Charles Dollar, author of Authentic electronic records: Strategies for long-term access.
Arizona Convocation 2002: Author David Levy of the University of Washington Information School was the keynote speaker. Levy addressed the future of documents in the digital era and the role of documents in cultural memory.
Arizona 'Lectronic Records Taskforce (ALERT) October 2001: Managing E-Records: A Practical Approach, a PowerPoint presentation with extensive presentation notes. It's easy to become overwhelmed by the many challenges of managing electronic records. Because e-records management is so new, there are no clear solutions. However, many of those challenges are irrelevant to specific series. By focusing on a specific series, you take practical action to ensure that the series is well managed. Requires Microsoft Internet Explorer.
What Are You Talking About: The Challenges of Jargon, a PowerPoint presentation with extensive presentation notes. Archivists, records managers, and information technologists often use the same term with different meanings (homographs). The resulting confusion complicates cooperation between these groups that is necessary to developing successful electronic records management. The presentation describes the thesaurus project and covers a few key terms. Requires Microsoft Internet Explorer.