Digital Preservation for the Nation

By Chris Zammarelli, The Brookings Institution

According to Cacas, one of the challenges in creating the archive is that the documents need to be accessible regardless of what type of file they are.  The goal is to avoid needing to keep all the different types of systems that run all the different types of files.  "NARA can't become a computer museum," she said.

The sheer volume of information the government produces also makes the problem difficult.  The Census Bureau produced 600-800 million TIFF files during the 2000 Census, for example.  Moreover, the government produces documents in all file types.  Take the 9/11 Commission, whose document types ranged from spreadsheet files and emails to satellite imagery and HDTV programs.

Compounding the problem is that all the agencies developed their computer systems separately.  Cacas pointed out that these so-called "stovepipe systems" are not necessarily compatible with each other.