Presidential Records Act in the digital age

National Archives begins transfering presidential data

A monumental data transfer mission now faces The National Archives and Records Administration.

Coptering away from Washington, D.C. today, President Bush left behind 100 terabytes of electronic data in a variety of proprietary formats. To put that in perspective, all the books, manuscripts, publications and recordings of various kinds stored in the Library of Congress over the past 208 years adds up to 82.6 terabytes.

Clearly all the records management laws and practices will have to be revisited to acommodate online communications in all of its forms.

Department of Understatement

Bush's exit to put new e-records system to the test

Surely by now we are all aware that we are dealing with something a lot more, shall we say complicated, then records management? This is not simply an IT task.

I don't envy the technical workers at National Archives. They will have to cope with competing requests from some very nasty disputes in the near future. I have complete confidence in their ability to play it completely by-the-book and totally professional.

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From the Sunlight Foundation: Shredding Party?

Great moments in rank hypocrisy

Bush Looks to His (Secret) Legacy

George W. Bush, who has expanded his power to access the e-mails and other electronic communications of Americans, is resisting congressional demands that White House e-mails be saved for later research by historians.

Electronic Communications Preservation Act

Bill targets messy e-records

A bill introduced by House Democrats would preserve e-mail messages whose loss could create gaps in the country’s historical record and leave agencies vulnerable to legal actions, some policy observers say.

The legislation introduced last month would require federal agencies to preserve electronic communications in an electronic format and put the National Archives and Records Administration in charge of overseeing compliance.

Putting NARA in charge of records administration is the key to preventing the fox from guarding the hen house.

Preserving Government Records

Panel would reform records storage

“Too often over the past several years, our investigations have revealed weaknesses in government preservation of e-mail that could leave substantial gaps as future historians examine White House and agency decision-making,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the committee's chairman and one of the bill’s sponsors, in announcing the legislation.

In a related development, preliminary findings from the Government Accountability Office released today summarized a survey of recordkeeping processes at four agencies. Although the agencies generally met NARA's statutory requirements, its policies were not always followed, GAO auditors said.

“The loss of documents and information through indifference should be viewed with as much alarm as their loss through a system breach,” said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, in her opening statement for a hearing set for today by a subcommittee that deals with federal information policies and issues. After a series of votes delayed lawmakers, the session was postponed indefinitely.

Little progress has been made in electronic records management across the federal government, McDermott said, and “we repeatedly have to relearn the lesson, apparently, that servers and backup tapes are not appropriate records management systems.”

It is unclear whether we need to relearn that lesson or whether the Bush White House chose not to learn that lesson.