Press Release
December 8, 2003
National Archives Announces Major Step Towards Permanent Preservation of Electronic Records
College Park, MD. . . On Friday, December 5, Archivist of the United States John W. Carlin announced a major milestone in the National Archives plan to build a permanent archives for the Federal Government's electronic records. The National Archives may award up to two contracts to prime system integrators to design an electronic archives that will preserve and make accessible the records of our digital government to anyone, anywhere, anytime-well into the future, long after the hardware and software used to create the records has been replaced.
By the end of the preliminary design phase, the National Archives will select one of the two contractors, largely based on the merits of their design submission, to build this ground-breaking electronic archives. The first increment of the operational Electronic Records Archives is scheduled to be on line in 2007, with four more increments to follow.
The formal Request for Proposal specifies that potential vendors need to prepare and submit their bids by January 28, 2004.
In making this announcement, Mr. Carlin said, "This watershed event comes after years of study and research among our own staff and with our partners in Government and at universities, archives, and research facilities all across the country and around the world. We are tremendously excited about the prospect of creating new technologies to meet this challenge and continuing to work with both the public and private sectors to achieve this."
For press information, contact the National Archives public affairs staff at 301-837-1700.
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