Given that a number of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies have begun publishing exclusively in electronic form, the National Agricultural Library) NAL and other key stakeholders and responsible parties believe it is essential to develop a preservation plan for digital USDA publications as soon as possible. Such a plan will need to be developed together with the Department's Chief Information Officer and key representatives of all USDA agencies, other responsible Federal Government entities, such as the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the land-grant university libraries, and other non-governmental institutions and groups in the agricultural community.

The NAL, with the Economic Research Service of the USDA (ERS), GPO, Cornell University, and the Farm Foundation, recently took the first step in a cooperative venture by convening a 2-day meeting, held March 3-4,1997 in Washington, DC, with representatives of many of the above groups to begin to identify the major elements and requirements of such a plan. Under the auspices of the NAL, the meeting was organized by Cornell University's Albert R. Mann Library. The meeting served as a call to action to develop a preservation strategy for USDA digital publications.

A number of key agencies were represented and provided support and input to the task at hand. Tom Kalil, Senior Director, White House National Economic Council, presented the keynote address and provided the broad administrative approach. He discussed research, technology, publication trends, and information policy matters. Kalil noted the cost-effectiveness of this digital technology on a life cycle basis.

Trends on the technology side include:

Some new directions in information policy noted include:

Anne Thomson Reed, Acting Chief Information Officer, Office of Information and Records Management (OIRM), discussed the need to manage information now in order to keep it for the future. She reiterated Abraham Lincoln's vision as he established the Department, "to acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture." To ensure this information would be there for future generations, Lincoln committed the Department to "acquiring and preserving all information concerning agriculture."

Catherine E. Woteki, Acting Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, noted that the ideas generated at the meeting will have long-reaching benefits for future researchers, analysts, educators, and the public in accessing the vast body of information produced by the USDA.

Pru Adler, Assistant Executive Director, Federal Relations and Information Policy, Association of Research Libraries, addressed "Issues and Challenges in the Long-Term Retention of Digital Publications." The key themes of her talk were:

1. the context for change--why new models are needed;
2. the need to build and develop new infrastructures for networked-based preservation and access activities; and
3. a call to initiate additional preservation programs and pilots.

Adler reported on efforts of the National Research Council and joint efforts of the Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group. She mentioned the following common themes:

The land-grant perspective was offered by Sam Demas, meeting co-chair and head of collection development and preservation at the Albert Mann Library at Cornell University. Sam discussed the preservation arena and laid out premises on which the meeting was based. Greg Lawrence, government information librarian at Cornell University, spoke about the measure of the challenge presented in preserving digital USDA information.

The day's first panel, on existing models for long-term retention of digital information, was moderated by project consultant Paul Uhlir and included:

Each of the panelists discussed in detail his or her agency's/organization's existing program for retaining digital information.

A second panel, composed of responsible parties and key stakeholders, included representatives from:

NAL Director Pam André set the context for the panel by talking about NAL's mission, its progress to date in preservation efforts, and its challenge in preserving electronic formats. Bruce Wiersma provided the user research perspective, with examples from his own and graduate student's work.

Wayne Kelley, Superintendent of Documents, GPO, discussed the mission for the Federal Depository Library Program and the strategic plan for transition to a more electronic depository program. He also discussed a study on the assessment of agency plans and standards for creation and dissemination of electronic information products; depository program authority; and USDA publications in the depository program (current counts and digital future).

Tom Brown, Chief, Archival Services Branch, Center for Electronic Records, NARA, noted that over 1,000 automated information systems are creating and processing information of permanent value, including 29 automated information systems within USDA. NARA's strategic plan includes the commitment to develop and refine standards for a distributed system that allows physical custody of archival material, particularly, electronic records material, outside of its facilities when feasible. Part of the implementation of the plan is a dialogue with Federal agencies and NARA's constituents on a wide range of records management issues, which includes a complete review of NARA's guidance to agencies on electronic records.

At the end of the first day, Paul Uhlir led a plenary discussion of models and issues in digital records retention and provided participants with homework to prepare them for the task of the second day. The first day set the stage for work ahead by providing models and perspectives of responsible parties and key stakeholders. The second day was devoted to action. Participants were assigned to one of four breakout groups, which met all morning, to address a range of questions on a given issue in order to work toward drafting a preservation action plan. The following elements of a plan were discussed in some detail:

The afternoon was devoted to breakout group report results and a plenary discussion of the elements of a national plan. Based on the results of this recent meeting, an initial preservation plan will be developed over the next few months for discussion within the Department. This preliminary plan will identify what needs to be done in the near term as well as over an extended period of time, the principal USDA agencies involved, and the resources required. It will serve as a discussion draft for obtaining commitment and support to proceed with this important initiative.

Project Consultant Paul Uhlir will now discuss the results of the conference.