Electronic records face an archiving crisis, said Archivist David Ferriero while speaking March 18 at a Washington, D.C.. event put on by the Center for American Progress and OpenTheGovernment.org.

A recent report published by the National Archives and Records Administration that was based on agency self-assessments of their record practices found that most agencies are at moderate- to high-risk of not properly archiving records. The report characterized disposition of electronic records as the most troubling issue.

"In my 16 months on the job, the electronic records issue is certainly the most important one that I've been dealing with," Ferriero said. He likened the electronic records situation to one that the first archivist, Robert Connor, faced when accepting his position in 1934.

Connor discovered "a horrendous situation, where records had been stored in attics and garages, and flooded and fires and stolen and destroyed," he said. "The analogy just became very clear to me that we're in the same kind of situation around electronic records...My situation is very similar to what Connor faced."

One problem has been that the information technology and records management communities don't communicate much, Ferriero said.

"These two groups don't talk to each other. They don't meet together," he said, adding that he's been meeting with Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra regularly.

Ferriero said story has it that Connor didn't make much progress in having agencies schedule records for archiving with the newly created centralized archiving agency until President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the matter during a cabinet meeting.

"It would be very nice to have presidential support for such an initiative around electronic records," Ferriero said.

OpenTheGovernment.org and the Center for American Progress held the event as part of Sunshine Week, an annual transparency awareness push spearheaded by the American Society of News Editors.

For more:
- go to the event webpage (webcast available)

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