NASA Records Database

The NASA Records Database, comprising a Web-based application program and a database, is used to administer an archive of paper records at Stennis Space Center. The system begins with an electronic form, into which a user enters information about records that the user is sending to the archive. The form is smart : it provides instructions for entering information correctly and prompts the user to enter all required information. Once complete, the form is digitally signed and submitted to the database. The system determines which storage locations are not in use, assigns the user s boxes of records to some of them, and enters these assignments in the database. Thereafter, the software tracks the boxes and can be used to locate them. By use of search capabilities of the software, specific records can be sought by box storage locations, accession numbers, record dates, submitting organizations, or details of the records themselves. Boxes can be marked with such statuses as checked out, lost, transferred, and destroyed. The system can generate reports showing boxes awaiting destruction or transfer. When boxes are transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the system can automatically fill out NARA records-transfer forms. Currently, several other NASA Centers are considering deploying the NASA Records Database to help automate their records archives

Working Papers as Federal Records: The Need for New Legislation to Preserve the History of National Policy

This article deals with policy records at the front end of their lives; that is, preserving them from destruction by federal agencies in the decades immediately after their creation. It does not deal with the destruction of archived documents by Archives officials themselves. It discusses only in passing the related question of how long a policy record should be sealed off from public inspection; the literature includes a variety of opinions on that subject. The author is content to leave to others the problem of just where to draw the balance between making historical documentation available soon enough so that it can offer relevant lessons to citizens, but not so soon as to discourage officials from putting their candid thoughts and recommendations on paper or disk, for fear of public exposure and pressure. He focuses, instead, on the preservation of governmental records, and particularly of drafts, comments, and other working papers. Of course the issues of preservation and access are intimately linked: if records are routinely destroyed as soon as they are no longer needed by their creators, public access-even much delayed public access-becomes altogether impossible

LIFE: bibliography

The following bibliography came out of the research which formed the first phase of the joint British Library-UCL LIFE (Lifecycle Information for E-Literature) project. The references are not an exhaustive review of digital preservation activities, they are a reflection of the aims of the LIFE project. Any suggestions for additions or comments can be emailed to [email protected]

It's Public Knowledge: The National Digital Archive of Datasets

This article describes the history and development of the National Digital Archive of Datasets, a service run by the University of London Computer Centre for the National Archives of England. It discusses the project in light of the context in which it emerged in the 1990s, its departure in approach from traditional data archives, and the range of archival functions. Finally, it offers reflections on the project as whole. Cet article décrit l’histoire et le développement du National Digital Archive of Datasets, un service offert par le centre informatique de l’Université de Londres pour les Archives nationales de l’Angleterre. L’auteure présente le contexte dans lequel le projet a émergé dans les années 1990, son approche qui diffère de celle des archives de données informatiques traditionnelles, ainsi que la gamme de ses fonctions archivistiques. Finalement, elle offre des réflexions sur le projet dans son ensemble

Innovate Magazine / Annual Review 2010-2011

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/innovate/1001/thumbnail.jp

America's pyramids: Presidents and their libraries

Review of the purpose, history, and debates about the presidential library system, with a recommendation to end the system