November 13, 2009 -- The Alabama Department of Archives and History and the New Mexico Commission of Public Records State Records Center and Archives have joined agencies from Arizona, Florida, New York, South Carolina, and Wisconsin in the Persistent Digital Archives and Library System research project, a project funded through the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program’s Preserving State Government Information initiative.
"We're very excited to have New Mexico and Alabama join the PeDALS project," said Richard Pearce-Moses, the deputy director for technology and information resources at the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records and the project's administrator. "We are optimistic that through this collaborative effort we can help establish a methodology for addressing the curatorial requirements of electronic public records from acquisition through access. New Mexico and Alabama bring additional perspectives to the problem and insights to solutions."
The goal of PeDALS is to develop a shared curatorial framework for the preservation of digital public records such as agency publications and court records. At the same time, the project will test computer software (often called "middleware") that connects software components and applications to automate digital preservation workflows. The project will ultimately explore housing the records in inexpensive "digital stacks" that can preserve the authenticity and integrity of the collections.
