April 6, 2011 -- The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program is supporting a project to explore a digital archiving solution to promote cost-effective enhanced online access to legislative materials in digital form.
The project is an extension of current NDIIPP work with the Minnesota Historical Society on their Model Technological and Social Architecture for the Preservation of State Government Digital Information Project. The new work brings together Tessella (external link), an international provider of technology and consulting services, with the MHS to run a series of digital preservation education sessions with a number of state legislative divisions.
The state participants, who include the Illinois State Library, the Tennessee Department of State and the Vermont State Archives along with the MHS, will also conduct a pilot evaluation of a multi-tenant deployment of Tessella's digital archiving solution, Safety Deposit Box (external link). Multi-tenancy is a software architecture principle where a single instance of the software runs on a server serving multiple client organizations.
The main purpose of the pilot is to allow the state entities to gain practical experience in managing and preserving electronic content by using a live system rather than a paper exercise. Participants will learn how to load, organize and preserve their information, as well as explore ways to enable user access.
William G. LeFurgy, the Digital Initiatives Project Manager in NDIIPP said, "We are pleased that states will have the opportunity to test the Tessella tool for managing and preserving digital information. Many states have significant needs in this area, and practical exploration of advanced preservation technology is essential, especially as the amount of government digital information continues to grow rapidly."
