Since 2002, the project has successfully completed five phases of development. For information about the current phase, please see the links under "Current Activities":
Phase I: Research, Discovery, and Education (2002-2003)
- Conducted research and collected information regarding:
- North Carolina state government publishing practices (state agencies)
- State & national programs for managing digital information (GPO, Library of Congress)
- Viable solutions for managing born digital information (access and preservation
- Educated and improved stakeholders’ understanding of issues and challenges involved in preserving and providing long-term access to born-digital state government information
- Results disseminated in White Paper: North Carolina State Government Information: Realities and Possibilities
Phase II: Strategy Development and Plan of Action (2003-2004)
- A Solutions Work Group of librarians, data specialists, state agency personnel, records archivists, and digital information experts assessed research findings from Phase I and worked together to develop a plan of action for managing born-digital state information and for testing solutions to ensure continued availability of the information.
- The plan of action, which served as a guide for developing pilot projects and testing possible solutions projects in Phase III, included:
- Best case solutions for managing born-digital North Carolina state information
- Criteria for determining the state’s digital preservation priorities
- Strategies for advancing solutions development and testing
Phase III: Solutions Development and Pilot Projects (2004-2006)
Collaborative research and testing was done in the areas of selection, preservation, and access. Projects included:
- ENCompass Digital Resource Discovery Tool: Created and tested work processes for collecting, processing, and cataloging digital content using the ENCompass gateway.
- Collaboration with State Web Portal Management Council: Participated on the State Web Portal Management Council to expand the search capacity of the state portal search engine and provide better access to current digital state information.
- Illinois Capturing E-Publications: Investigated options for hosting and managing the North Carolina digital archive of agency websites created through the CEP project locally at the State Library. Worked collaboratively with other states to test and evaluate search and retrieval tools developed for accessing the CEP archive.
- 2004 State GILS Conference: Hosted a national conference in Spring 2004 for government information professionals working to provide permanent public access to digital state government information. Attendees included seventy government information colleagues from sixteen states and practitioners and scholars in information access, metadata, open source technologies, and digital preservation.
- North Carolina State Depository Library Survey: Project staff and N.C. State Publications Clearinghouse staff jointly conducted on-site and telephone survey interviews with the 24 State Depository Libraries in Summer 2005 to assess the effectiveness of the current depository system and recommendations on how the State Library could facilitate access to current and archived digital state agency publications.
- ArcLib Digital Preservation Policy Taskforce:
- Established and convened the ArcLib Digital Preservation Policy Taskforce in 2005. The Taskforce, composed of staff from the State Library and State Archives, began addressing the issues of collecting, storing, and preserving digital state information for permanent public access.
- Taskforce members drafted a Digital Preservation Policy Framework in September 2005 that supports a comprehensive digital preservation and access program in state government. Senior Management in the State Library, State Archives, and the Department of Cultural Resources reviewed and approved the Framework in January 2006.
- Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP):
- Project staff served on an Advisory Committee of the LC NDIIPP Partnership for States in 2004 where they reviewed and evaluated a toolkit designed by the Center for Technology in Government (CTG)
- Project staff participated in one of the NDIIPP State Workshops on Digital Preservation in Spring 2005
- Project staff served on an Advisory Committee in Fall of 2005 to assess and provide feedback on the NDIIPP's Survey of States survey tool which was designed by CTG. The results are available online.
- Archive-It:
Participated with the State Archives in a pilot test of the Internet Archive's hosted digital archiving solution, Archive-It, in 2005.
- Web Archives Work Bench
The State Library is a supporting partner in this 3-year Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) project, led by the University of Illinois and OCLC, in which state partners are testing a newly-developed open source tool for harvesting websites that includes a semi-automated selection tool.
Phase IV: Research, Development and Solutions Testing (2006-2007)
Continued testing solutions for collection, storage, and access to born-digital and digitized resources.
Projects included:
- 2006 Best Practices Exchange: Hosted the first 2-day Digital Preservation in State Government: Best Practices Exchange 2006 in March 2006 for government information professionals involved with digital preservation efforts in state government.
- Archive-It: Collaborated with the State Archives in acquiring a subscription to the Internet Archive's hosted digital archiving solution, Archive-It. Developed the North Carolina State Government Web Site Archives which went live in October of 2006. This Archives offers free and easy access to archived versions of North Carolina State Agency website.
- Web Archives Work Bench: Continued testing new functions of the Web Archives Work Bench (WAW) and how it interacted with OCLC's Digital Archive. This testing focused on ways in which the WAW could be used to identify and harvest North Carolina state government publications from state agency websites.
- CONTENTdm: Conducted an extensive 3-month test of the hosted CONTENTdm software to evaluate its potential as a future digital repository for born-digital and digitized materials collected by the State Library of North Carolina.
Phase V: Policy and Program Development (2007-2009)
Worked to develop and support the newly established state-funded Digital Information Management Program. Projects included:
- Establishment of the Digital Information Management Program: Worked to establish the mission and vision of the new state-funded Digital Information Management Program (DIMP) as well as define duties and responsibilities of the personnel required to run it.
- Creation of a Digital Repository: Assisted in the creation of the State Library's Digital Repository (now the North Carolina Digital Collections) using the hosted solution of CONTENTdm purchased by the DIMP.
- Web Harvesting: Continued testing Web Harvesting capabilities using the Web Archives Work Bench (WAW) and assisted in maintaining the North Carolina State Government Web Site Archives available through Archive-It.
- State Agency Outreach:
- Digital Information Management Workshop: A 2-day pilot in which DCR staff presented on topics related to digitization and digital information management to staff from various government agencies.
- NC Census Data digitization project: In partnership with the State Data Center, census data from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s that was not publicly accessible for several decades was digitized and made available online.
- Survey of State Government Agencies 2008: In partnership with the Government Documents Branch, surveyed state government agency PIOs regarding practices related to creation and distribution of digital publications.
Phase VI: Program Integration (2009-2010)
This phase of the grant worked to establish a unified vision for digital preservation in state government.
- Digital Preservation Plan: A draft of a digital preservation plan was completed. Implementation of this plan will be proposed for staff in DCR who are involved in the life-cycle management of digital objects
- Digitization of State Government Publications: The State Library began partnering with the Internet Archive and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to digitize paper state agency publications. The first year of digitization led to online access to urban development documents in the Up & Out collection.
- State Agency Education and Outreach: A primary goal was to develop an online education presence that can familiarize state employees with their important roles and digital object creators and distributors, and with how that relates to the abililty of DCR staff to preserve these objects over the long term. An important milestone was the launch of the Digital Preservation Education website.
- Continued Testing and Research: The State Library continued to investigate models that aid in managing digital objects throughout their lifecycle, including beta testing new software, testing migration procedures for file formats, and archiving state government social media web sites.
Design and production of this site was funded through a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant.