Preserving the electronic past in New England

While some elected government officials around the country seem to be in a hurry to delete stored e-mail and other electronic documents from the public record, there’s good news on the preservation of official records front from archivists in New England. 

The Boston Globe reports that archivists in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire are recognizing the need to address an ever-evolving electronic governmental records system, regardless of political rhetoric about inflating costs.

"It’s not a question of whether we can afford it, but a question of whether we can afford not to," Maine Archivist David Cheever told the Globe.  "The last thing you want is for the public to lose faith in government because of the inability to preserve the record that validates and substantiates the process by which actions are taken and decisions made."