4/26/2004
National Archives and Records Administration
6
NARA’s Current Electronic Records System
•NARA has more  than 30 years of experience with electronic records
•Mostly simple files
–Comma delimited
–ASCII
–Flat fixed length
•Current systems do not meet the need
•A new and comprehensive approach to records storage and preservation is required
•A major reason that NARA has a good chance of building a system to deal with all types of electronic records is the more than 30 years of experience in processing, preserving and providing reference to electronic records created by Federal agencies.

•Although the current systems really only deal well with simple, database files, the issues associated with processing electronic records are well understood and have been defined in the requirements for the Electronic Records Archives system.