The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) yesterday announced the release of Part III in the series on electronic records management and digital preservation: protecting the knowledge assets of the state government enterprise. A product of NASCIO's Enterprise Architecture Committee, this research brief was completed to focus on strategies and technological solutions for managing the proliferation of electronic records. Part III in the series is now available online.

This report clearly emphasizes the need for collaboration that involves the state CIO, enterprise architecture and the allied disciplines of archives, electronic records management and state librarian. Electronic records management and digital preservation are necessary disciplines for managing the knowledge assets of the enterprise.  Attention to these disciplines must be part of every IT investment decision.  The lifecycle of "born digital" is presented with emphasis on the decision-making process at each major phase. Part III in this series presents the CIO's Top 10 List, technology issues, the promise of XML, the necessary link to enterprise architecture, and managing digital assets. This report was developed in close partnership and collaboration with some of the experts across the nation, said NASCIO in a release.

"We have seen greater attention to the entire area of electronic records management especially with more and more activity around eDiscovery," said Dr. Jim Bryant, CIO of South Carolina. "We are promoting electronic records management as the management of knowledge assets.  This essential resource must receive the proper level of attention in investment and project management decisions.  Without proper planning and the necessary partnering with experts from legal, records management, archiving and enterprise architecture, this asset can expose the enterprise to undue risk -- not only in potential litigation risk, but also the risk of losing valuable enterprise knowledge." 

"The series we've done on electronic records management was published with the intention of building more awareness among our state CIOs and their staffs regarding the importance and growing impact of this area of knowledge management," said Steve Fletcher, CIO of Utah. "Electronic records and archives are a critical resource within state government. Like any other enterprise asset they require appropriate management and investment. Collaboration is indeed "king" and we are promoting closer collaboration with our partners in records management, archives and the state librarian. The CIO will rely more and more on the expertise within these functions to help formulate and implement solid knowledge management strategies."
KW