Electronic records handling

Through a grant from the National Archives and Records Administration and in support of the efforts of the National Archives Center for Advanced Systems and Technologies (NCAST), NCSA is investigating new software and hardware technologies that may provide substantial advantages for handling electronic records.

Practical experience with multiple projects across agencies, as well as within the high-performance computing environment, is helping identify those new hardware and software technologies that may be well suited for handling large datasets.

NCSA's efforts are based on expertise in critical areas in the NCSA Innovative Systems Lab (ISL) and in the NCSA Cyberenvironments and Technologies division (CET). The ISL focuses on the evaluation and exploration of next-generation technologies to improve the effectiveness of the National Science Foundation computing program for scientific researchers, software developers, software and hardware vendors, as well as projects supported by other agencies. CET is developing cyberenvironments that will enable scientists and engineers to take full advantage of the nation's cyber-resources to drive scientific and engineering advances. These divisions of NCSA are working together and with researchers at the University of Illinois and other institutions on the challenges of finding economical solutions to the problems of information classification, archiving, and retrieval.

The specific areas in which NCSA is working on solutions to the archiving and retrieval problems include:

• Evaluation and Exploration of Next Generation Systems for Applicability and Performance
• Understanding Preservation and Reconstruction of Electronic Records
• Investigations of Data Representations