New facilities to house temporary e-records

The National Archives and Record Administration has announced that it has opened two new records vaults that will allow federal agencies for the first time to store and maintain their temporary electronic documents. The vaults, located near Washington and in Fort Worth, Texas, will serve as a sort of an electronic purgatory where electronic federal records will be held until they are either destroyed or accepted by NARA as permanent records. NARA said the facilities will allow agencies to securely store electronic documentation throughout its life cycle. The state-of-the-art Washington National Records Center vault also has a new-media disintegrator to destroy the electronic documents when their retention time runs out. “We are proud that we will be able to securely store all types of federal electronic records the same way that we have safeguarded Federal paper records for decades,” said David Weinberg, director of the National Archives Federal Records Centers Program.