State governments are creating Enterprise Architectures (EA) to guide enterprisewide information and information technology related decision making and planning. A 2005 NASCIO report indicates that states are embracing EA as a framework for reshaping government processes and organization.⁵ Enterprise architecture efforts are generally managed by state CIO and IT units; the same units that hold authority for creating standards and responsibility for providing services related to digital preservation. EA initiatives were identified by Library of Congress States Workshop participants as having the potential to positively influence digital preservation initiatives by integrating the issues of digital preservation into the ongoing creation of enterprise governance bodies, reference models, business processes, and accountability strategies under development and in use in many states.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) defines EA as a management engineering discipline that presents a comprehensive view of the enterprise including:

• Strategic planning,
• Organization development,
• Relationship management,
• Business process improvement,
• Information and knowledge management, and
• Operations.

It is an ongoing iterative process of analysis, collaboration, and leadership to make better decisions.

See IT Procurement & Enterprise Architecture: Recognizing the Mutual Benefits NASCIO Research Brief, October 2005 at http://www.nascio.org/nascioCommittees/procurement/ EA_IT_Procurement_Brief100305.pdf.

However, few LARM units are actively involved in these efforts. Results show that while the majority of respondents are aware of their state’s EA efforts, only half of those who indicated awareness are involved in current efforts.

For those respondents reporting involvement in their state’s EA efforts, many characterized their effort as “in the early stages” of working on EA with state IT and other units. As shown in Table 12, these EA efforts are primarily focused on strategic planning and policy related issues and their involvement tends to be issue related rather than ongoing.

Table 12. Involvement in State Enterprise Architecture (EA) efforts
Involvement in State EA efforts	Specific example
Committees or working groups related to EA efforts	State CIO's Enterprise Architecture and Standards Committee
	Electronic Records Working Group
	State CIO's project team and Electronic Records Preservation project team
	IT planning Board
	Enterprise Architecture Committee
	Information Technology Strategic Planning group
	E-government committees
	Information Domain teams
	Enterprise Applications Subcommittee of the state's Architecture Oversight Committee and Assistive Technology Advisory Committee
	Fiscal and HR part of the state's EA efforts
Involvement in EA efforts	Worked with the state's Division of Information Systems and Communication on storage agreements
	Submit Return on Investment Technology Plan each biennium
	Auditing requirements including records management schedules
	Leading a subcommittee on drafting the Information Management section of the Statewide Technical Architecture
	Heading a team of representatives from other state agencies in developing a new 'Records Management' series of Information Technology Bulletins providing policies and procedures for managing the state electronic records
	Jointly developing a comprehensive strategy for the management of all records created by state agencies
	Working with the Office of Enterprise Technology to maintain the data and records chapter of the architecture
	Managing the search engine for the state Web site and assisting with training on use of content management system
	Working with the lead agency for the personnel system to determine how best to preserve important long-term records
	Partnership with the state judiciary to provide access to all verified land record instruments in the state
	Helping develop an enterprise Web portal for the state and metadata standards and subject thesauri
	Joint development of a Web-based depository for all state electronic publications with the Information Technology Enterprise section of the Department of Administrative Services
	Participation in the data and electronic records domain of the state's Department of Information Resources’ enterprise architecture project
	Providing back-channel communications as appropriate
	Participation in state EA survey