One of the best ways to boost digital preservation capabilities, according to the Library of Congress States Workshop participants, is to learn from practical examples of successful digital preservation projects. Section 3 of the survey was designed to identify these practical examples by capturing descriptions of up to five state government digital information preservation activities and the parties involved from each state. Respondents were asked to characterize each activity from among a pre-determined list of activity types and to provide a narrative description of each.

Of the 67 responses, 54 (81%) included at least one example of a recent or ongoing digital preservation activity. The most common types of digital information preservation activities mentioned were the preservation of digital publications of state governments and the harvesting of agency Web sites. Activities noted also include digitization of paper records, development of digital depositories, development of search engines and Web portals, preservation of historical records, and development of guidelines and metadata standards. Table 21 provides a full list of the types of activities reported.

Table 21. State government digital information preservation activities
Activity	Times mentioned
Preservation of digital publications	18
Harvesting of state agency Web sites	16
Digitization of paper records	11
Development of digital repositories	9
Search engine / Web portal	7
Preservation of historical records	7
Development of guidelines	5
Development of metadata standards	4
Preservation of e-mail records	4
Research	4
Preservation of geospatial records	3
Migration	3
Development of models	2
Training	2

In many cases, the activity descriptions highlight how partnerships among LARM units, IT and other agencies were established within states as a mechanism for carrying out the digital preservation activity. Overall, however, few examples of collaboration across states were reported.

The activity descriptions also provide some insight into funding for digital information preservation activities. In some cases, in-state support came by way of specific state legislation, in other cases states reported receiving funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to launch their efforts.

The activity descriptions include information about specific standards, strategies, and software in use in the states. For example, several respondents reported adopting TIFF format for their preservation activities. About a dozen respondents reported subscribing to Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Digital Archives and Web Archives Workbench services to capture electronic publications and agency Web sites. Other third-party software and services reported as in use in state digital information preservation activities include ContentDM developed by DiMeMa, Inc., LOCKSS by Stanford University, Archive-It by Internet Archives, CEP by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and DigiTool by Ex Libris.