Participants at the Library of Congress States Workshop noted a lack of information about how much digital information is actually at risk of being lost. This gap was discussed as part of the barrier to making a case for the investments necessary to build digital preservation capability. Section 4 of the survey was designed to fill this gap in knowledge about information considered by respondents to be at-risk of being lost. Respondents were asked to identify up to five examples of state government digital information at-risk of deteriorating or being altered or lost. They were also asked to describe the conditions causing the information to be at-risk, and any strategies being considered to preserve such information. See Tables 23 and 24 for the types of at-risk information mentioned and the conditions for causing them to be at-risk. In addition, respondents were asked to identify digital information previously lost or no longer accessible. See Table 25 for a list of the digital information provided in response.

The two types of at-risk information most frequently mentioned are e-mails and the Web sites of state agencies. Several respondents stated that the electronic correspondence of elected officials, digital publications, information stored in databases, and court records were at risk as well. Other at-risk information included legislative proceedings, electronic filings, GIS (Geographic Information System) records, digital video files, born-digital records without print copies, and data in obsolete format (e.g., 5 ¼ inch floppy disks, magnetic tapes).

Respondents also noted a challenge in responding to this section of the survey due to a lack of knowledge about the kinds of information currently at-risk in their states.

Table 23. At-risk state government digital information
At-risk Information	Number of times mentioned
e-mails of state agencies	15
Web sites of state agencies	11
Electronic correspondences of elected officials	10
Digital publications	9
Information in databases	7
Legislative records (e.g., legislative proceedings, electronic legislative bill files)	5
Court records	5
Data in obsolete format (e.g., 5 ¼ inch floppy disks, magnetic tapes)	4
Born-digital records without print copies	4
GIS files	4
Digital video files	4
Personnel records	3
Electronic filings	2
Electronic newsletters	2

Lack of funding, lack of awareness of the importance of digital preservation, and a lack of standards were identified as the most important conditions causing information to be at-risk. Other frequently mentioned contributing conditions include the lack of individual agency efforts to preserve electronic records (especially the information they post on their Web sites), the lack of centralized authority, the obsolescence of technology, the lack of statewide plan or policy, and the lack of adequate statutory provisions or requirements (See Table 24 for details).

Table 24. Conditions causing information to be at risk
Condition	Number of times mentioned
Lack of funding	13
Lack of awareness	12
Lack of standards	12
Lack of individual agencies’ efforts to preserve their electronic records	11
Lack of centralized authority	8
Obsolescence of technology	7
Lack of statewide plan/policy	7
Lack of statutory provisions	7
Lack of staff	6
Lack of long-term planning	4
High cost of preservation	4
Use of proprietary format and software	4
Lack of skill	3
No steps taken to preserve information	3
Large volume of records	3
Frequent content changes	3
Lack of training/education	2
Political changes/turnover	2
Lack of knowledge	2
Lack of coordination	1
Lack of leadership	1

Several respondents mentioned problems with agency Web sites in particular, related to the practice of publishing official reports and records on agency Web sites without the existence of a plan for capturing and preserving content of long-term or enduring value. Respondents further indicated, in many cases, that agency Web sites are maintained in a decentralized manner without uniform standards or guidelines. As a result, agencies have varying retention policies and often alter or remove items. The large volume of Web documents and frequent content changes also make the capturing of Web sites difficult, even in those states where policies and plans do exist.

Concerns about information in digital video format were also noted by respondents. The use of digital video as the new official transcript or minutes of proceedings is increasing, however, standards for digital video format are not fully established, making preservation of video files difficult.

The findings indicate that a majority of states have no current strategy for the preservation of at-risk digital information. In some instances, strategies are under development. However, several general strategies in place that were identified by the respondents included:

• Developing new legislation;
• Partnering with other state agencies;
• Training and educating digital information creators; and
• Automating the capturing and archiving of digital information using tools such as Digital Archive, ContentDM, Archive-It, and LOCKSS.⁶

As shown in 25, agency Web sites are the type of digital information reported lost most frequently. Other digital information not preserved and no longer accessible include state government electronic publications, information stored in obsolete media (e.g., 5 ¼ inch floppy disks, magnetic tapes), and e-mails. One state reported that the back issues of about 50% of a sample of 165 online serial titles are no longer available.

Some respondents described cases where information was lost due to administration changes. In one case, all server drives were erased and files from a former administration were replaced with content from a new administration after the inauguration of a new governor. One state reported the loss of two years worth of their governor's correspondence during the conversion to a new storage system.

Table 25. Types of state government digital information already lost
Lost information	Number of times mentioned
State agency Web sites	10
Digital publications	7
Data in obsolete format (e.g., 5 ¼ inch floppy disks, magnetic tapes)	6
e-mails	4
Do not know	5