CTG developed the survey in cooperation with an expert group of individuals representing the Council of State Archivists, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, the Society of American Archivists, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (see Appendix A). This group was brought together by the Library of Congress in late August of 2005 to help CTG develop a national survey.

After the initial meeting and using the general survey plan agreed upon by this group, CTG continued to work collaboratively with the individuals to design the specific survey questions and collect the relevant contact information on the state and territorial librarians, archivists, and records managers. The final survey instrument was Web-based and CTG developed it using SurveyMonkey survey software.⁸

CTG e-mailed the Web-based survey on January 11, 2006 to the state/territorial librarians, archivists, and records managers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and four U.S. territories. CTG also provided participants access to a printable PDF version of the survey to help respondents share and discuss responses with other members of their agencies and with other agencies in their states.

The participants had approximately six weeks to complete the survey. However, CTG left the survey open for several weeks beyond the February 20th due date to accommodate those library, archives, and records management units that requested additional time.

Per the survey instructions, each participant was given the ability to decide on the response approach that best suited their own state and organizational conditions. The instructions included the following guidelines to inform this decision:

• The survey should not be responded to by an individual working in isolation from others in their unit, agency, or state.
• For those states where the library, archives, or records management functions fall under separate administrative agencies, those units may decide if one or more responses will best reflect the state government digital information preservation activities of their state.
• For those states where the library, archives, or records management functions fall under the same administrative agency, the agency may decide if one or more responses will best reflect the state government digital information preservation activities of their state.
• In those cases where the library, archives, and records management units are administratively separate, each unit could submit one response. Therefore a state with three separate administrative units might submit three separate responses. A state with the library in one administrative unit and the archives and records management in another, might submit two.