Archivist: New state archives building is needed to meet digital needs
(Harrisburg) — Planning is underway to move the state’s extensive archives – just days after the state announced its building a new facility in Harrisburg.
The state says the $24 million facility will help meet the needs of a digital world.
Speaking on WITF’s Smart Talk, State Archivist David Carmichael says the process to preserve paper archives is pretty straightforward: control the environment where it’s stored.
“But when you give me a digital record to preserve, think about putting it on the shelf and coming back in a hundred years. The hardware has changed incredibly, the software to read it has changed. And so we have many different formats of records that we are going to have to preserve for hundreds of years, and that is a great, great challenge.”
Carmichael says he’s also watching long-term costs on the new facility.
“We’ve been hammering the fact that we need to think about long-term costs and make certain we are as cost effective as possible. I’m a taxpayer too, and so I’m always trying to save my own money,” he says.
It will have state-of-the-art heating and ventiliation, but he says after working to put together a new archives building in his previous job in Georgia, he’s learned to make sure maintenance costs will be manageable.
The building on Harrisburg’s 6th Street won’t open for years – the earliest date predicted at this point is sometime in late-2019.
Sometimes, your mornings are just too busy to catch the news beyond a headline or two. Don’t worry. The Morning Agenda has got your back. Each weekday morning, host Tim Lambert will keep you informed, amused, enlightened and up-to-date on what’s happening in central Pennsylvania and the rest of this great commonwealth.
