Digital Preservation Guidance

Electronic Records Management and Transfer Guidance and Digital Preservation

The Digital Preservation lifecycle for U.S. Government records starts at agencies, with records management focused on digital preservation. NARA issues extensive guidance to help agencies fulfill their records management responsibilities in preparation for the transfer of born-digital and digitized files to the National Archives for ongoing preservation and access.

Directives on Electronic Records

• Update to Transition to Electronic Records (M-23-07)
• Transition to Electronic Records (M-19-21)
• Success Criteria for Managing Email Records in Compliance with the Managing Government Records Directive (M-12-18)

NARA Guidance on Electronic Records Management

• Digitization of Federal Records (May 4, 2023)
• Federal Electronic Records Modernization Initiative (FERMI)
• Universal Electronic Records Management (ERM) Requirements
• Criteria for Successfully Managing Permanent Electronic Records
• NARA Bulletin 2023-02: Expanding the Use of Role-Based Approach (Capstone) for Electronic Messages (January 5, 2023)
• 2015-03: Guidance on Managing Digital Identity Authentication Records
• 2015-02: Guidance on Managing Electronic Messages
• 2014-06: Guidance on Managing Email
• 2014-02: Guidance on Managing Social Media Records
• 2013-03: Guidance for Agency Employees on the Management of Federal Records, Including Email Accounts, and the Protection of Federal Records from Unauthorized Removal
• 2013-02: Guidance on a New Approach to Managing Email Records (Capstone)
• 2012-02: Guidance on Managing Content on Shared Drives
• 2011-04: Guidance on Managing Mixed-Media Files
• 2011-03: Guidance Concerning the use of E-mail Archiving Applications to Store E-mail
• 2010-05: Guidance on Managing Records in Cloud Computing Environments
• 2010-02: Continuing Agency Responsibilities for Scheduling Electronic Records
• 2008-07: Endorsement of DoD Electronic Records Management Software Applications Design Criteria Standard, version 3
• 2007-02: Guidance concerning the use of Enterprise Rights Management (ERM) and other encryption-related software on Federal records

NARA Guidance on the Transfer of Electronic Records to NARA

• 2018-01: Updating NARA Bulletin 2014-04, Format Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent Electronic Records
• 2015-04: Metadata Guidance for the Transfer of Permanent Electronic Records