A newly funded research project will tackle one of the most critical global issues of the digital age -- the long-term preservation of vital organizational records and critical research data created or maintained in electronic systems.

Because of the fragility of the medium and the changes in hardware and software, the task of preservation of electronic records is formidable. Records will need to be moved to different platforms and/or software packages in order to be maintained permanently, but throughout these processes, there will need to be an assurance that the records are as authentic as they were when they were first created.

Philip Eppard, dean of the School of Information Science and Policy at the University at Albany, State University of New York, will be the principal investigator and director on a grant for the United States component of an international research project on the preservation of electronic records. Prof. Anne Gilliland-Swetland from the Department of Information Studies at UCLA will serve as co-director on the project.

The grant of $ 424,796 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the grant-funding agency of the National Archives and Records Administration, is for 18 months and represents the single largest award ever made by the Commission.

The project, known as the InterPARES Project (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems), will investigate and develop theories, methodologies, and prototype systems required for the permanent preservation of authentic electronic records. It will also develop model policies, strategies, and standards to ensure preservation of the authenticity of those records.

InterPARES is a three-year collaborative project based at the University of British Columbia. It brings together national teams of researchers from Canada, the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, China, and Hong Kong. In the U.S., researchers at the University at Albany, UCLA, the University of Missouri, Georgia Tech, and Penn State are all involved in the project in collaboration with electronic record specialists at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

In addition, there is an industry group, including the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association (CENSA), which represents a worldwide industry group including pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology, high-tech, and other businesses that are interested in developing electronic lab notebooks.

Further information is available on the US-InterPARES website at: <http://is.gseis.ucla.edu/us-interpares>

Culture should utilise more efficiently also other Community instruments, such as the Structural Funds and the Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Development, in addition to the actual cultural programmes, the EU Ministers of Cultural and Audio-visual Affairs suggest. The Ministers, who had their two-day informal meeting on 18-20 July 1999, have noticed that the new statute on Structural Funds clearly refers to culture as a new priority.

Structural Funds and Regional Development Funds can be used to finance e.g. regional and local distribution and dissemination systems for culture, such as library projects, and to create permanent employment.

Delegations of twelve Member States, the European Commission and the Council of Europe participated in the meeting. The Ministers also discussed about the cultural industry and employment. In the opinion of the participants, the questions presented in the Presidency's working paper were interesting. Particularly useful is the Member States' exchange of experiences of cultural industry projects, which show a distinctive growth everywhere.

Chairperson Suvi Lindén stated that the resources of the Structural Funds constitute an essential part of the support for culture: in Finland, the amount of support for cultural projects originating from the Structural Funds is four times as large as the sum directed to the projects through EU cultural programmes. The Cultural Commissioner Marcelino Oreja promised that the Commission will put forward concrete, encouraging proposals for measures to promote cultural industry and employment.

The ministers also discussed the need for an extensive action programme for promoting employment in the Community. At present, the various programmes have their separate practices and objectives and cannot as such be applied with sufficient flexibility. The comments revealed contentment with the Presidency's plans for new initiatives relating to culture as a sector creating employment, because the possibilities to influence growth and employment inherent in the field of culture are considerable. The meeting of Ministers of Culture even touched on the issue of transition to the next phase of the information society, "the dream society", where the significance of culture as the background of economic activity is actually recognised and acknowledged.

The meeting stated the need for action plans, which would clearly show how to take culture into account in the activities of the Community, so that the various projects' impact on employment could afterwards be accurately evaluated.

It became obvious in the discussion that Ministers of Culture and Ministers of Finance of each Member State should commence discussions. The statements revealed a belief that when the beneficiary impact of culture on employment becomes clearly visible in the future, it makes it easier to start to discuss financial issues, such as taxation.