Montana State Library preserves Montana's digital history

(HELENA)--- On Monday, January 7th, the State of Montana web site featured Governor Schweitzer and information on the Governor-elect, who would be inaugurated later that day.  By the next morning, however, all of the information on Governor Schweitzer had vanished.  Suddenly, Governor Steve Bullock was prominently showcased.

Although it appears that the State of Montana web site featuring now former Governor Schweitzer disappeared into thin air, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  The Montana State Library is working hard to ensure that the digital representation of state government, as found on the web, is being captured and held in a permanent record.

“Since the majority of state government information is now only published in a digital format on state government web sites, we have made it a priority to capture that information so that we have a permanent record of the State of Montana,” said Jennie Stapp, Montana State Librarian.  “Just as materials that were printed in the past document the business of our state, digital items that are only available on the web do that today and it is vital that we collect everything that is produced.”

To that end, the Montana State Library has been preserving digital records of the State of Montana’s online history, all the way back to 1996 when some of the very first State of Montana web sites appeared.  Regular “web crawls” of the entire http://mt.gov web domain, including information for each agency, are scheduled to ensure that nothing is missed.  Over 150 web domains are updated regularly.

“Digital preservation is one of our top priorities at the State Library,” said Stapp.  “As the number of items that are ‘born’ digital increases all of the time, our role in needing to take measures to secure their long-term availability grows commensurately.”

To achieve this, the Montana State Library works with the Internet Archive, a nonprofit, digital library. The Internet Archive captures the web and makes web archives available to the general public.  All of the information captured by the Internet Archive is keyword searchable, looking for words specified by the user anywhere in archived web pages.  This feature is extremely helpful if a user knows the subject but cannot recall where on the web the subject was addressed.

In addition to capturing information that is only available online, the Montana State Library is in the process of digitizing its entire collection of state publications.  This ongoing process has made available online over 16,000 publications as of 2012 with more information being digitized all of the time.

“At the State Library, we value an educated and inquisitive citizenry and free government information that is easily accessible and widely distributed,” said Stapp.  “We are constantly evaluating how best to preserve content and make it available to Montanans and interested parties around the world.”

To view the State Library’s digital preservation efforts, visit: http://connect.msl.mt.gov.

Through its statewide programs, the Montana State Library empowers Montanans; enhances learning in families and communities; builds 21st Century skills; and provides opportunities for civic participation. For more information about the Montana State Library, visit http://msl.mt.gov.

For more information about the State Library’s digital preservation efforts, contact Sara Groves, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, at (406) 444-5357 or via e-mail at: sgroves@mt.gov.