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Press Release · Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Press Release
August 12, 2003


National Archives Releases Draft Request For Proposal For The Electronic Records Archives

College Park, MD. …In response to industry’s desire to get as much information as soon as possible about the National Archives Records Administration’s (NARA) Electronic Records Archives (ERA) program, on Tuesday, August 5, 2003, the National Archives released a Draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for the development of the program. The National Archives is seeking input from industry to ensure that the final RFP clearly communicates the purpose of the acquisition, provides sufficient information about the National Archives’ requirements and acquisition strategy, and enables industry to submit robust, responsive, and viable proposals.

The Draft RFP is available on the NARA web site at:

http://www.archives.gov/electronic_records_archives/acquisition/draft_rfp.html

NARA is requiring vendors to respond by September 17, 2003, in order for their recommendations, comments and/or questions to receive full consideration.

The Draft RFP release includes the main document and the current draft of the Requirements Document (RD), which is an attachment of the draft RFP. Other attachments are still being developed and drafts will be released as they are completed, so that the National Archives can benefit from industry comments prior to the release of the final RFP, which is expected to be in 1st quarter FY 2004.

The National Archives and Records Administration ensures, for the citizen, the President, the Congress and the Courts, ready access to essential evidence that documents the rights of citizens, the actions of federal officials, and the national experience. The National Archives is a public trust that plays a key role in fostering effective and responsible government through management of the life cycle of records in all three branches of the federal government and through sustained access to historically valuable records in the National Archives and the Presidential Libraries. These records enable people to inspect for themselves what the government has done, allow officials and agencies to review their actions, and help citizens hold them accountable.

To fulfill its mission, the National Archives needs to respond effectively to the challenge posed by the diversity, complexity, and enormous volume of electronic records being created today and the rapidly changing nature of the systems that are used to create them.

The ERA system will authentically preserve and provide access to any kind of electronic record, free from dependency on any specific hardware or software, enabling the National Archives to carry out its mission into the future. To do this, ideally the system would be able to take any type of record, from any entity in the Federal Government, created using any type of application, on any computing platform, and provide discovery and delivery to anyone with an interest and legal right of access, now and for the life of the republic.

For additional information about the ERA program and the acquisition efforts for the ERA system, visit www.archives.gov/electronic_records_archives

This page was last reviewed on January 7, 2013.
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