Digital information allows for faster communications and widespread distribution of information.
Many governments are now using computers to automate everyday functions, and to collect and analyze more data, to increase services or to communicate more effectively with their constituents. Almost everyone agrees that preserving the historical record of governments and international institutions is crucial. Documenting the work of the government, sustaining institutional memory and accountability and archiving the past are important yet often painstaking functions, and digital information adds an extra complication. Some governments and institutions do deposit their records in electronic as well as paper formats with libraries and archives, which are now adjusting basic preservation measures to account for the exponential increase in digital information. This paper addresses some fundamental questions concerning the preservation of digital information and makes recommendations for libraries and archives recently confronted with the problem.