A new report by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) tackles the growing concern over the state’s archival storage space. The report, prepared by fiscal and policy analyst Sara Cortez, predicts the State Archives will no longer be able to store physical records in less than two decades.
“We found that within the next 15 years, the state archive capacity will be exhausted,” Cortez said. To that end, the report suggests two options: First, expand the physical location of the State Archives by either building a new storage space, or retrofit an existing space with the needed amenities to house historical documents. That would include temperature and humidity controls, Cortez says.
The other option is to begin digitizing the vast majority of the current archive and digitally storing any incoming archival information.
“[The Legislature] would need to start creating a method wherein records are transferred in a digital form, and destroy some of the records that are currently being held,” Cortez says. Ann Hollingshead, senior fiscal and policy analyst with the LAO, says that doesn’t mean they would start destroying historical documents or maps, but rather, “anything that’s on an 8½-by-11 that probably doesn’t have a lot of intrinsic value.”
While making the move to digital storage could limit or delay the need for a new archive building, the report says it would involve big changes in state processes and new information technology systems. Though the LAO didn’t go into detail in the report about what sort of technology would be needed, Cortez said there is a lot information that would need to be digitized.
There 50 terabytes of digital records and 10 terabytes of digitized information. She said these records come from either state archival staff or from other states, who have already switched to at least a partially digital system.
In choosing the digital system, the LAO recommends that the state could contract with a digital storage vendor, expand its internal storage capacity, or use data storage services.
“The California Department of Technology (CDT) maintains a state data center that provides a variety of services to departments. The Office of Technology Service, as the state data center is known, provides departments with data storage services,” states the report. “These services do not adhere to specialized archival digital storage practices. Under this option, the State Archives would pay CDT for storage services through rates set by CDT.”
Either option will incur significant costs to the state, as providing a new physical structure for the State Archives would involve a major commitment of one-time resources — possibly tens of millions of dollars, the LAO report says. “The alternative of switching to a mostly digital archival format would also involve financial commitments to purchase new equipment and implement new processes for accepting, storing, and cataloguing digital information. ... While it is likely that the state would save money by avoiding the cost of a building, either alternative will involve new state spending.”
The LAO further advises the Legislature to decide within the next few years.
