National Archives and Records Administration

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is responsible for federal records disposition. Disposition is a comprehensive term that includes both destruction and transfer of federal records to the National Archives of the United States. NARA has preserved electronic records since the 1970s, but is faced with bringing in a vastly greater volume of digital material.

The agency has been working on a system since 1998 to address this challenge. The Electronic Records Archives (ERA) will enable NARA to improve its services to other federal agencies, researchers and teachers. In 2005, the agency entered into a multi-million dollar contract with a vendor to build the ERA system.