Digital archives saves Locke's website from extinction
Governor Locke's website, replaced by Governor Christine Gregoire's website, is home to 1,235 web pages and more than 3,200 files of the Locke Administration. These files include 1,605 press releases, 536 speeches, and 162 media events.
"Thanks to the quick work of our digital archives team, all of these documents are accessible to the public at anytime, anywhere in the world," said Reed. "100 years from now our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have access to the legacy of the Locke administration."
Archivists estimate that the State of Washington is missing more than half of its electronic records and many will never be recovered. These include email and electronic documents from Governors, legislators, and other elected officials, as well as records important to those researching their ancestors.
"Salvaging Governor Locke's website is an important step in the right direction," said Reed. "We learn from those who have gone before us and it is our responsibility to preserve our records for future generations. A transparent government builds public trust."
The Digital Archives, a division of Washington State Archives, is working on the transfer of the remaining 3,500 electronic files from the Locke Administration. These electronic files consist of email, databases, desktop documents, and photographs.
To date over 300 boxes of paper records have been transferred and the transfer of all records is soon to be complete.
The Digital Archive preserves a wide range of original electronic records and digitized paper records from birth, marriage, death, census, military, institutional and naturalization records, to legal and historic records such as the State Constitution and the first election results in the Washington Territory. In fifteen years, citizens could access up to 800 terabytes, about 200 billion pages of text, of public records and history from their home computer.
To use Governor Locke's website and the Digital Archives visit www.digitalarchives.wa.gov
