Chief Information Officer
Assistant Archivist for
Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
USA
Martha Morphy will be presenting a keynote on The US Electronic Records Archive on Tuesday.
Prior to joining the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Martha Morphy worked with systems engineering staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a Software Branch Chief for major weather systems acquisitions. Her work at NOAA prepared her for the issues surrounding building IT systems for the ingest, processing and dissemination of large volumes of data. She also worked with NOAA’s data centres to understand the methods for preserving and making scientific data available to a variety of customers.
In 1998, Martha moved to NARA as Software Architect and has since held a variety of positions including Director of Information Technology Policy and Deputy Chief Information Officer. In December 2005, the U.S. Archivist, Professor Allen Weinstein, selected her as the Chief Information Officer and Assistant Archivist. She currently is responsible for IT policy, operations, project management, capital planning and investment control, data administration, software and hardware acquisition, digitisation efforts and NARA’s own records management program. She also oversees the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) Program. This systems development project is the largest IT initiative undertaken by NARA by orders of magnitude.
ERA will transform NARA by providing access to all types of electronic records via the Internet-by anyone, anywhere, at any time-regardless of when or how the record was created. The most fundamental characteristic of ERA is that it must be able to evolve over time to allow new types of electronic records to be brought into ERA and preserved. ERA will be built to guarantee that the electronic records are not corrupted or distorted by changes in technology.
ERA addresses several major functions of NARA’s life cycle management of records, including records appraisal and disposition, preservation, accessioning, storage, and access. However, its greatest impact will be the ability to acquire, preserve, secure, and provide access to the rapidly increasing volume of electronic records created by the Federal Government. NARA expects to accumulate 11 million gigabytes of electronic records in the next 4 years; by 2017 we expect that volume to increase to nearly 100 million gigabytes.
Martha had been involved in the concept of ERA from its inception. As a result of her oversight of the program, she will be able to provide an insider’s view into the development of ERA.
Martha Morphy
Chief Information Officer
Assistant Archivist for Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
Street:
8601 Adelphi Rd
College Park
MD 20740-6001
USA
Telephone: +1 301 837 1992
