The Electronic Records Archive, being undertaken by the U.S. National Archives at a cost of more than $300 million, is supposed to finally find a way to catalog all of the significant material that doesn’t fit on a piece of paper. As you might imagine, this is a monumentally complex project, and even the chief archivist doesn’t seem entirely certain where to begin. “The National Archives has been receiving electronic materials since 1970, but plans for long-term preservation of it all didn’t begin until 1998. And the government has only started to take it seriously in the past three years.The National Archives has been receiving electronic materials since 1970, but plans for long-term preservation of it all didn’t begin until 1998. And the government has only started to take it seriously in the past three years.”