ANN ARBOR—A University of Michigan School of Information professor has been appointed by the Library of Congress to help develop a national strategy for long-term preservation of digital information.

Margaret Hedstrom, whose expertise is in archives and records management, has been appointed to a two-year term on the National Digital Strategy Advisory Board. The board will make recommendations to the Library of Congress for implementing the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. Congress has appropriated up to $100 millionto the Library of Congress to carry out the project over several years.

Goals of the advisory board are to identify standards and best practices for digital archiving, to develop mechanisms for a network of digital repositories in libraries and other organizations, and to address issues of access and intellectual property protection. A digital information infrastructure with partnerships between government and private industry will be developed as part of this initiative.

“I am pleased to accept this appointment,” Hedstrom says, “because it is an opportunity to put my research on digital archiving into practice to serve broad interests in long-term preservation of our digital cultural heritage.”

The School of Information is a graduate-level program offering the Master of Science in Information and a doctorate. The master’s degree offers specializations in Archives and Records Management; Human-Computer Interaction; Information Economics, Management and Policy; and Library and Information Services.

Details about SI are available on the Web at si.umich.edu or by calling (734) 763-2285.

School of InformationMargaret HedstromArchives and Records Managementsi.umich.edu