, including Web sites. Her article appeared in a special issue of the agency's own magazine, CRM (Cultural Resource Management), and is titled "Is the Record of the 20th Century at Risk?" (Adobe Acrobat PDF file). Several other articles in this issue, Archives at the Millennium, are also worth reading.

In light of Benford's assessment of the general failure over time of societies to preserve the past, the final part of her hybrid approach to achieve success in long-term preservation of digital records is telling:

"Finally, pray for technological help and funding from the government, individuals, and organizations benefiting most from the new technologies, the software and hardware firms."

She also reminds us of the grim economic reality which faces most archives and their staff:

"Archives are not funded to a level that empowers them to deal with the long-term management of the growing quantities of digital data, nor are most archivists trained to work with these media."

I fully expect that some catastrophe, natural or manmade, involving electronic records affecting anyone with an electronic identity or electronic records and similar to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack against the United States will awaken public sentiment to the loss of our digital heritage.