At the end of 1994 the Commission on Preservation and Access and RLG created the Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information, charged with investigating and recommending means to ensure "continued access indefinitely into the future of records stored in digital electronic form." In May 1996 the 21-member task force, co-chaired by Donald Waters and John Garrett, completed their final report, Preserving Digital Information, a milestone guide for work on the long-term retention of both born-digital and digitized materials.

Both RLG and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) have made the publication widely available. The online version earned a Scout Report selection. The task force’s nine recommendations have shaped our preservation agenda and prompted projects ranging from an archival server infrastructure ("Arches"); to an early collaborative digital collection ("Studies in Scarlet"); to work now underway on digital repository certification.

• Preserving Digital Information: Final Report and Recommendations (1996) (pdf)