Electronic Backup Tapes, 9609-9611 [E6-2641]

Agencies

• Office of Presidential Libraries; Proposed Disposal of Clinton Administration
• National Archives and Records Administration

[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 37 (Friday, February 24, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9609-9611]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-2641]


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NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION

Office of Presidential Libraries; Proposed Disposal of Clinton 
Administration


Electronic Backup Tapes

AGENCY: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

ACTION: Presidential Records Act notice of proposed disposal of Clinton 
Administration PROFS backup tapes; final agency action.

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SUMMARY: The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has 
identified an obsolete series of Clinton PROFS backup tapes maintained 
by the National Security Council, housed at the National Archives at 
College Park, Maryland, as appropriate for disposal under the 
provisions of 44 U.S.C. 2203(f)(3). This notice describes the 
Presidential record information on these backup tapes and our reasons 
for determining that these backup tapes have insufficient 
administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value to 
warrant their continued preservation. This decision is made in light of 
the fact that there has been an extensive tape restoration project done 
on these backup tapes and the recovered record information is being 
maintained by NARA in a separate set of permanent tapes.

DATES: Effective Date: The disposal will occur on or after April 25, 
2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Assistant Archivist for Presidential 
Libraries Sharon K. Fawcett, National Archives and Records 
Administration, Suite 2200, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 
20740-6001; tel. 301-837-3250, or by fax to 301-837-3199; or by e-mail 
to sharon.fawcett@nara.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NARA published a ``Presidential Records Act 
notice of proposed disposal of Clinton Administration PROFS backup 
tapes containing redundant information'' on May 3, 2005, in the Federal 
Register (70 FR 22926) for a 45 day comment period. NARA received four 
written comments from representatives of the Maryland State Archives, 
The Information Trust, Public Citizen Litigation Group, and the 
National Security Archive. In addition, NARA staff met with 
representatives of the latter three organizations on May 25, 2005, to 
discuss the FR notice. The following is a summary of the comments and 
NARA's response.

Summary of Comments

    Three of the commenters found the original notice confusing as to 
what materials are being proposed for disposition, and asked that NARA 
more precisely clarify the scope of the proposed disposition action in 
a further notice. In particular, these commenters asked for 
confirmation of the following in the second notice:
    1. Clarification that the notice for disposal applies only to PROFS 
back up tapes maintained by the National Security Council (NSC), and 
that another series of Clinton Administration NSC e-mail, the main 
system used during the Clinton Administration for archiving Clinton NSC 
emails, as well as the email backups for this system will continue to 
be preserved;
    2. NARA specify at greater length what applications were used on 
the PROFS system during the Clinton Administration and by whom; and
    3. That NARA describe the appraisal that staff conducted to 
determine whether the material was appropriate for disposition, 
including whatever comparisons were made of the data subject to this 
notice with data otherwise being permanently preserved at NARA.
    4. Finally, one commenter also asked for technical information, 
including the type of tape media used, the nature of the tape 
restoration project, as well as the contents of any inventories of the 
tapes.

NARA Response

    In response to the questions that were raised, NARA wishes to 
clarify that:
    1. Clarification on disposal notice:
    NARA proposes only the disposition of Clinton Presidential 
electronic records on 9,193 class 3480 magnetic tape cartridges, 
containing backup formatted records of calendars, call logs, notes and 
documents created using IBM proprietary Professional/Office Vision 
software (PROFS). This series includes calendars and call logs from 
January 20, 1993 through January 2001 created by a limited number of 
NSC staff persons who had access to the PROFS software. Further, this 
series includes notes and documents from January 20, 1993 through June 
30, 1993 created by those NSC staff members who had access to and used 
the PROFS software.
    The PROFS system was not the primary email application available to 
NSC staff during the Clinton administration. Most staff used the NSC 
Classified Email System known as ``A-1'' or ``All-in-One,'' later 
migrated to Microsoft Mail and Microsoft Schedule. NARA retains 
official record copies in electronic form of an estimated 2-3 million 
classified e-mails from the A-1 and Microsoft Mail system. The body of 
e-mail and backup tapes that correspond to this separate email system 
are being maintained by NARA and are not affected by the proposed 
notice.
    NARA proposes this disposal because NARA continues to maintain 45 
tapes created through an extensive NSC Tape Restoration Project (TRP) 
undertaken as a result of the Armstrong litigation. These tapes include 
all PROFS notes and documents created between January 20, 1993 and June 
30, 1993, as well as all PROFS calendar and call log information for 
the period of time between January 20, 1993 and March 28, 1994. 
Further, the TRP also restored PROFS calendar and call log information 
for all PROFS calendar users through calendar year 1995.

[[Page 9610]]

    NARA is also retaining what was described in the first FR notice as 
an electronic ``snapshot'' of PROFS calendar data and call logs 
corresponding to the records of five high-level NSC officials, namely: 
Anthony Lake, National Security Advisor; Samuel Berger, Deputy and 
later National Security Advisor; Nancy Soderberg, Staff Director and 
later Deputy National Security Advisor; Donald Kerrick, Deputy National 
Security Advisor; and James Steinberg, Deputy National Security 
Advisor. This snapshot consists of cumulative calendar and call log 
entries (in a logical file format that can be read), corresponding to 
the entire eight year span of the Clinton Administration. An analysis 
made by NARA staff of the restored calendars and call logs indicates 
that the overwhelming majority of such data (approximately 94%) 
represents entries by three users, namely: Anthony Lake, Samuel Berger, 
and Nancy Soderberg.
    Additionally, NARA will permanently retain multiple preservation 
copies of the January 19, 2001 backup tape created by WHCA, containing 
cumulative calendar data from all PROFS calendar users during the 
entire span of the Clinton Administration.
    Finally, the original, unrestored set of Clinton PROFS backup tape 
cartridges remain in an unacceptable format for continued NARA 
preservation and access purposes.
    2. Applications used on PROFS and by whom:
    For the period of January 20, 1993 through June 30, 1993, the PROFS 
notes and documents functions were available to staff members with 
accounts on the system. The notes and documents functions of PROFS were 
disabled on June 30, 1993 and hence were no longer available to staff.
    In addition, during the entire Clinton Administration, the PROFS 
system was available to a small number of staff members to use the 
calendar and call log functions. Throughout the Administration the 
calendar and call log functions were used, primarily, by the five high-
level NSC officials identified above, namely: Anthony Lake, Samuel 
Berger, Nancy Soderberg, Donald Kerrick, and James Steinberg. In 
addition, members of NSC's Office of the Executive Secretary and 
certain other NSC staff used the calendar function of PROFS for the 
scheduling of routine staff meetings, personal leave and noting Federal 
holidays.
    3. Information on the appraisal done by NARA to reach this 
decision:
    Starting in 2003, a year long appraisal process was undertaken by 
two NARA archivists. This appraisal was completed in accordance with 
NARA's guidance for the disposal of Presidential Records, NARA 
Directive 1461. The purpose of the appraisal was to establish the 
redundancy of the information on the backup tapes being proposed for 
disposal and to confirm that record information on the backup tapes was 
captured and preserved in a separate series of permanent tapes. This 
appraisal included a careful review of the contents of the PROFS backup 
tapes subject to this disposition notice and a comparison of 
information residing on the backup tapes against what was restored in 
the TRP process. Further, staff compared the content of the back up 
tapes with the above-described end of Administration ``snapshot.''
    NARA archivists found in doing this appraisal that, as a result of 
the cumulative backup process, the PROFS backup tapes contain multiple 
copies of all records created on the PROFS system. In addition, NARA 
archivists confirmed, in an analysis of the restored TRP data, that 
1,869 PROFS notes and 128 PROFS documents, all created prior to June 
30, 1993, solely consist of requests for password changes, the setting 
up of new accounts, and other systems-related questions posed by NSC 
staff. Notwithstanding the routine, administrative nature of this data, 
all of it is being preserved, in a separate series, as the product of 
the Armstrong TRP.
    NARA archivists separately sampled calendar and call log data in 
two different ways to ensure the completeness of the data preserved for 
high-level NSC officials. First, NARA archivists sampled calendar and 
call log data for random days in 1993 and 1994 during the period of the 
Armstrong TRP. Calendar and call log data from the PROFS backup tapes 
was compared with the restored series of tapes resulting from the 
Armstrong TRP. Based on a review of the restored calendars of Lake, 
Berger, Soderberg, and others who were staff members in the early 
Clinton Administration, NARA archivists confirmed that the calendar and 
call log data on PROFS backups matched the entries on the restored 
media. Again, this TRP data is being preserved in a separate series.
    Second, NARA archivists compared calendar and call log entries on 
the PROFS backups with similar entries on the end of Administration 
``snapshot'' from January 19, 2001, for the five high-level NSC staff 
members referenced in the previous paragraph (Lake, Berger, Soderberg, 
Kerrick and Steinberg). NARA was able to confirm that data from the 
PROFS backup tapes matched data captured on the end of Administration 
``snapshot.'' Therefore, there was no indication based on NARA's review 
that calendar or call log entries had been modified or deleted by 
individual NSC staff members after the initial time of their entry. 
This ``snapshot'' data is being preserved in a separate series.
    Finally, NARA archivists sampled individual accounts on the PROFS 
backups looking for data that would not have been restored as part of 
the Armstrong TRP process. NARA staff, working with WHCA staff, 
examined file extensions to backup files looking for additional user 
created files that would not have been captured during the TRP process. 
Only one user-created file was found that based on its file extension 
was determined not to have been subject to the TRP. This consisted of a 
tickler file reminder, dated May 1993 for a clerical staff member, of a 
purely routine and administrative nature. (The reminder is still being 
retained on the cumulative backup tape.) Archivists found no evidence 
of user-generated content on the PROFS system after June 30, 1993, when 
PROFS applications were disabled except for calendar and call log data.
    Given this extensive appraisal, NARA was able to determine that 
these records no longer retain sufficient administrative, historical, 
informational, or evidentiary value.
    4. Additional technical information in response to comments 
received.
    Tape format. In further response to technical questions raised by 
the commenters, the PROFS backup tapes which are subject to disposition 
were originally created on 3480 tape cartridges, for the purpose of 
emergency disaster recovery. The TRP consisted of a multi-stage process 
using a variety of IBM proprietary software designed to recover user 
created data from the backup tapes. The output of the TRP and the end 
of Administration snapshot tape is structured in a NARA-approved EBCDIC 
format. Because the preservation copies of the January 19, 2001 
cumulative backup tape are in a backup tape format, further restoration 
would be necessary to provide for future access.
    Documentation. NARA will retain documentation consisting of the 
inventories of PROFS tapes transferred to NARA at the end of the 
Clinton Administration. The inventory of the backup tapes consists of 
tape numbers and dates; the inventory of the ``snapshot'' tape contains 
the list of individuals represented on the tape; and the inventory of 
the TRP resulting tapes contains tape numbers, dates, and the

[[Page 9611]]

type of information contained on the tape (i.e., calendar files, index 
files, documents files, note files, and residual files).

NARA Action

    NARA will proceed to dispose of 9,193 PROFS backup tapes created 
during the Clinton Administration by WHCA staff as specified in the 
EFFECTIVE DATE of this notice, because NARA has determined that they 
lack sufficient administrative, historical, informational, or 
evidentiary value. This notice constitutes NARA's final agency action 
pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 2203(f)(3).

    Dated: February 17, 2006.
Allen Weinstein,
Archivist of the United States.
 [FR Doc. E6-2641 Filed 2-23-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7515-01-P