The Legacy Management Archives and Information Management team is working on organizing thousands of U.S. Department of Energy records that are almost a century old in Morgantown, W.V.
These records cover various topics from the Cold War era and were previously kept in different sites managed by DOE predecessors, which LM now manages, according to an April 4 news release.
“My favorite part of this process has been learning more about the DOE story. I didn’t know there were more than 100 sites spread throughout the country that all played a part in winning the second world war and the Cold War,” Giancarlo Deguia, records, archives and information management specialist, said in the release.
He continued by saying that his work truly summed up America, the release reported.
“This work proves how others truly encompassed that American spirit. Everyone contributed to the success of America during that time and helped shape it into what it has become,” Deguia added, according to the release.
He felt the information will have many different uses, the release said.
“There’s a lot of different ways of looking at this information and understanding what it is, where it’s archived, how to reach it and how to access it, to help us in the future for the decision-making process," Deguia said in the release. “LM’s main role [for information management] is to identify the historical value and then determine whether a document is considered valuable to scientific and technical data or research. The next step is deciding whether that information should be considered a record and remain in its original format or if it needs to be digitalized.”
He believes the information to be important and explained its many uses in further detail, according to the release.
“The importance of this information, in terms of impacting public health and the environment, cannot be overstated. It’s also essential for future generations to look back and learn about what happened and how it happened in order to understand the processes, procedures and policies in place today," Deguia said in the release. "The historical data, information and records also lend to the foundational building blocks of planning for the future. If we can better understand what happened in the past, we can ensure and develop a more successful and prosperous path forward."
Deguia found the records personally fascinating for their historical value, the release reported.
“Reviewing the records opens a time capsule that reveals the expansive history of DOE’s legacy and the importance of LM’s role as stewards of these legacy sites, and how they together helped to shape American history,” Deguia said in the release.
“You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. We need to know that history to go forward and fulfill our mission of protecting the future of public health and the environment,” David Von Behren, supervisor of the education, communication, history and outreach team, said in the release.
