NARA opens first e-records vault in Texas.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) opened the doors to the first federal electronic records vault March 2 in Fort Worth, Texas.

The new Southwest Region Federal Records Center is a 205,000-square-foot building with a total storage capacity of nearly one million cubic feet of records. The facility includes a 1,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art, e-records storage vault that will allow the National Archives, for the first time in its 73-year history, to store and service temporary e-records for federal agencies. The e-records storage vault features a non-aqueous fire suppression system, strict environmental controls, and multiple levels of security. The new facility also includes a high-tech digital imaging lab for record scanning and a specialized media disintegrator to securely destroy federal e-records, according to a PR Newswire release.

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"The new Federal Records Center is an exciting project for the National Archives as we modernize the facilities that house these important federal records," said Preston Huff, the National Archives Regional Administrator for the Southwest Region, in a release. "This building reflects our recognition that the format of our nation's records has evolved from paper to a variety of electronic media."

The new facility will replace the Federal Records Center currently located in the Fort Worth Federal Depot. The move to the new building is scheduled to be completed in October.

The National Archives Southwest Region is one of 15 National Archives regional facilities nationwide. It serves 100 federal agency customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. Significant holdings include federal records created by the regional U.S. District/Bankruptcy Courts, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA-Johnson Space Flight Center), and the U.S. departments of Energy, the Navy, and Homeland Security.