October 11, 2025 – The Council of State Archivists (CoSA) was named the winner of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance’s Excellence Award in the project category for the multi-year BACKER: Building Archival Capacity for Keeping Electronic Records. The award was presented to CoSA Executive Director Joy Banks and former BACKER Project Coordinator Nick Connizzo last night at the 2025 NDSA Digital Preservation Conference.

The BACKER project represents an effort by CoSA and its State Electronic Records Institute’s (SERI) work to build on years of previous SERI work, extending the impact of electronic records management and digital preservation education and training among the 56 state, territory, and District of Columbia archives. This work was specifically designed to increase capacities within these agencies, and was designed to be accomplished in a 4-year timeframe which responded to the time and budgetary constraints of CoSA members.

The BACKER project delivered to CoSA consultants and members updated self-assessment tools and best practices guidelines for state archives’ digital preservation programs; provided direct assistance and mentoring to improve digital preservation programs, including digitization planning and related policy development; accelerated development and implementation of digital preservation planning and cultural competence awareness and skill-building through educational and training programs; and produced a robust series of accompanying publications in a variety of formats that facilitate continued learning and sharing among archives staff, allied organizations, and other stakeholders.

BACKER coordinator Nick Connizzo wrote in the project’s final report, “How state and territorial archives prioritize provenance and authenticity, reliability and auditability, and digital accessibility will have a significant effect on citizens’ ability to trust the information they share with and receive from their governments, and therefore how they trust government itself. Archives and the records they possess can be the foundations of government trust.”

It is within this lens of transparency and public record that these already impressive professional resources and tools take on an even greater impact.

NDSA Project winners are recognized for activities whose goals or outcomes represent an inventive, meaningful addition to the understanding or processes required for successful, sustainable digital preservation stewardship. The projects category was "highly competitive" this year with 8 nominations. Noted Banks, “This recognition by our peers at NDSA, in what was a notably competitive year for this particular award category, is a wonderful bookend on the project work.”