Strategies for Managing Electronic Records

; David Bearman, “Documenting Documentation” in Electronic Evidence, pp. 222-252; David Wallace, “Managing the Present: Metadata as Archival Description,” Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995): 11-21; and Margaret Hedstrom “Descriptive Standards for Electronic Records: Deciding What is Essential and Imagining What is Possible,” Archivaria 36 (Autumn 1993): 53-63.

37 David Bearman, Electronic Evidence, “Introduction. Constructing a Methodology for Evidence,” p. 2.

38 The University of Pittsburgh Electronic Records Project, Metadata Specifications can be found at http://www.lis.pitt.edu/~nhprc/meta96.html

39 See the following Web sites for details on these projects: National Archives of Australia, Record Recordkeeping Metadata Standard at http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/control/rkms/summary.htm;

SPIRT, Recordkeeping Metadata Project at http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/rcrg/research/spirt/index.html; see also article on SPIRT project, Sue McKemmish and Glenda Acland “Accessing Essential Evidence on the Web: Towards an Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Standard" (1999) at http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw99/papers/mckemmish/paper.html; Proposed New South Wales Recordkeeping Metadata Standard : New South Wales, Australia at http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/publicsector/erk/metadata/NRKMSexplan.htm; United States, Department of Defense, “Records Management Application (RMA) Design Criteria Standard” and “Standard Revision” and “Certification Test and Evaluation Process and Procedures” at http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/recmgt/

Indiana University Electronic Records Project at http://www.indiana.edu/~libarch/phase2.html

University of British Columbia Project, “The Preservation of the Integrity of Electronic Records” at http://www.slais.ubc.ca/users/duranti/ ; On the British Columbia Project also review the article by Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, “The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records: An Overview of the UBC-MAS Research Project,” Archivaria 42 (Fall 1996): 46-67; International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (INTERPARES) Project at http://www.interpares.org/

Victorian Electronic Records Strategy at http://home.vicnet.net.au/~provic/vers/ ; Also review the article on the Victorian Electronics Records Project by Justine Heazlewood, et.al., “Electronic Records: Problem Solved?” in Archives and Manuscripts, Vol. 27, No. 1 (May 1999): 96-113; “Record Keeping Metadata Requirements for the Government of Canada at http://www.imforumgi.gc.ca/new_docs/metadata1_e.html

40 The Dublin Core Metadata specifications can be found at http://purl.oclc.org/dc/

41 For discussions of this issue see David A. Wallace, “Managing the Present: Metadata as Archival Description,” Archivaria, pp. 11-31; and Charles Dollar, Archival Theory and Information Technologies, pp. 60-62, 77-78.

42 Heather MacNeil, “Metadata Strategies and Archival Description: Comparing Apples to Oranges,” Archivaria, No. 36 (Spring 1995): p. 28. See also Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, “The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records: An Overview of the UBC-MAS Research Project,” Archivaria, Vol. 42 (Fall 1996): 57.

43 MacNeil, “Metadata Strategies and Archival Description” p. 30.

44 For an excellent discussions of this position, see . Wallace, “Managing the Present: Metadata as Archival Description,” pp. 11-31; and David Bearman, “Archival Strategies,” pp. 384-85.

45 Duranti, “The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records,” p. 57.

46 Ibid., p. 57

47 Heather MacNeil, “Metadata Strategies and Archival Description: Comparing Apples to Oranges,” p. 25.

48 For detailed descriptions of this electronic records management strategy, see David Bearman, Electronic Evidence, “Recordkeeping Systems,” pp. 34-70, and “Electronic Records Guidelines,” pp. 72-116; and David Bearman and Margaret Hedstrom “Reinventing Archives for Electronic Records: Alternate Service Delivery Options,” Electronic Records Management Strategies, ed. Margaret Hedstrom (Pittsburgh, PA: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1993): pp. 82-98.

49 Rick Barry provided this definition in a memo to the author dated September 11, 2000.

50 The Pitt Project Functional Requirements can be viewed at http://www.lis.pitt.edu/~nhprc/prog1.html

51 These lists of functional requirements are available at the following Web sites: Department of Defense standard can be found at http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/recmgt/#standard; The National Archives of Australia, “Designing and Implementing Recordkeeping Systems,” at http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/dirks/summary.html; State Archives of Victoria (Australia), “System Requirements for Archiving Electronic Records” at http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/standard/99-7-1toc.htm; Canadian State Archives, “ “Recordkeeping in the Electronic Work Environment” at http://www.archives.ca/06/0603_e.html: Delaware State Archives, “Model Guidelines for Electronic Records” at http://www.archives.lib.de.us/recman/g-lines.htm; New York State Archives, “Functional Requirements to Ensure the Creation, Maintenance, and Preservation of Electronic Records” at http://www.ctg.albany.edu/resources/abstract/mfa-4.html; Kansas State Historical Society, “Kansas Electronic Records Management Guidelines” at http://www.kshs.org/archives/recmgt.htm; University of British Columbia, “The Preservation of the Integrity of Electronic Records” at http://www.slais.ubc.ca/users/duranti/; Indiana University Electronic Records Project, “Functional Requirements for Recordkeeping Systems” at http://www.indiana.edu/~libarch/funcreqs.html

52 David Bearman, “Recordkeeping Systems,” pp. 34-35.

53 Overall this is the strategy that is most favored by the Indiana University Electronic Project staff.

54 A colleague, John McDonald, wrote this in an electronic message to this author dated August 1, 2000.

55 Charles Dollar, Authentic Electronic Records: Strategies for Long-Term Access, (Chicago, IL: Cohasset Associates, Inc., 2000), pp. 47-50.

56 Charles Dollar, Authentic Electronic Records, pp. 50-57;

57 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation” Section 5. “Technical Dimensions of the Problem” (Washington, D.D.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 1999) at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html; See also John Garrett and Donald Waters, Preserving Digital Information: Report of the Task Force on Archiving Digital Information, Section on “The Challenge of Archiving Digital Information” (Washington, D.D.: Commission on Preservation and Access and Research Libraries Group, 1996) at http://lyra.rlg.org/ArchTF/tfadi.index.htm ; and Gregory S. Hunter, Preserving Digital Information (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2000), pp. 5-10;

58 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation” at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html; David Bearman, "Collecting Software: A New Challenge for Archives & Museums", Archival Informatics Technical Reports vol. 1, #2, Summer 1987; and David Bearman, “Reality and Chimeras in the Preservation of Electronic Records” D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 4 (April 1999) at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/bearman/04bearman.html

59 Terry Cook, “It’s 10 O’Clock: Do You Know Where Your Data Are?” Technology Review (January 1995) on the Web at http://www.techreview.com/articles/dec94/cook.html

60 A colleague, Richard Barry, made this point to the author in a memo dated September 11, 2000.

61 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation” – “3. Preservation in the Digital Age” Section at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html

62 Margaret Hedstrom, “Digital Preservation: a Time Bomb for Digital Libraries,” - Section on “Current Preservation Strategies and Their Limitations” at http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/DL/hedstrom.html

63 Reagan Moore, et al., “Collection-Based Persistent Digital Archives: Part I,” D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 3 (March 2000) – “Introduction” Section and “Managing Persistence” Section – available at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march00/moore/03moore-pt1.html

64 Ibid., also see Reagan Moore, et al., “Collection-Based Persistent Digital Archives: Part II,” D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 4 (April 2000) at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april00/moore/04moore-pt2.html

65 David Bearman, “Reality and Chimeras in the Preservation of Electronic Records” at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/bearman/04bearman.html; see also Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation” at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html; in this publication Rothenberg writes that “even the best standards are often bypassed and made irrelevant by the inevitable paradigm shifts that characterize information science—and will continue to do so.”

66 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation” – “6.2 Reliance on Standards” Section at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html

67 Charles Dollar, Authentic Electronic Records, p. 68-69.

68 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation” – “6.2 Reliance on Standards” Section at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html

69 Charles Dollar, Authentic Electronic Records, p. 67; see also Margaret Hedstrom, “Digital Preservation: a Time Bomb for Digital Libraries” at http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/DL/hedstrom.html

70 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation,” - “1. Introduction” Section at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html

71 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation,” - “Executive Summary” Section at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html.

72 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation,” – “8. The Emulation Solution” Section at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html

73 David Bearman, “Reality and Chimeras in the Preservation of Electronic Records” at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april99/bearman/04bearman.html

74 Emulation is presently being researched at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. For information on this research, see ??

75 Task Force on Archiving Digital Information, Preserving Digital Information (The Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group, Inc., 1996), p. 6 at http://www.rlg.org/ArchTF/

76 Charles Dollar, Authentic Electronic Records, p. 65; see also Gregory S. Hunter, Preserving Digital Information (New York: Neal-Shuman Publishers, Inc., 2000), pp. 57-58.

77 Charles Dollar, Authentic Electronic Records, p. 69.

78 Ibid, p. 31.

79 Ibid, p. 31-32.

80 Jeff Rothenberg, “Avoiding Technological Quicksand: Finding a Viable Technological Foundation for Digital Preservation,” - “6.4 – Reliance on Migration” Section at http://www.clir.org/cpa/reports/rothenberg/contents.html

81 Margaret Hedstrom, “Digital Preservation: a Time Bomb for Digital Libraries,” - Section on “Migration” at http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/DL/hedstrom.html

82 Luciana Duranti, “Archives as a Place,” Archives and Manuscripts, 24, No. 2 (November 1996): 252.

83 Ibid, p. 252.

84 For articulation of these arguments see Duranti and MacNeil, “The Protection of the Integrity of Records,” pp. 46-67; Duranti, “Archives as a Place,” pp. 242-255; Terry Eastwood, “Should Creating Agencies Keep Electronic Records Indefinitely?,” Archives and Manuscripts, Vol. 24, No. 2 (November 1996): 256-267; Ken Thibodeau, “To Be Or Not To Be: Archive Methods for Electronic Records” in Archival Management of Electronic Records, ed. by David Bearman, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report, No. 13 (Pittsburgh, PA: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1991): 1-13.

85 Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, “The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records,” p. 60.

86 For descriptions of the “Distributed Custody” approach and articulation of arguments for implementing this strategy see David Bearman, “An Indefensible Bastion: Archives Repositories in the Electronic Age,” in Archival Management of Electronic Records, ed. by David Bearman, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report, No. 13 (Pittsburgh, PA: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1991): 14-24; Greg O’Shea and David Roberts, “Living in a Digital World,” pp. 286-311; Adrian Cunningham, “Journey to the End of Night: Custody and the Dawning of a New Era on the Archival Threshold,” Archives and Manuscripts, Vol. 24, No. 2 (November 1996): 312-321; Charles Dollar, The Impact of Information Technologies on Archival Principles and Methods (Macerata, Italy: University of Macerata, 1992): pp. 53-55, 75.

87 David Bearman, “An Indefensible Bastion: Archives Repositories in the Electronic Age,” in Archival Management of Electronic Records, p. 14.

88 Adrian Cunningham, “Ensuring Essential Evidence,” paper for the National Library of Australia News, November 1996, On-line version located at http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/acunning5.html

89 For a summary of the Life Cycle concept see Ira A. Penn, Gail Pennix and Jim Coulson, Records

Management Handbook (Hampshire, England: Gower Publishing Limited, 2^nd Edition, 1994), pp. 12-17.

90 Duranti and MacNeil, “The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records,” p. 62.

91 Ibid, p. 60; for an extensive discussion of the concepts of reliability and authenticity, see Duranti’s article “Reliability and Authenticity: The Concepts and Their Implications,” Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995): 5-10.

92 For discussions of a records continuum theory that pre-dates the archival dialogue on electronic records see Frank Upward, “In Search of the Continuum: Ian Maclean’s ‘Australian Experience’ Essays on Recordkeeping” in The Records Continuum. Ian Maclean and Australian Archives First Fifty Years, Sue McKemmish and Micheal Piggott, eds. (Clayton, Victoria: Ancora Press, 1994): 110-130; and Jay Atherton, “From Life Cycle to Continuum: Some Thoughts on the Records Management-Archives Relationship,” Archivaria, Vol. 21 (Winter 1985-1986): 43-51.

93 The primary proponents of the continuum model have been archivists in the Australian archival community. The research project that most embodies the premises of the continuum model is the University of Pittsburgh Functional Requirements project. For descriptions of the records continuum model see Frank Upward, “Structuring the Records Continuum. Part One, Post-custodial Principles and Properties,” Archives and Manuscripts, Vol. 24, No. 2 (November 1996): 268-285; Frank Upward, “Structuring the Records Continuum. Part Two: Structuration Theory and Recordkeeping," Archives and Manuscripts, Vol. 25, No. 1 ( May 1997): 10-35; Adrian Cunningham, “Journey to the End of the Night: Custody and the Dawning of a New Era on the Archival Threshold - A Commentary,” pp. 312-321; and David Bearman, “Item Level Control and Electronic Recordkeeping,” Archives and Museum Informatics. Cultural Heritage Informatics Quarterly, pp. 242-245.

94 AS 4390.1-1996F: General, Clause 4.6

95 Ann Pederson in an e-mail message to the Australian Archivists listserv, 17 February 1999.

96 Another model or framework for conceptualizing electronic records management has come to be known as the “Steering Rather Than Rowing Approach” to managing archives. The main features of this strategy are a greater emphasis on archival monitoring and oversight activities, on empowering others to solve their record problems, and finally, on developing a decentralized or distributed approach to archival management. It is a strategy that has much in common with the Records Continuum Model. The “Steering Rather Than Rowing” strategy for archives was introduced by David Bearman and Margaret Hedstrom in “Reinventing Archives for Electronic Records: Alternate Service Delivery Options,” in Electronic Records Management Program Strategies, ed. Margaret Hedstrom (Pittsburgh, PA: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1993), pp. 82-98.

97 Terry Cook, “Beyond the Screen: The Records Continuum and Archival Cultural Heritage,” page 11; paper delivered at the Australian Society of Archivists Conference, Melbourne, 18 August 2000, available at http://www.archivists.org.au/sem/conf2000/terrycook.pdf

98 Recently, this author participated in a search for enterprise-wide document management software. It was encouraging to see that all the vendors that were interviewed had made plans to incorporate recordkeeping functionality into their systems. Usually this meant, as in the case of IBM and FileNet, partnering with some smaller vendor specializing in records management, such as Tower or Provenance.

99 Charles Dollar, Authentic Electronic Records, p. 5.

100 Margaret Hedstrom, Electronic Records Research and Development. Final Report of the 1996 Ann Arbor Conference (Ann Arbor, MI), p. 37.