Practical, Available Approaches for LongTerm Accessibility of Electronic Records

1
Practical, Available Approaches forLong-Term
Accessibility of Electronic Records

• Charlie Arp
• State Archivist
• Ohio Historical Society
• [phone]
• carp_at_ohiohistory.org
• handout with contact information URLs

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Discussion Points

• Introduction
• Policy
• Ohio Electronic Records Committee
• Ohio UETA
• Ohio Bureau of Employment Services E-Mail
• Websites
• Plans, Problems, and Conclusions

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Background - OHS

• Ohio Historical Society
• Private non-profit organization - 501 (3) (c)
• Serves as the States partner in preserving and
  interpreting Ohios history, archaeology and
  natural history
• 149.31 ORC - Legal basis of the State Archives
• The Ohio Historical Society, in addition to its
  other functions, shall function as the state
  archives administration for the state and its
  political subdivisions

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Background - OHS

• State Archives has
• 35,000 c.f. of state and local government records
• State Archives staff
• 5 professionals
• 3 technicians
• Appraisal, accessioning, arrangement, and
  description
• Give advice on records management to local
  governments
• 5 separate records management systems in Ohio

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Electronic Records Programat the State Archives
of Ohio

• Electronic Records
• Tried to influence electronic records policy
• ERC and Ohios version of UETA
• Tried to insure access to electronic records
• GILS RIMS
• Tried to preserve electronic records
• JERRI

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Electronic Records Policy

• Electronic Records Committee
• Started the ERC in 1998 to consider electronic
  records issues in depth
• ERC made up of about 35 people
• Archivists, records managers, IT people
• State Archivist is chair
• ERC makes recommendations to Dept. of
  Administrative Services (DAS) for implementation

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Electronic Records Policy

• ERC
• Electronic records policy for the State that DAS
  adopted on 1 May 1999
• Guidelines for Digital Imaging Systems
• General Schedule for Administrative ER
• Guidelines for Managing E-mail
• Recommendations for Electronic Publications
• Electronic Records Management Guidelines

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Electronic Records Policy

• ERC
• Currently modifying Minnesotas Trustworthy
  Information Systems Handbook for use in Ohio
• Sub-committee drafting protocols for replying to
  public records requests for databases
• Scheduled to create a working group to recommend
  DOD5015.2 Records Management software
• Department of Insurance - e-mail litigation
• Michigan assisted us

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Electronic Records Policy

• Ohios Version of UETA
• H.B. 488 - effective date Sept. 14, 2000
• State CIO created a committee to modify the UETA
  for Ohio
• State Archivist only non-DAS person on the
  committee
• State Archives GILS application used PKI
• ERC

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Electronic Records Policy

• 1306.20 ORC
• If a state agency changes the format of an
  electronic record it must demonstrate that the
  alternative format accurately and completely
  reflects the record as it was originally created,
  used, sent, or received
• The state agency shall create a certificate of
  authenticity for each set of records that is
  altered
• DAS in consultation with the state archivist,
  shall adopt rules that establish the methods for
  creating certificates of authenticity

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Electronic Records Policy

• 1306.21 ORC
• With regard to state agency use of electronic
  records or electronic signatures, DAS, in
  consultation with the state archivist, shall
  adopt rules setting forth all of the following
• The minimum requirements for the method of
  creation,maintenance, and security of electronic
  records and electronic signatures

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Electronic Records Policy

• 1306.21 ORC
• Can also create rules that
• Control processes and procedures as appropriate
  to ensure adequate preservation, disposition,
  integrity, security, confidentiality, and
  auditability of electronic records
• Any other required attributes for electronic
  records that are specified for corresponding
  nonelectronic records or are reasonably necessary
  under the circumstances.

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Electronic Records Policy

• DAS has not created any administrative rules for
  electronic records at this point
• In consultation means that State Archives will
  be involved in the process
• Supreme Court of Ohio creating committees to look
  at similar issues
• will ask State Archives to assist with those
  committees

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Accessioning Electronic Records

• Informal Criteria for
• Accessioning Electronic Records
• Originating agency cannot maintain the records
• Non-proprietary formats
• Records that would loose significant
  functionality if maintained in another format
• Reasonable expectation that OHS can preserve and
  make the records available to the public

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Accessioning Electronic Records

• We have accessioned
• OBES e-mail
• 2 Web sites
• What do we do about government entities that
  image permanent records and then want to dispose
  of the paper?

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OBES E-Mail

• OBES was switching from non-Y2K compliant e-mail
  system to a compliant system - merged into
  another agency
• Wanted State Archives to sign off on the
  destruction of eleven years of e-mail
• Executive correspondence to be reviewed by State
  Archives
• E-mail Guidelines - defined by content
• Credibility was at stake

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OBES E-Mail

• Accession
• Took e-mail accounts of 45 OBES executives - 3
  Agency heads and 42 Department Heads
• 334,000 e-mails from 1987-1998
• early implementation of agency e-mail
• Most of it is inter-office memos
• ASCII Text files
• System documentation and policies
• Good test case

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OBES E-Mail

• E-mail includes
• To
• From
• CC - names with e-mail addresses
• Date - created and sent
• Subject Line
• Text - no attachments
• Index by account (sender)

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OBES E-Mail

• Status
• Put the e-mail on our production server
• Three sets of CD-ROMs
• SDSC to wrap the e-mail in XML
• Dump the e-mail into a database
• Appraise using sort functions
• Use a report to duplicate the structure
• Document what we do

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Websites

• Websites from two agencies who went defunct
• Womens Policy and Research Commission
• State and Local Government Commission
• Both are Brochure-ware websites
• No databases or dynamically generated pages
• Simple HTML
• Modification of code to make the internal links
  work
• Keep in electronic format?
• Printed them out

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Electronic Publications

• As part of the JERRI project OHS partnered with
• State Library of Ohio
• DAS
• Ohio Supercomputer Center
• Electronic Publications Pilot Project (EP3) was a
  spin off of JERRI dealing with electronic
  publications
• LSTA funding
• Tested software to capture publications

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Electronic Publications

• OCLC is working on a Digital Vault project to
  sell the capture and preservation of electronic
  publications to their customers
• OCLC has asked the JERRI partners to be
  consultants on their project
• SLO signing a contract with OCLC
• Rest of the JERRI partners are signing a MOU with
  SLO to work on the project

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Plans

• State Archives Server
• OBES E-mail
• Finding aid
• Public accessible database to search, retrieve,
  view, and print out the e-mail
• Web sites
• Finding aid
• View and print out the web site

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Plans

• We hope that the partnership with SLO and OCLC
• gives SLO a method of capturing electronic
  publications
• non-proprietary method of preserving electronic
  publications

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Problems

• Do we make these electronic records available
  through the web?
• Do we do one interface for all access to all
  electronic records or do we do separate
  applications?
• How do we integrate electronic records series
  with other digital collections?
• How do preserve the records?????

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Conclusions

• Policy
• To document migration
• To dictate the formats of electronic records
• To try to make sure that electronic records are
  created and maintained in a reliable and
  authentic manner
• Experimenting with OBES e-mail/agency web sites
  to learn how to process and provide access to
  electronic records

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Conclusions

• Formed new partnerships to deal with electronic
  electronic records issues
• We are trying to balance
• Our limited resources
• To address electronic records issues
• While meeting our obligations to collect records
  of enduring historical value
• So that we maintain our credibility

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Conclusions

• Questions?