The Impact of Digital Preservation on Organizations: A Policy Perspective

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The Impact of Digital Preservation on
OrganizationsA Policy Perspective

• Erpatraining
• Policies for Digital Preservation
• John McDonald
• January 29-30, 2002

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Objectives

• To use a Canadian government study on information
  management as a case study to illustrate
• The complexity of the digital landscape that
  exists in many modern organizations.
• The challenges presented by this landscape for
  the development and implementation of information
  policy (and, by extension, digital preservation
  policies).
• The potential of capability and maturity models
  to help us move forward.

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The IM Situation Analysis Study

• A one year study (2000) sponsored by Treasury
  Board Secretariat and the National Archives (the
  lead agencies responsible for government-wide
  IM).
• Triggers?
• Government On-line.
• The E-mail issue.
• The preservation of electronic corporate memory
• Method
• Interviews with program officials at all levels
  and IM specialists from a variety of disciplines.
  
• Review of experiences around the world.

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The IM Situation Analysis Study - Results

• Establishment of an IM unit in Treasury Board
  Secretariat to address life cycle management of
  information (emphasis on digital).
• Heightened profile for role of National Archives
  and National Library (both institutions recently
  merged).
• Development of Treasury Board Policy on
  Management of Government Information (MGI).

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The MGI Policy

• Federal government departments/agencies required
  to manage information throughout its life cycle.
• All forms of recorded information are covered.
• Accountability assigned to a senior executive.

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The MGI Policy (cont.)

• Institutions must make plans to
• Implement an IM program.
• Integrate information management into the design
  of government activities ...
• Include human and financial resources needs and
  IM requirements at an early stage
• Optimize the use of existing information and make
  plans for its use beyond immediate business
  needs.
• Maintain the authenticity, integrity and currency
  of information for as long as the information is
  required.

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The MGI Policy (cont.)

• To support this commitment for electronic
  information, government departments/agencies
  must
• Integrate the management of electronic
  information into IM programs
• Create and use metadata to provide context and
  allow easy access and retrieval and understanding
  of the information over time and through changes
  in technology
• Assign accountability and establish control
  mechanisms to ensure the authenticity of
  electronic information through time.

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The MGI Policy

• The MGI policy is an integral component of an
  overall infrastructure for the management of
  information.
• Digital preservation is an integral component of
  the infrastructure.

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Understanding the IM infrastructure is based on
...
understanding the organization and its
business
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Business View
Law
Mandate
Accountability
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Understanding the IM infrastructure
begins with understanding the activities
performed on information
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Create Information

• Activities organizations do to manifest
  information - bring it into existence - in
  order to support program/service delivery
• create, collect, generate, receive

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Use Information

• Activities organizations do with their
  information.
• access, exchange, transmit, disseminate, share

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Preserve Information

• Activities organizations do to their information
  to ensure that it is authentic, reliable
  available, understandable, and usable for as long
  as required.
• retain, protect, store, describe, migrate, dispose

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IM Infrastructure
Enabling Laws and Policies
Mandates and Accountabilities
preserve
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Considerations

• Two kinds of policies
• Those that pertain to information activities
  (create, use, preserve)
• Those that pertain to the management of the
  infrastructure
• Both kinds may be resident in the same policy
  instrument.
• Policy addresses all of the activities performed
  on information.
• Preservation is an integral component of the
  activities performed on information

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BUT!!!
Its one thing to have a policy and a vision of
an infrastructure
Its quite another to see them implemented
consistently
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Impact of the organization on policy development

• The complexity of the landscape and the diversity
  of the communities responsible for information
  management can present a considerable challenge.
• The landscape comprises three environments
• structured environment
• unstructured environment
• web environment

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Structured Environment
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The Structured Environment

• Highly structured business processes assigned
  accountability rigorous approach to systems
  design and development.
• Emerged from the heavily controlled mainframe
  environment that supported large application
  systems.
• Policies in place to govern systems development
  and management but they may not account for
  assignment of accountability for retention and
  long term preservation.
• Standards and practices in place for systems
  development and data management but they may not
  account for digital objects as evidence or the
  requirements for their long term preservation.

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The Structured Environment

• Database specialists are in place to manage the
  integrity of data, but they may not understand
  information management concepts such as
  authenticity, evidence, and preservation.

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The People Dimension
Records Management
Database Management
Archives
Publications/ Communications Management
Library Services
Web Content Management
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Unstructured Environment

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The Unstructured Environment

• Poorly defined work processes few rules of the
  road weak accountability.
• Personal computers emerged from a garage to serve
  as personal support utilities.
• Program managers are complaining about the e-mail
  issue but not prepared to deal with it.
• Issues extend across the life cycle - not just
  retention and preservation.
• Records management policies in place, but
• Few assign accountability for electronic records
  management.
• Many address paper records only.

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The Unstructured Environment

• Electronic record keeping systems are available
  but they are still new technology.
• The absence of records management controls
  threatens the ability of archives to appraise
  information objects for their archival value.
• Records managers and archivists are in place, but
  struggling to build and implement solutions

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The People Dimension
Database Management
Publications/ Communications Management
Library Services
Web Content Management
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The web environment

• Policies pertain to publishing and
  communications.
• Standards and practices based on web content
  management (re publishing and communications).
• Systems are in place (based on content management
  software) but may not address retention and
  preservation adequately.

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The web environment

• Program managers view the web as a publishing and
  communications tool sensitivity about value and
  long term preservation may be poor.
• Web masters govern the environment but may not be
  familiar with authenticity requirements and the
  long term preservation of web content.
• Librarians and communications staff may be in
  the loop but sensitivity to long term
  preservation issues may not be high (because the
  information may be of short to medium term
  interest).
• Relatively few are thinking about the
  implications of the evolution to a
  transactions-based environment.

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Archives
The People Dimension
Database Management
Records Management
Library Services
Web Content Management
Publications/ Communications Management
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Some Questions

• Should digital preservation policies stand on
  their own or should they be integrated into
  broader IM policies?
• how should the scope of digital preservation
  policies be defined?
• How do we ensure that policies are relevant to
  the reality of the landscape just described?
• How can we assess the impact of the often complex
  landscape on the policy development process?
• How can we undertake such an assessment when we
  are dealing with a moving target?

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Getting to there from here?
The role of capability models
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Capability Models

• First developed for the software industry.
• Later adapted by the financial management
  community.
• More recently used to assess e-government
  initiatives.
• Studies in 2002 resulted in
• The development and testing of an IM Capacity
  Check by the National Archives of Canada
• The preparation of a research paper by the Public
  Policy Forum on capability models for records
  management
• The establishment of an initiative by the
  International Records Management Trust and the
  World Bank to develop a maturity model for use in
  developing countries
• All of the above address preservation including
  the preservation of information in electronic
  form.

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Capability Models - Example

• Level 1 An infrastructure for managing
  information is not in place. Information is
  created, used and retained based on protocols
  established by individuals or work groups.
• Level 2 An infrastructure is in place for
  controlling the retention, protection, and
  disposition of information. However, the
  relationship between the management of
  information and business needs is weak.
• Level 3 An infrastructure is in place to ensure
  that information is created to support business
  activities, that information is able to be
  accessed and retrieved effectively and that it is
  retained and disposed of according to corporately
  approved standards and in compliance with laws
  and policies. The relationship between
  information management and business needs is
  strong.
• Level 4 An infrastructure is in place to ensure
  that the right information in authentic and
  reliable form is provided to the right person at
  the right time in the right format at a
  reasonable cost.
• Level 5 An infrastructure is in place to exploit
  information to meet the needs of a
  knowledge-based organization and its clients and
  partners.

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Maturity Models

• To what extent is an assessent of the
  maturity/capability of the organizations
  infrastructure (including policy) ...
• dependent upon an assessment of the maturity
  levels of the business of the organization itself?

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Summary

• One size may not fit all.
• Distinct policies may be required for distinct
  environments (though ideally based on general
  corporate-wide policy rooted in business-driven
  principles).
• Multiple standards may be required to respond to
  distinct needs of individual environments.
• Human resources tools and techniques may be
  required to address the distinct communities
  supporting the environments.
• Work underway on capability and maturity models
  may help.