Digital records preservation discussion paper

In this discussion paper

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Purpose

The purpose of this discussion paper is to:

describe the challenges associated with preserving authentic and accessible digital records
identify the Government of New South Wales' requirements in relation to the preservation of digital records
explain and evaluate tools and techniques that are used for preserving digital records, and
propose a next step for the NSW Government to address this issue.

Introduction

It is vital for the Government of New South Wales to have accessible and authentic records of its business - regardless of their format. Such records are needed for accountability, legal, business and other purposes including documenting our heritage in the State's archives. A record's format should not prevent it from being used or relied upon for these purposes.

As the State's records and archives authority, State Records' aims are to:

ensure that the business of the NSW public sector is properly documented and that official records are managed efficiently and effectively to support frontline service delivery, good governance and accountability, and
develop, document, preserve and make available the State archives collection as a cultural and information resource in order to enrich the people and communities of NSW.

Therefore it is our role to lead the NSW Government in committing to the effective preservation of its official records in digital formats; whether they reside in public offices or, in the future, in dedicated digital repositories for digital State archives.

Definitions

ADRI

Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative. This initiative is made up of each of the national, state and territory public records institutions in Australia and New Zealand. The primary objective of ADRI is to pool resources and expertise to find better ways to ensure that digital records are preserved and made accessible for the future. ADRI members have agreed to collaborate on the development, articulation and implementation of a common set of strategies for enabling the making, keeping and using of the digital records of governments

Distributed management

Distributed management is a strategy whereby a public office, or other person, can enter into an agreement with State Records to have possession or custody of State archives. State Records retains control of the archives, while they are held in the custody of the public office or person, ensuring their proper management and care through the terms of the agreement

Digital records

'Born digital' records such as emails, web pages or database records, plus scanned versions of paper records that have been digitised in business processes

EDRMS

Electronic document and records management system

InterPARES

International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems

JPEG

a commonly used standard method of compression for photographic images

MPEG:

a video and audio compression standard

ODF

an open, XML based document file format for office applications that create and edit documents containing text, spreadsheets, charts and graphical elements [1]

Open Archival Information System (OAIS)

an archive, consisting of an organisation of people and systems, that has accepted the responsibility to preserve information and make it available for a designated community [2]

Open source software

refers to a program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge [3]

PDF

Portable Document Format. A proprietary but open standard file format for representing two dimensional documents

PDF/A

Portable Document Format / Archival. This standard defines a format for the long-term archiving of electronic documents and is based on the PDF standard

Recordkeeping metadata

data that describes the context, content and structure of records and their management through time [4]

State archive

A State record that the State Records Authority of New South Wales has control of under the State Records Act 1998. (State Records Act 1998 section 3(1))

State record

Any record, made and kept, or received and kept, by any person in the course of the exercise of official functions in a public office, or for any purpose of a public office, or for the use of a public office. (State Records Act 1998 section 3(1))

Temporary value records

Records with no archival value that are destroyed after approved retention periods

TIFF

a file format mainly used for storing images, including photographs

XENA

XML Electronic Normalising of Archives. This is the National Archives of Australia's software for converting digital records from their original format into preservation formats. XENA, and the plugin architecture being developed for it are available as open source software. The National Archives has also developed open source software for recording the digital preservation process (Digital Preservation Recorder or DPR) and for providing access to digital archives (Quest)

XML

Short for eXtensible Markup Language, a specification developed by the W3C. XML is a pared-down version of SGML, designed especially for Web documents. It allows designers to create their own customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organisations [5]

Footnotes

[1] OASIS ODF Adoption Technical Committee, Open by Design: The advantages of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) An OASIS White Paper, December 2006.

[2] Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS), January 2002.

[3] Webopedia, accessed 10 May 2007 http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/o/open_source.htmlb

[4] AS ISO 15489-2002 Records Management, Part 1 Clause 3.12

[5] Webopedia, accessed 10 May 2007 http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/X/XML.html

© State of New South Wales through the State Records Authority, 2007.
First published December, 2007
This work may be freely reproduced and distributed for most purposes, however some restrictions apply. ISBN 978-0-9757845-8-7