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a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
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Scaling the e-mail mountainA records manager’s guide to e-mail curation
Maureen Pennock
Digital Curation Centre, UKOLN, University of Bath
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
The first telegram…
Source: The American Memory collection @ the Library of Congress
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
The first telephone call…
Source: American Treasures collection @ the Library of Congress
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
The first email…
… ‘QWERTYIOP’?
… ‘ASDFGHJK’?[But it included information on using the ‘@’
symbol]
Announcing the availability of
networked mail… … exact words
unknown
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Contemporary use
• 100% of businesses use email for business purposes (AIIM Survey 2003)• Administrative and commercial activities• Contracts and agreement negotiations• Financial issues• Legal issues• Tendering processes• Recruitment activities
• Both records and non-records
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Legal drivers
• Data Protection Act (1998)• Freedom of Information Act (2000)• Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000)• Human Rights Act (1998)• Intellectual property legislation
• Trade Secrets/Law of Confidentiality
• Copyright Law
• Database Rights
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Risk management & business drivers
• Risks of failure to curate:• Legal consequences
• Financial consequences
• Loss of public credibility
• Loss of organisational memory
• Loss of accountability
• Loss of transparency
• Reduced efficiency
• Should be addressed by risk management framework• Based on information compliance & risk assessment exercises
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Contemporary challenges (I)• Unclear responsibilities:
• Email as personal domain, not organisational property
• User reluctance to ‘manage’ inbox• Clash between IT and RM policies (if any)
• Enforcement problems• Inappropriate content• Undesirable content• Embarrassing content
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Contemporary challenges (II)• E-mail discovery carries inherent problems…
• Dispersed locations: IMAP; POP; Forwarded messages; mailbox; shared drive; ERMS; EDMS…
• Some may be inaccessible to systems admin or records managers
• Relevant data may (or may not) be • In subject line• In message content• In message attachment (difficult to search)
• Sheer scale of challenge• Not indexed for fast searching
• … high discovery costs
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Contemporary challenges (III)• Coherence of message threads• Admissibility of printed versions of e-
mails?• Improper deletion/destruction procedures
• This is not just an issue for ‘records’• Information (mis)management • Risk (mis)management
• Can lead to all sorts of problems...
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
TV Chief lets rip in snappy birthday email
‘A good day to bury bad news…’
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
1. Digital Curation & E-mails
What is digital curation?How does it apply to e-mails?
Life cycle roles & responsibilities
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
What is digital curation?
• “Digital Curation: …The activity of, managing and promoting the use of data from its point of creation, to ensure it is fit for contemporary purpose, and available for discovery and re-use.”
Lord & MacDonald (2003)
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Why curate e-mails?• All records must be curated to ensure they remain fit for
use and re-use: including e-mails
• To combat:• Technological obsolescence
• Bad creation & management practices
• To help differentiate between records and non-records (and treat accordingly)
• To help meet legal obligations
• To be cost effective and efficient
• To secure viability and reliability of messages for future
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Storage & Preserv-
ation
Transfer
Active Use
Appraisal &
Selection
Access & Re-use
Creation
Curation & the life-cycle
• Meaningful chain of custody
• Requires compatibility of different stages
• Requires input from range of stakeholders
• Takes control over the records throughout lifetime
Records
Disposal?
Disposal?
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Stakeholders & Roles• The range of stakeholders that affect the
survival of digital material cuts across the whole lifecycle; everyone plays an important role• Management & policy-makers• Users - creators & receivers of e-mail messages• Records Managers• IT staff
• System & mail-server administration• LAN Manager
• Archivists • Re-users
'Curators'
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Issues for Creators & Recipients • E-mails must be:
• Well-formed• Well-managed (even sent items!)• Accessible
• Important elements:• Good creation/response practices
• Inserting metadata• Headers – subject line, addresses• Message body - context
• Message formats• Attachments• Complying with house-style
• Good inbox management• Compliance with organisational policy
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Issues for Curators• E-mails must be:
• Whole - comprising message body, headers & attachments• Captured as appropriate into organisational
document/records/archives management system• Destroyed as appropriate
• Important policy and practical elements:• Identification & selection of e-mail records from non-records• Proper filing & integration of e-mail records• Deletion of transient/unnecessary e-mails• Saving e-mail records independently of e-mail client• Determining authenticity requirements• Archiving & preservation
• Guidance and Training for users ( at all levels)• Communication across the board
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Issues for Re-users• E-mails must be:
• Accessible for appropriate re-users• Exported in an appropriate and usable format
• Things to consider:• Legal access and re-use restrictions may be different & must
be observed• Appropriate re-use software may be needed
• Resource Discovery• Access Rights Management
• Different re-users may have different re-use requirements• E-mails can be re-used for very different purposes to why
they were originally created
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
2. Practical Steps
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Develop an e-mail policy• One or more policies to cover:
• Creation practices• Using business e-mail accounts for private
use & vice versa• Responsibilities & shared access• Levels of organisational monitoring• Legal issues• Integrated records retention & preservation• Disposal
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Provide education & training• On composition –
• Meaningful messages• Formats• Attachments• Context
• On storage & transfer• Both sent and received mails• Relationship between inbox management and
records management
• On legal responsibilities
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Implement a solution• Consistent application of appropriate strategy
• May be best determined by strategic working group with representatives from different stakeholder groups
• Should take entire life-cycle into account
• Should be integrated with organisation RM – not a stand alone solution
• Must consider issues raised in this presentation
• Requires consistency across life-cycle stages
• Assess compliance regularly!
• Revisit regularly to keep up-to-date
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
3. Management & Preservation Options
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
The First Solution
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
The First Solution… ?
???
? ?
Doesn’t solve all the problems… … and may
even create extra ones!
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Coming a close second…
[…also known as the ‘do-nothing’ approach]
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
A more realistic option
• Convert or save in Standard formats• ‘The best thing about standards is that there
are so many to choose from!’• Which are most appropriate for e-mails?
• PDF?• TIFF?• RFC 2822/Plain text?• XML?
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Other issues to consider
• What about attachments?• Dealing with digital signatures• Preservation metadata• Long term storage and archiving• Audit and certification
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
The future?• Changes to e-mail interface
• New applications• Alternative search functionality• Visualisation for re-use
• Alternative technologies• Instant Messaging• SKYPE• RSS (Really Simple Syndication)• Discussion forums• Blogs, wiki’s, texting…
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Further reading & references (I)• Policy:
• Institutional Records Management & E-mails project (2003)
• http://www.lboro.ac.uk/computing/irm
• Sample University Guidelines & Advice• Edinburgh University – exemplar
• Developing a policy for managing e-mail (2004)• Guidelines from TNA• http:///www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Further reading & references (II)• Technical solutions for preservation:
• Digital Preservation Testbed XMaiL and preservation recommendations (2003)
• http://www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl
• Antwerp City Archives e-mail preservation template & advice (2003 – 2006)
• http://www.expertisecentrumdavid.be
• National Archives of Australia: XENA (2004 +)• http://www.naa.gov.au
• San Diego Super Computer Centre (1999 +)• http://www.sdsc.edu
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Further reading & references (III)• DCC Digital Curation Manual
Instalment on ‘Curating E-mail Messages: A life-cycle approach to the management and preservation of e-mail messages’
Maureen PennockDigital Curation Centre & UKOLN2006
http://www.dcc.ac.uk
a centre of expertise in data curation and preservation
RMS Annual Conference Brighton 01 May 2007
Thank you.
Questions?
Maureen [email protected]
(Join the DCC Associates Network at http://www.dcc.ac.uk)