Many organizations hold large quantities of digital content in an Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) or other document or record keeping system. Some of this content will be of long-term value and will ultimately need to be preserved. It can be challenging to establish a preservation methodology for these records due to the volume of records and technical complexities involved.
Last year the DPC established a task force to investigate this challenge and share experiences. Some of the questions this group has discussed are:
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How safe are records held within an EDRMS? Are there specific risks in leaving them where they are?
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When should records be transferred to a digital archive? What are the triggers?
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How can records be extracted from the EDRMS?
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Which metadata associated with the record should be captured and maintained in the digital archive? What is the minimum? What else would be nice to have?
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Which parts of the process can be automated?
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How can users continue to access the records (where permissions allow)?
The EDRMS task force have been discussing the challenge and as a result have produced some useful resources to help the digital preservation community (to be released later this year).
This briefing day provides an opportunity for wider knowledge sharing on this complex topic. Task force members and other invited speakers will share their experiences in this area, the work of the task force will be shared and future challenges for the digital preservation community will be discussed.
Introductory Video
DPC Members , please login to access the recordings.
Part 1
Taking hold of the record - John Sheridan (The National Archives UK)
Preservation Across the Digital Continuum: The National Archives of Australia’s Experience With EDRMS Preservation (transcript available here) - James Doig (National Archives of Australia)
Preserving records at the ECB - Zsuzsanna Tözsér Milam (European Central Bank) (member login required to access slides)
EDRMS preservation at University of Glasgow – where do we begin? - Emma Yan (University of Glasgow)
Preserving the Welsh Government’s digital records - Jamie Dawes-Hughes (Welsh Government)
The winding road to a CITS ERMS - Karin Bredenberg (Kommunalförbundet Sydarkivera)
Q&A and discussion
Part 2
The evolution of records systems in the digital age - James Lappin (University of Loughborough)
Federal Electronic Records Modernization Initiative : lessons learned in electronic records preservation - Kevin De Vorsey and Bethany Cron (NARA)
New opportunities in whole-system preservation for EDRMSs - Euan Cochrane (Stabilize), Sally Vermaaten and Andrew Bowers (Gates Archive)
Decentralized archiving of records at TU Delft - Esther Maes (TU Delft)
Records in the cloud: The challenge of transferring records from Google Workspace - Paul Young (The National Archives UK)
Q&A and discussion
The EDRMS Preservation Task Force was established by the DPC as a result of a digital preservation project with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and our thanks go to them for supporting this work.
