In this section: North Group Meeting - 3 December 2008; North Group Meeting - 5 June 2008; North Group Meeting - 3 April 2008; North Group Meeting - 5 December 2007; North Group Meeting - 22 June 2007; North Group Meetings - 5 March 2007; North Group Meetings - 8 December 2006; North Group Meeting 6 October 2006; North Group Meeting 26 June 2006; North Group Meeting 23 March 2006; North Group Meeting 8 December 2005; North Group Meeting 15 September 2005; North Group Meeting 16 June 2005; North Group Meeting 21 March 2005; North Group Meeting 2 December 2004

North Group Meeting - 3 April 2008

Date added: 20 April 2008

The Records Management Society North Group met on the 3rd April in the Council Chamber at Wigan Town Hall to discuss the issues of 'Records Management & Digital Preservation'

After an introduction from our host and meeting organiser Tim Turner the then Data Protection & Freedom of Information Officer at Wigan Council, the first speaker was Damian Counsell representing The Digital Archive Consultancy whose presentation was entitled ''Long Term Strategies for Digital Preservation''.

Damian spoke of the traditional problems surrounding digital data namely:

authenticity
trusted custody
continued accessibility
readability
security
confidentiality

plus the reliance on technology which may or may not be available. Using the pharmaceutical industry as a reference there had been two specific problems identified namely regulatory compliance and organisational change. A wonderful tagline was quoted to illustrate this is''Data Outlives Technology''! Damian went on to say that standards such as that developed by the pharmaceutical industry, for example the''GAMP EDA'' (Good Automated Manufacturing Practice - Electronic Data Archiving) can help with the issues of digital preservation with this requiring a firm strategy development.

Another standard brought to the delegates attention was the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) Reference Model. Finally Damian stated that archival systems are not merely about storage, availability or computer systems it is about continued management with metadata being particularly stressed.

The next presentation, 'What's All This About Digital Preservation: the challenges, methods, realities' â€" was given by Frances Boyle from The Digital Preservation Coalition. Frances first provided delegates with a snapshot of digital preservation activity namely there was no overall national policy, the developments which are in progress were highlighted and also the main players were identified both in the UK and Overseas. Frances then asked the question''Why bother?''

The reasons why records managers need to bother centres around issues such as the amount of digital data created each year specifically with regards to the large digital projects being created, internet usage rising, government initiatives and legislation issues plus the thrust towards shared data. And of course some people are not prepared to wait for a catastrophe to happen in order to get things done! Frances followed on by indicating the challenges involved with technical, managerial, organisational, cultural and motivational issues which had been identified.

Looking to the future, the main question is how does anyone develop a system when we cannot identify what new technological advances are going to be developed? How are we then going to convince the ''overs and shaker''.

Delegates were then introduced to Caplanâ€™s''Preservation Pyramid'' and how that relates to the challenges indicated earlier.

After an excellent lunch, kindly sponsored by Keri Weekes of Weekes Gray Recruitment, Keri gave a short talk to delegates to introduce the recruitment services her company offered and the records projects they have worked on recently.

Richard Blake of the National Archive then gave delegates a presentation on''Digital Preservation and Information Governance''. The ideal is to develop seamless end to end processes for the management of e-records. Such a solution has to be modular, scaleable, about systems and processes with as much automation as possible. Richard then spoke about the seamless flow process and the passive and active attributes within digital preservation. Richard went on to The National Archives' role in supporting interoperability, the possibility of extending the ERM model to address preservation issues together with the functional requirement of sustaining the record.

Issues around importing and exporting of data were highlighted particularly those requiring multiple data conversions. The National Archive have now published a draft Export and Import Manual to address some of these issues. Richard then briefly drew attention to the Digital Continuity Project and its success in attracting funding for the next 2-3 years of operation.

Maureen Pennock of the DCC/UKOLN based at the University of Bath, spoke on the theme of ''Digital Records â€" For Ever or For Never'' and started with the statement that it's not so much a digital infinity issue more of a digital black hole! Maureen discussed the obsolescence issues particularly on the issue of e-records being highly environmentally dependent. E-records are the product of files + software + hardware and any of those elements can change over time with implications on the possible alteration of that record. Maureen then explained about what is meant by digital preservation and issues such as authenticity and essential features of context â€" content â€" structure â€" appearance and behaviour. Maureen then explained the DCC draft curation lifecycle model and who were the''stakeholder'' in that model.

Finally Maureen provided a series of actions for the various stages proposed, to be undertaken by the records manager including the need to plan ahead, define your preservation requirements, develop a strategy and policy, organise relevant training, not forgetting to re-evaluate the programme regularly.

The final session of the day came from Dr. Peter Lloyd of Tessella. Dr. Lloyd spoke on the theme of ''The Concepts and Practical Application of Digital Preservation'' and began with the issue of the inability to read records and the projected expansion of digital data volumes. Peter then touched upon the OAIS framework which is being touted as the defacto standard and the National Archives''PRONO'' project.

At the end of the meeting, and from the evidence received, it could be viewed that digital preservation is an issue to be dealt with in the future and could therefore, at this moment in time, easily disappear down a records manager's action list. Whilst some moderation on action would be required in order to evaluate the issue thoroughly within individual organisations, and for existing initiatives on the issue to be produced for review and a standardised approach, technological changes are being brought into the work arena at a frightening pace and to ignore the problem now is to set up bigger problems for organisations in the future.

It is impossible to ignore digital records and so the records manager has to be seen to be actively involved in their preservation so that obligations are met and the records are indeed managed.

Lawrence Rodgers

Senior Consultant

IMC Ltd

	CentralWiganMap.pdf (82.6 KB)
	DAC_RMS_DJC_03Apr08.pdf (523.8 KB)
	RMS.DPC.pps (1.5 MB)
	rmsnem_200804.pdf (491.6 KB)
	RMSNorth_03Apr2008_Tessella.ppt (3 MB)
	TNA RMS Wigan.ppt (2.2 MB)

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