Governance and Recordkeeping, January 2022
ISSN 1916-5714
In this issue
Section 1 — General News
Canada
Government of Quebec
An Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information has been adopted
The
Act introduces major changes to the legislation on the protection of personal information in the private and public sectors. It increases the protection of personal information and allows Quebecers to regain control of their personal information.
Yukon Information and Privacy Commissioner
New
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act in force
The new Act will better protect private information, increase transparency of government and make information readily available. It will also help to regulate how personal information stored by government departments and other corporations is held and accessed.
See also:
Information and Privacy Commissioner outlines changes in privacy legislation
Australia
Government rejects proposal to centralize public service's recordkeeping at National Archives
In response to a major review of the National Archives, the government has rejected a proposal to centralize the public service's recordkeeping at the National Archives. An information management model that would have centralized records management across government into the National Archives had been recommended by the Tune Review, but it was not accepted.
Belgium
Better management of information and archives in federal public authorities (French only)
The State Archives of Belgium compiles sorting tables for the archives of federal public institutions. An archive sorting table is a systematic overview of all of the series of archives produced by an institution with an indication of their retention period and their final disposition. Federal public services are now required to update their sorting tables every five years.
Egypt
Artificial intelligence (AI) and paperless government are priorities
The government has announced that it expects an increase in reliance on AI applications and solutions in government sectors, and to implement the national strategy for AI. Also, the government is aiming to shift its work to a paperless, participatory, digital method.
See also:
AI home page;
National AI strategy
Europe
Directive on open data and reuse of public sector information now in effect
Transparency will be increased by opening access to publicly funded research data, making resources produced by public bodies available for reuse, and supporting new technologies, including artificial intelligence.
France
Digital and conservation department created at National Archives (French only)
As part of the
decree of April 9, 2021, establishing the new organization of the National Archives, a digital and conservation department was created.
See also: The director of the National Archives of France:
Bruno Ricard : "franchir une nouvelle étape dans la mutation numérique des Archives nationales" (French only)
Ireland
National Archives Strategic Plan 2021–2025 launched
Key priorities of the strategy include a new state-of-the-art archive repository, a digital transformation program, and a new framework for records management across government.
See also:
Archive repository project;
National Diet Library Vision 2021–2025 released (Japan)
Malaysia
Focus to be placed on cloud computing services
The government plans to adopt a cloud-first strategy in the public sector and shift toward a paperless environment migrating 80 percent of public data to hybrid cloud systems by the end of 2022. This will enable more effective data collection and management, and lower information management costs.
See also:
Government to migrate 80% of data to cloud by end of 2022;
Government appoints Alibaba Cloud to accelerate the nation's cloud adoption
Nigeria
Co-operation on digitization of civil service functions
The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Africa Initiative for Governance are working together on the digitization of civil service functions. Twenty-six documented Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) manuals will be developed. SOPs are globally recognized as manuals that apply step-by-step instructions compiled by an organization to assist its personnel in performing their operational tasks accurately and effectively.
Sri Lanka
"Digital store" to be established at National Archives
The "digital store" will conserve the digital content archived at the National Archives. A storage facility for digital content will be established "adhering to international standards on digital conservation to ensure accountability and authenticity of those digital documents."
See also:
Ten petabytes of digital and digitized content archived by 2027
United Kingdom
Government signs cloud computing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
The government has signed a new three-year MOU with Microsoft to help public sector organizations use and benefit from cloud computing and business applications. The MOU covers many Microsoft products, including Teams.
United States
Federal Government
Library of Congress uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help access its collection
The Library of Congress is experimenting with neural networks to help users search through some of its millions of digitized documents. Three computer science and digital humanities experts will investigate how branches of AI such as neural networks and computer vision can help humans sift through its digitized items.
See also:
Interview with Nicki Saylor, Chief of the Digital Innovation Lab
National Archives History Hub named "Top Innovator" by Society of American Archivists (SAA)
History Hub has been named "Top Innovator" by the SAA, celebrating creative and impactful approaches to archives programs and outreach. History Hub provides "one-stop shopping" for crowdsourcing historical research, connecting National Archives staff with history experts and enthusiasts alike.
See also:
Citizen archivist contributions push National Archives catalogue enhancements past 2 million pages of records;
Celebrating 150 million digital copies in the catalogue
Vietnam
Strategy issued on developing e-government and moving toward digital government
The government has issued an e-government development strategy toward digital government in the 2021–2025 period, with a vision to 2030. The strategy identifies a number of key national tasks, including developing digital infrastructure, digital platforms and national digital data. In addition, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and blockchain will be promoted.
Section 2 — Events
Notice: Please be advised that certain conferences may be held online, postponed or cancelled. The following is the most recent information available at date of publication.
Annual Meetings and Conferences
National
April 2022
2022 British Columbia Library Conference
Virtual: 19 April; in-person: 20–22 April
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
May 2022
Saskatchewan Libraries Conference 2022
4–6 May
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Congrès de l'Association des archivistes du Québec 2022 (French only)
25–27 May
Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
Archives Association of Ontario (AAO) Conference 2022 (Virtual)
25–27 May
International Association of Privacy Professionals Canada Privacy Symposium 2022
26–27 May (training 24–25 May; workshops 25 May)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
May/June 2022
ARMA Canada Information Conference 2022
30 May–1 June
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
June 2022
Association of Canadian Archivists 2022 Hybrid Conference
15–18 June
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
International
May 2022
Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) National 2022 Conference
16–19 May
Canberra, Australia
June 2022
67e congrès de l'Association des Bibliothécaires de France (French only)
2–4 June
Metz, France
American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference and Exhibition
23–28 June
Washington, D.C., United States
July 2022
LIBER 2022 Annual Conference
6–8 July
Odense, Denmark
CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Annual Conference 2022
7–8 July
Liverpool, England
2022 National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA) Annual Conference
13–16 July
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
9th Annual International Conference on Library and Information Science
25–28 July
Athens, Greece
87th International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) World Library and Information Congress 2022
26–29 July
Dublin, Ireland
Section 3 — Current Trends and Products
Recordkeeping: Current Developments, Projects and Future Initiatives
Canada
Council of Yukon First Nations Archives Access project
With the goal of making the materials available for the public to access, this archival project focuses on the appraisal, arrangement and creation of descriptions for around 2,000 boxes of unorganized records related to land claims, executive, environmental and governance matters of Yukon First Nations from the 1970s to 2010. Includes video.
Australia
Queensland State Archives—Project Zeus
The project embraces a Human Centred Design approach to simplifying the ways in which agencies retain and dispose of records. The aim is to make the guidance relevant to specialists and non-specialists alike across all levels of Queensland government.
Belgium
Royal Library (KBR)—Linked open data (LOD)–International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) project
The project allows KBR to organize activities to strengthen long-term co-operation with international partners, and to promote the use of LOD and ISNI as a crucial bridge identifier for cultural heritage materials.
Europe
NewsEye project: a digital investigator for historical newspapers
This
research project advances the state of the art and introduces new concepts, methods and tools for digital humanities. Enhanced access to historical newspapers for a wide range of users is provided to investigate views and perspectives on historical events and development. The way European digital heritage data is (re)searched, accessed, used and analyzed will be changed.
See also:
Video: Use and reuse of digital historical newspapers: the NewsEye project in practice
France
National Library—French national entities file project (French only)
A platform will be set up for the shared production of entities, with the authority data structured according to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Library Reference Model. The working structures, common to the Bibliographic Agency for Higher Education and the National Library of France, have been put in place, and the business and technical instructions for the development of the platform are now under way.
Malawi
Digital Malawi Program Phase I: Digital Foundations project
The overall aim of the project is to extend and improve access to critical information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure for the public and private sectors, improve ICT governance and access to government services, and facilitate provision of e-services, thereby enhancing public service delivery.
Scotland
National Records and the Scottish Parliament—Merging the past with the present: web archiving and the Scottish Parliament website
The Scottish Parliament (SP) has launched its new corporate website. One of the challenges it faced was what to do with the old site and web content going back to 1999, when SP came into being. SP collaborated with National Records of Scotland Web Continuity Service to create a solution that incorporated live and archived web content.
Spain
National Library and Barcelona Supercomputing Center—Artificial Intelligence (AI) model of the Spanish language (MarIA) project
Using the content of around 40,000 websites, this project creates the first massive AI-language model of the Spanish language. It is called
MarIA; deep neural networks have been trained to acquire an understanding of language, and its vocabulary and mechanisms can express meaning and write at an expert level.
United Kingdom and United States
Integrating preservation functionality into ePADD, (ePADD+) project
This
project will support the acquisition, processing and preservation of email as archival collections integrating long-term email preservation functionality into Stanford University's open-source email-archiving software program,
ePADD. The improved ePADD product will provide the digital archiving community with a tool that can comprehensively support the full email-archiving life cycle more robustly.
See also:
Shared ePADD Discovery Module;
An update on Palladium project development work
United States
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)—Subject Finding Aid Project
NARA recognized the need to replicate their finding aids in a digital capacity, to allow a similar starting point for researchers without being there physically. Their records are now connected virtually utilizing the tagging feature in the
National Archives Catalog, weaving a unique thread through the records compiled in each finding aid.
See also:
Update 1 and
Update 2
Products and Tools from Around the World
Canada
Library and Archives Canada—Co-Lab
The improved
Co-Lab collaborative tool lets you transcribe, tag, translate and describe digitized images and documents in the collection of Library and Archives Canada.
University of Toronto—Records management home page
Subjects include: Disposing of records; Records retention and classification; and Guides, including "Working from Home–Records Management Guidelines."
See also:
Videos: Records Management Basics
Australia
National Archives—Managing social media home page
Social media enables your agency to collaborate, participate, contribute and reuse information online in the course of your business. When your agency uses social media for its business activities, it must keep accurate and sufficient information documenting these activities. Topics include capturing records created on social media.
State Library of South Australia—Jester (digital preservation ingest tool) (includes video)
Jester is derived from the word "ingester." It was developed as a single tool to facilitate the curation of ingest packages into Preservica in a user-friendly way without the need to understand Extensible Markup Language (XML) or Open Preservation Exchange (OPEX) packages.
France
National Archives—Indexing guide for the web (French only)
The guide updates, harmonizes and modifies the practices of archive services toward effective indexing. Its objective is "to put indexing back at the heart of the practices of the profession" and "to update the rules followed until now" to develop a controlled and standardized indexing practice in archive services.
See also:
Archives : le Siaf publie un Guide d'indexation pour le web à télécharger (French only)
Hong Kong
OnBase (enterprise content management solution)
OnBase is a single platform with complete end-to-end functionality for managing documents, processes, enterprise applications and cases. It can integrate with existing business applications and address the need for governance, risk and compliance through the management and control of the content, enabling organizations to operate more efficiently, effectively and adaptively.
Israel
Customer engagement platform (digital signature system)
Israel's Bank Leumi is using the platform to replace thousands of documents with digital files that are transmitted remotely through text messages to smartphones, enabling fast and convenient digital signatures.
See also:
Hitachi Electronic Signature Service (Japan)
United Arab Emirates
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration
The Department of Digital Ajman is using IBM hybrid cloud solutions to accelerate its digital transformation and paperless strategy. The Department created a centralized hub, based on a hybrid cloud environment, that supports integration between various private and public entities and their data sources.
United Kingdom
Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC)—Data Type Technology Watch Guidance Notes
The topics covered in the set are documents, email, spreadsheets and databases. They are designed to provide a primer on the current state of community knowledge about types of data commonly encountered by those seeking to preserve digital holdings.
United States
Texas State Library and Archives Commission—Creating records at home, Part III: Various devices
The hypothetical situation of a records manager's worst nightmare come true is discussed: employees creating records outside of the office's network. A best practice for efficient managers is to analyze hypothetical risk to know how to prevent and address the risk if it were ever to occur.
See also:
Part I: Microsoft Teams;
Part II: Zoom
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)—Standard Data Elements for Electronic Records Management
The Standard Data Elements were created as part of the
Federal Electronic Records Modernization Initiative (FERMI) and are part of the Electronic Records Management Federal Integrated Business Framework. Representing the minimum data elements needed for vendors and service providers to manage agency records, the elements are intended to cover all types of electronic records.
See also:
Microlearning lessons
Studies and Surveys
Australia
Check-up PLUS 2020: Whole of Government Summary Report
Published by the National Archives of Australia, July 2021.
Check-up PLUS (PDF) is an online self-assessment tool designed to gauge Australian government agencies' maturity and performance in information and data management. The results from the 2020 survey are presented with comparisons to 2018 and 2019 results where appropriate. The National Archives commissioned ORIMA Research to conduct Check-up PLUS between 2018 and 2022.
A total of 169 in-scope agencies completed the survey. A summary of the findings of Check-up PLUS across all of the in-scope agencies that completed the survey are presented. The findings of the survey give an understanding of information management maturity and progress toward Digital Continuity 2020 targets.
Global
Archival Arrangement & Description: Global Practices
Undertaken by the International Council on Archives (ICA) Training Programme, published August 2021.
The
ICA survey (PDF) was devised and promoted to people working in archives in order to better understand current practices and challenges. Over 250 responses from over 60 countries were received.
This report documents and analyzes the results of a survey on archival arrangement and description around the world. The survey was undertaken to inform ICA's arrangement and description online learning course currently being developed by the principal author as part of the ICA Training Programme. The survey results provide a broad picture of global practice with particular respect to tools, the adoption of standards and the challenges faced by archive practitioners.
AIIM 2021 State of the Intelligent Information Management Industry: A Wake-Up Call for Organization Leaders
The
AIIM survey (PDF) was conducted using a web-based tool in February 2021. All of the participants were drawn from the Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM) community.
Two key trends are useful in understanding the context for the survey, and for understanding the information management challenges currently facing end-user organizations. First, end-user organizations began 2020 in the midst of an ongoing tidal wave of incoming information volume and variety, threatening their ability to realize their long-standing digital transformation goals. Second, information management changed in 2020 through the impact of COVID-19 on demands for remote work and the tools needed to do so effectively and securely.
Section 4—Selected Readings and Recordings
Articles, White Papers, Presentations, Reports, Videos and Podcasts
Canada and Germany
Video:
Web archives as a first draft of the present, third discussion, October 5, 2021.
With Dr. Britta Woldering, Web Archiving Expert, German National Library, and Roslynn Ross, Director, Digital Preservation and Migration, Library and Archives Canada.
The German National Library (GNL) and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) present a four-part series of conversations exploring the effects of digitization on their national documentary-heritage institutions and reviewing their current priorities. In this third installment, web harvesting and preservation are discussed.
See also:
Looking to the future: innovation and collaboration (fourth discussion; October 21, 2021);
GNL and LAC sign collaborative agreement
Canada
Canadian Data Governance Standardization Roadmap
Published by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), June 28, 2021.
The
SCC road map tackles the challenging questions we face when we talk about standardization and data governance. It describes the current and desired Canadian standardization landscape, and it makes 35 recommendations to address gaps and explore new areas where standards and conformity assessment are needed.
Australia
Webinar:
National Archives of Australia—Building trust in the public record: managing information and data for government and community policy, May 27, 2021.
This webinar provides an opportunity to engage in the National Archives of Australia's Building trust in the public record policy. The
policy identifies key requirements for managing Australian government information assets (records, information and data) and helping Australian government agencies improve how they create, collect, manage and use information assets.
Belgium
Report:
Metadata roadmap: the route to an improved metadata infrastructure
Published by meemoo: Flemish Institute for Archives, July 2021.
The metadata in the meemoo archive system is not as uniform as desired, and the model that was developed in 2016 is gradually becoming unusable.Therefore, a new
metadata road map has been created that summarizes its core aspects in five horizons, to transform existing and future collections of metadata into a sustainable and accessible collective memory for meemoo and its partners and users.
France
Article:
Validation et conservation des signatures électroniques (French only)
Featured in
Archimag, updated February 11, 2021.
The digital signature is gaining ground in the business world, and the benefits are clear in the time saved: not only in the affixing of a signature, but also during the circulation of documents and in monitoring, management and conservation activities.
See also:
Livre blanc (PDF) (French only)
Netherlands
Paper:
Archives and AI: An Overview of Current Debates and Future Perspectives
Written by Giovanni Colavizza, Tobias Blanke, Charles Jeurgens and Julia Noordegraaf, University of Amsterdam, submitted May 3, 2021.
The digital transformation is turning archives, both old and new, into data. As a consequence, automation in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques is increasingly applied both to scale traditional recordkeeping activities, and to experiment with novel ways to capture, organize and access records. Recent developments at the intersection of AI and archival thinking and practice are surveyed.
United Kingdom
Article:
Why data and the pandemic are ripping up paper processes
Written by Marc Ambasna-Jones, freelance journalist, featured in
ComputerWeekly.com, June 28, 2021.
This article explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to rip up traditional paper processes and replace them with end-to-end digitization.
United States
OCLC Research Report:
Total Cost of Stewardship: Responsible Collection Building in Archives and Special Collections
Written by Chela Scott Weber, Martha O'Hara Conway, Nicholas Martin, Gioia Stevens and Brigette Kamsler, March 2021.
The report is a collection of resources designed to support archives and special collections in making informed, shared collection-building decisions; bring together collection management and collection development considerations; and support communication between colleagues in curatorial, administrative and technical services roles. Includes
webinar.
Article:
Data storage management: What is it and why is it important?
Written by Paul Crocetti, Site Senior Editor, featured in
TechTarget-SearchStorage, June 17, 2021.
Effective data-storage management is more important than ever, as enterprise data volumes continue to grow exponentially. So how can organizations effectively store it all? That is where data-storage management comes in.
Books
Selected Readings
Baker, David and Lucy Ellis, editors,
Libraries, Digital Information, and COVID: Practical Applications and Approaches to Challenge and Change, 2021.
Examining the practicalities of running a library during and after the pandemic, this bookgives immediate and long-term solutions for librarians responding to the challenge of COVID-19. The book helps library leaders prepare for a post–COVID-19 world and gives guidance on developing sustainable solutions.
Franks, Patricia C., editor,
The Handbook of Archival Practice, 2021.
To meet the demands of archivists increasingly tasked with responsibility for hybrid collections, this guide, which is divided into 10 sections, covers contemporary archival practice for managing analog and digital materials.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 46/Subcommittee (SC) 11,
ISO 23081-2:2021—Information and Documentation—Metadata for Managing Records—Part 2: Conceptual and Implementation Issues, 2021.
The ISO 23081 series describes metadata for records. This document establishes a framework for defining metadata elements to manage records consistent with the principles and implementation considerations outlined in ISO 23081-1. It provides a generic statement of metadata elements, whether these are physical, analog or digital, consistent with the principles of ISO 23081-1. Further explanation is provided on the underlying concepts of metadata schemas for managing records.
Kalfoglou, Yannis,
Blockchain for Business: A Practical Guide for the Next Frontier, 2021.
This book sets out to explain blockchain for the non-technical expert, to decipher the dense technicalities that dominate the field and to present opportunities for busy professionals using practical applications and case studies. Trends, and a path for the future of blockchain and its impact on society as a whole, are identified.
Mesguich, Véronique,
Rechercher l'information stratégique sur le web : Sourcing, veille et analyse à l'heure de la révolution numérique, 2nd edition, 2021. (French only)
This guide updates knowledge in the fields of information retrieval and monitoring on the Internet. The book helps readers to understand the current functioning of search engines, to optimize web searches, to identify unknown sources of information, to set up different types of strategic intelligence, and to discover a range of automated information analysis methods.