Governance and Recordkeeping, May 2022
ISSN 1916-5714
In this issue
Section 1 — General News
Canada
Library and Archives of Canada
Legal Deposit: New and improved system for the deposit of digital publications launched
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has launched a new and improved deposit system to make depositing digital publications easier for Canadian publishers and self-publishers. The system will allow LAC to more efficiently receive, preserve and make available digital publications. LAC plans to incorporate the deposit of other types of publications and productions in the future.
See also:
Introducing My Account: your personalized online space at Library and Archives Canada
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Nunavut
Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) signs information-sharing agreement with Nunavut
A memorandum of understanding has been signed to facilitate information sharing between the two organizations. The OPC has signed similar memoranda of understanding with a number of provincial data-protection authorities as part of the goal of protecting personal information.
Australia
New digitization hub for National Archives of Australia
The digitization hub will enable the National Archives to significantly upscale its proactive digitization capacity, ensuring that more of the collection is digitally preserved and available online, for use by government and the community. The hub also facilitates the appropriate handling of fragile historic material that may need preparation and conservation, prior to digitization.
Bangladesh
No archival record stored in the National Archives can be destroyed
The Bangladesh National Archive Bill-2021 has been passed in Parliament, with a provision stating that no archival record can be destroyed.
Belgium
Belgium developing digital wallet for online government services
The digital wallet would enable people living in the country to access government services through a single online platform. It would be used to bundle all official documents and allow people to authenticate their digital identity through their smartphones.
France
A world first: Digital archives stored on DNA (French only)
Revolutionizing the field of data storage, the digitized versions of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) and of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen by
Olympe de Gouges have been stored on DNA and deposited in the National Archives of France.
See also:
Une solution au stockage des données numériques (French only);
A solution to digital data storage (English version of the previous link)
Germany
Second Open Data Act is passed
The Act expands the obligations of public authorities, including the National Library, to make their data available to the general public. They must do so in machine-readable form now. Public sector data will now be more fully shared in order to promote innovation and research.
See also:
Le gouvernement allemand veut ouvrir les données publiques (French only)
Ireland
First artificial intelligence (AI) strategy launched
The
AI strategy sets out a whole-of-government approach to putting the necessary enablers in place to underpin AI adoption in enterprise and public services, including a supportive innovation ecosystem, a secure data and connectivity infrastructure, and policies to ensure that the workforce is prepared for the impact of AI.
Jordan
Archiving plan to preserve national memory
The National Plan for National Archives and an electronic documentation platform, “Watheq,” have been launched. Documents that represent key aspects of national history will be collected from citizens, and digital copies will be created. The Ministry of Culture will continue to introduce a set of sustainable projects and programs.
Malta
Digitization department established
Heritage Malta’s newest unit, the digitization department, will digitize the tangible and intangible cultural heritage assets entrusted to Heritage Malta for the widest possible use by current and future generations.
Nigeria
E-government expanded
Fully funded by the South Korean government, e-government in Nigeria will be expanded to include improving competencies for e-government service delivery through capacity-building programs. The delivery of government digital services through the activation of the Nigerian government service portal will also be expanded.
See also:
Paperless government to be driven by blockchain technology
Pakistan
President for expediting process of digitization and preservation of National Archives
As part of the strengthening and modernizing of the National Archives of Pakistan, President Dr. Arif Alvi emphasized, in particular, records and documents of national and historic significance. An advisory board will be constituted to provide the guidelines for the effective management of archives and to implement the process of the preservation of historical records.
Saudi Arabia
Agencies sign framework agreement for cloud computing
The framework agreement will provide cloud computing services for government agencies through the "Etimad" platform. The adoption of the platform provides many services to various government agencies and enhances the partnership with the private sector.
United Kingdom
Government Digital Service to build app to access government services
By the end of 2022, citizens will be able to use a GOV.UK smartphone app to access hundreds of government services. The app will provide a single means of access to government services but with the same, unified log-in process available through mobile and desktop web browsers. The intention is for all government services, across every department, to use the new log-in platform.
United States
Federal Government
Library of Congress releases growing coronavirus web archive collection
The Library of Congress is making its growing
Coronavirus Web Archive available to the public. The collection, which now includes 450 web archives, aims to balance government, science, business and policy content with human stories that will give future historians a sense of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the daily lives of individuals, families and communities.
See also:
Exploring Special Web Archives Collections Related to COVID-19 (PDF)
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
May 2022
Archives Association of Ontario (AAO) Conference 2022 (Virtual)
25–27 May
Congrès de l’Association des archivistes du Québec 2022 (French only)
25–27 May
Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada
June 2022
Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL)22 Conference (Virtual)
6–7 June
50th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS)(Virtual)
7–10 June
Atlantic Provinces Library Association (APLA) 2022 Conference (Virtual)
7–10 June
Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) 2022 Hybrid Conference
15–18 June
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
October 2022
ARMA Kelowna Conference
5–7 October
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
November 2022
FWD50 2022 (Hybrid)
1–3 November
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
International
July 2022
2022 National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA) Annual Conference
13–16 July
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
August 2022
86th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archivists (SAA)
24–27 August
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
August/September 2022
Archives and Records Association (ARA) UK and Ireland Conference 2022
31 August–2 September
Chester, England
September 2022
iPres 2022: 18th International Conference on Digital Preservation (Hybrid)
12–16 September
Glasgow, Scotland
9th International Council on Archives (ICA) Conference
19–23 September
Rome, Italy
October 2022
Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) 2022 Symposium: Digitizing Hidden Collections
12–13 October
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
ARMA InfoCon 2022
16–19 October
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
2022 Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) Conference (Hybrid)
17–20 October
Canberra, Australia
Section 3 — Current Trends and Products
Recordkeeping: Current Developments, Projects and Future Initiatives
Canada
University of British Columbia—Archives 4.0: Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Trust in Records and Archives project
The project, commonly referred to as
“I Trust AI,” is the fifth phase of the InterPARES project. Its goal is to design, develop and leverage AI to support the ongoing availability and accessibility of trustworthy public records. Objectives include identifying specific AI technologies that can address critical records and archives challenges.
Australia
Public Record Office Victoria—Update of Common Administrative Functions RDA: Project to replace PROS 07/01
Public Record Office Victoria is planning to develop a new Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA) to replace
PROS 07/01 Retention and Disposal Authority for Records of Common Administrative Functions. The aim is that the replacement for PROS 07/01 will follow a
“rolled up” structure (PDF) to streamline disposal and “future-proof” the RDA as much as possible.
Brazil
Preservation of Brazilian government websites
The initiatives for digital preservation, especially websites and social media that are being developed, are discussed. This includes the project, launched by the National Archives, which is studying the web environment and digital preservation with web archiving.
Europe
Archiving and Preservation for Research Environments (Archiver) project (pilot phase)
Prototypes of organizations’ hybrid archival and preservation services will be built. Significant improvements in the area of archiving and digital preservation services will be introduced, supporting the information technology requirements of European scientists, and providing end-to-end archival and preservation services in the context of scientific research projects.
France
National Library—data.bnf.fr project (French only)
The project was designed as an experimentation platform to make Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) resources accessible on the web. The
data.bnf.fr project aims to enhance the value of BnF collections on the web, acting as a hub between various resources, and is at the service of other BnF applications.
Japan
National Library—Digital shift at the National Diet Library: Seven initiatives for connecting information resources and intellectual activities
Seven initiatives are planned that are intended to better connect information resources. These initiatives will be part of two ongoing projects: the first, to achieve universal access to information by making a wide range of information resources available to all users; the second, to support the development of a permanent national digital information infrastructure.
See also:
NAVER AI aids the National Diet Library of Japan's digital transformation
Luxembourg
AI4Gov initiative
Luxembourg’s strategic vision for artificial intelligence (AI) has led to the creation of an AI4Gov interministerial committee. The aim of the committee is to encourage ministries and administrations to make use of AI and data science to transform their actions and tasks, such as increasing their efficiency in processing data and improving services and procedures.
Switzerland
Narratives from the long tail—Transforming access to audiovisual archives project
The project initiates a groundbreaking visualization framework for interactively (re)discovering hundreds of thousands of hours of the “long tail” of audiovisual memory and materials. Through computational processes, the gap between digital archives and the embodied, participatory world of museological experience is addressed and resolved.
United Kingdom
National Archives—Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for digital records selection in government project
The project found that while AI cannot replace the expertise of records managers, commercially available AI tools and pipelines can be successfully applied to aid the task of records selection in semi-structured and unstructured collections. The products are evolving rapidly, and this is a good time for departments to engage with suppliers to benefit from current capability and influence the direction of development.
See also:
Report (PDF)
United States
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)—Electronic Records Archives (ERA) 2.0 project
ERA 2.0 is a modernization of our existing system, with updated functionality, modular design and a cloud-based architecture. ERA 2.0 will ultimately provide end-to-end life cycle coverage for electronic records, from scheduling, obtaining approvals for transfers, uploading into the system by a producing federal agency, processing of uploaded records, preservation of the records, and finally to production of access versions for the National Archives Catalog.
See also:
NARA moves closer towards all-electronic records management
Products and Tools from Around the World
Canada
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec—Recueil des règles de conservation du secteur municipal, version 1.0, 2021 (PDF) (French only)
This guide from the Archives nationales du Québec, in collaboration with the Association des directeurs municipaux du Québec and partners from the municipal sector, includes the management rules necessary for the development of a conservation schedule for organizations in the municipal sector.
Australia
National Archives—Managing metadata home page
It is important to manage your metadata well so that people can easily find, understand, use and share your information assets. The way you manage your metadata can be improved by conducting a metadata management project by following eight steps to target areas where metadata quality could be improved, and to improve metadata management across your agency.
New South Wales State Archives and Records—Records Management Assessment Tool (RMAT)
The RMAT will enable public offices covered by the
State Records Act 1998 to assess the maturity of records and information management in their organization, or a part of the organization (e.g. business unit or information system), or a group of public offices. The results of the assessment can be used for reporting on current status, planning for improvement, justifying investment and measuring progress.
See also:
RMAT Frequently Asked Questions; Webinar:
What is the RMAT?
Austria
eversign: a tool to securely sign your documents online (French only)
Traditional document signing can be time consuming. There are too many steps that impact productivity. To save time, this
tool manages electronic document signatures in three steps: preparation, signature, and storage with a dashboard to centralize documents.
France
"Zero paper accelerator"—Objectif 0 Papier : Un guide pour simplifier et dématérialiser vos processus internes (French only)
The Direction interministérielle de la transformation publique (DITP; interministerial directorate for public transformation) has published a practical
guide (PDF, French only) intended to support projects to dematerialize internal administrative processes and to initiate or accelerate a dematerialization project.
Japan
DX Suite
DX Suite is expanding its artificial intelligence–empowered optical character recognition (AI-OCR) to support simplified Chinese in addition to traditional Chinese, and Thai, Vietnamese, English and Japanese. DX Suite can digitize the content of documents and advances digital transformation for global companies.
Seychelles
Impression eSignature solution
The Seychelles government has found that the solution aligns with its eSignature laws, while standing up to rigorous security requirements. With a reliable chain of custody, organizations can track how users interact with the documents they need to sign, with improved operational efficiency and compliance, delivering paperless signing no matter their device of choice.
Singapore
Straive Data Platform (SDP)
Making use of artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities, SDP allows organizations to derive actionable insights out of unstructured data sets. SDP extracts and enriches data from any unstructured source, enabling organizations to harness the power of all data.
United Arab Emirates
Encrypted Decentralized File Storage (EDFS)
EDFS offers a secure way to own and share digital files and data, providing encrypted storage and supporting the full life cycle of digital files in all formats.
United Kingdom
Digital Preservation Coalition—Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) Preservation Toolkit
This toolkit provides advice and guidance on the preservation of records held within an EDRMS or other recordkeeping system. The toolkit is illustrated with case studies, demonstrating real-life applications of the guidance and principles, and it signposts other useful sources of information to help inform your work.
United States
Texas State Library and Archives Commission—Filing crash course: Classification schemes
A thoughtful filing system can save a lot of time and avoid problems when it comes to retention and disposition. Creating a classification scheme is something that any records manager can do. Some basic steps to getting started are discussed.
Studies and Surveys
Europe
Open Data Maturity Report 2021
Written by Daphne van Hesteren, Laura van Knippenberg, Raymonde Weyzen, Esther Huyer and Gianfranco Cecconi. Last update: January 4, 2022.
This open data maturity study has been prepared as part of data.europa.eu. Data.europa.eu is an initiative of the European Commission. The Publications Office of the European Union is responsible for the contract management of data.europa.eu.
The
Open Data Maturityreport (PDF) benchmarks the development of European countries in the field of open data. This report aims to support countries to better understand their level of maturity, to capture their progress over time, to find areas for improvement, and to benchmark this against other countries. Additionally, the study provides an overview of best practices implemented across Europe that could be transferred to other national and local contexts.
United States
Driving Digital Acceleration: The 2021 State Chief Information Officer (CIO) Survey
Published by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO), October 2021.
2021 was a year that continued to be dominated by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this
survey (PDF), NASCIO received the perspective of 49 state and territory CIOs on the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic for state CIO organizations.
NASCIO also received updates from CIOs on many of the traditional topics covered by the survey, including digital transformation, adoption of cloud, emerging technologies and legacy modernization. A major theme of this year’s survey is whether the accelerated pace of state technology and digital services transformation over the past 18 months will persist beyond the pandemic.
Global
2021 Fixity Survey Report
An National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Report: Authored by the 2021 Fixity Survey Working Group, October 2021.
Members of the working group sought participation from the global digital preservation community (including, and reaching beyond, NDSA member institutions). The
Fixity Survey Report documents the results of each question in the areas of 1) basic information about
fixity practices; 2) how fixity is being used; 3) fixity in relation to cloud services; 4) fixity errors; and 5) general demographic information. Case studies are included.
The working group conducted follow-up interviews with five organizations to explore fixity practices in more detail. Case studies from four of these organizations are currently included in the report. They provide a rich illustration of how fixity is used within specific organizations, and build on some of the findings of the survey itself.
Section 4 — Selected Readings and Recordings
Articles, White Papers, Presentations, Reports, Videos and Podcasts
Canada
ARMA Canada paper:
Do You Know Where You Are Going? A Look at Strategic Planning
Written by Christine Ardern, CRM (retired), FAI, a past president and fellow of ARMA International and currently a member of ARMA Canada’s Sagesse editorial board. Featured in Sagesse Volume VII, Winter 2022.
Strategic planning may seem to be a daunting process and just one more thing to do. The benefits of planning outweigh the time involved and help create a road map for program activities. This paper will look at the elements that go into strategic planning. By providing the steps involved and presenting resources that can be used as reference tools, it will help you should you decide to start planning your program’s future.
Virtual Round Table on Retention Schedules, October 27, 2021. (French only)
Featuring Frédéric David (integrated document management advisor at Desjardins), Marc-André Godbout (information management and quality control advisor at the
Ordre des infirmières et des infirmiers du Québec) and Nathalie Denis (archivist at the
Université de Montréal).
The virtual round table allowed us to hear the opinions and experiences of the three guest speakers discussing the design, application and dissemination of document retention schedules as well as employee training. Some of the questions that were asked are included.
France
Article:
Structurer la data non structurée pour devenir Information driven (French only)
Written by Luc Manigot, Sinequa, featured in
Journal du Net (JDN), updated January 26, 2022.
As the volume of enterprise data has grown exponentially, the concept of structured and unstructured data is now at the centre of IT departments' concerns. Topics include: Why are there two main categories of data and how to manage them?; Unstructured data is the biggest challenge; The benefits of the advanced search engine.
Italy
Article:
Metadata: what is it and why it’s critical to document retention
Published by
Doxee, January 27, 2022.
The issues of document management and retention are on the agenda for every business, large or small. The fact that these documents are increasingly digital (native or eventually digitized) has led companies to confront new tools and concepts that are not always easy to understand. Subjects include: What is metadata?; Why metadata is critical; Metadata for document management and preservation; The role of sector regulations.
New Zealand
All-of-Government Ontology Options Paper
Published by Archives New Zealand, July 2021. Updated February 11, 2022.
Ontologies provide common vocabularies, concept definitions and relationships between concepts. The purpose of this options paper is to explore the benefits of an all-of-government ontology in helping agencies to find, use, manage and share their information and data.
United Kingdom
Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Organisations Network:
Case Study 1: The National Archives (UK)
Written by Lise Jaillant, Annalina Caputo and Katherine Aske, The National Archives (UK), November 2021.
A selection of The National Archives (TNA)
artificial intelligence projects (PDF) are examined, along with others from across the globe that are addressing similar challenges. Interviews with TNA staff were conducted, and published materials such as reports, conference presentations and research papers were referenced.
United States
Facilitating and Illuminating Emergent Futures for Archival Discovery and Delivery:
The Final Report of the Lighting the Way Project
Written by Dinah Handel and Mark A. Matienzo, Stanford University Libraries, November 2021.
This report, about the
Lighting the Way project as a whole, underscores the importance of care-centred practice and facilitation techniques for strategic planning as a means to shift power dynamics in collaboration. More broadly, archives workers began to see technical challenges as cultural and social challenges. Based on these combined insights, the project developed a series of four recommendations to sustain this work.
See also: Handbook
Global
OCLC Research Briefing:
New Model Library: Pandemic Effects and Library Directions
Written by Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ixchel M. Faniel, Brittany Brannon, Joanne Cantrell, Christopher Cyr, Brooke Doyle, Peggy Gallagher, Kem Lang, Brian Lavoie, Janet Mason and Titia van der Werf, October 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted libraries of all types around the world, requiring library leaders to respond to rapidly shifting community and institutional needs. Twenty-nine library leaders from 11 countries were interviewed to capture their experiences during the pandemic and understand what they envision for their libraries moving forward. We describe these transformations, how leaders strategically adapted to meet evolving needs and expectations, as movements toward a New Model Library.
See also:
Webinar
Books
Selected Readings
Bartlett, Jennifer A.,
Knowledge Management: A Practical Guide for Librarians, 2021.
This book will help librarians and library managers recognize, organize, communicate and leverage both the tacit and explicit knowledge already in their organizations for the benefit of themselves and their users. Readers will be provided with basic background information and useful, targeted exercises and examples to help them develop knowledge management programs in their own organizations.
Jaillant, Lise, editor,
Archives, Access and Artificial Intelligence: Working with Born-Digital and Digitized Archival Collections, 2021.
Digitized collections of newspapers and books have pushed scholars to develop new, data-rich methods. Born-digital archives are now better preserved and managed thanks to the development of open-access and commercial software. Yet the path from the appraisal of records to their analysis is far from smooth. This book explores crossovers between various disciplines to improve the discoverability, accessibility, and use of born-digital archives and other cultural assets.
OCLC:
The supercharged library collection,2021.
The power of library metadata to inspire learners and improve collections by benefiting from the sharing of knowledge from all communities is highlighted. Topics covered in this book include: Encourage the discovery of electronic content; Mobilize group metadata for maximum impact; Exploit data to extract information; Prepare for linked data.
Includes French version.
Potts, John, editor,
Use and Reuse of the Digital Archive, 2021.
The use and reuse of digital archives is examined in a unique manner, by combining theoretical and practical approaches to the contemporary digital archive. Exploring the cultural impact of digital archives, several essays describe the process of constructing a digital archive as a specific case study, of digitizing a physical archive, and of designing a searchable digital database as the core of the digital archive.
Yun, Audra Eagle, editor,
Archival Accessioning, 2021.
An archival accessioning program is the keystone of responsible collection stewardship and essential to providing both equitable access and meaningful contextualization of archives. Combining principles, best practices and real-world examples from 11 archives practitioners, this book approaches the acquisition of materials as a holistically oriented, programmatic activity that establishes and maintains baseline control for archival holdings.