Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative

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• Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative
  Adrian Cunningham

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SESSION OUTLINE

• Challenge Making, Keeping and Using Digital
  Records over long term
• Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative
  (ADRI) objectives, principles
• Uniform Australasian approach
• ADRI projects
• Outstanding issues

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CHANGES IN THE RECORD KEEPING ENVIRONMENT

• Devolution of responsibilities to individual
  agencies
• Changes in work processes
• Internet data exchange
• New public records laws

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THE PRESERVATION PROBLEM

• Rapid obsolescence of
• Data formats
• Digital media, densities etc.
• Hardware
• Software operating systems applications
• Physical instability of digital media

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CONVERGENCE TO XML?

• International standardisation vs proprietary
  formats
• Extensibility adaptability
• Platform neutral

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AUSTRALIAS TRACK RECORD

• The Records Continuum/AS 4390 (1996)
• E-Permanence/DIRKS/Functional analysis
• Metadata standards
• Work Process Analysis for Records, AS 5090
• Victorian Electronic Records Strategy
• National Archives of Australias Digital
  Preservation Program Xena, etc
• History of cross-jurisdictional cooperation
  within a federal system of government

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Members since 2004

• National Archives of Australia
• Archives New Zealand
• Public Record Office Victoria
• State Records NSW
• ACT Territory Records
• Archives Office of Tasmania
• Northern Territory Archives Service
• Queensland State Archives
• State Records South Australia
• State Records Office Western Australia

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ADRI Vision

• All governments in Australia and New Zealand
  implement a uniform approach to making, keeping
  and using digital records to ensure
  accountability and the long-term protection of
  vital cultural heritage.
• This uniformity leads to efficiency, economy and
  interoperability across participating communities.

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ADRI Objectives (1)

• That all ADRI members are committed to agreed
  principles for digital recordkeeping.
• That ADRI supports members in advocating for
  appropriate digital recordkeeping to support
  government in their jurisdictions.
• That each government in Australia and New Zealand
  has an e-governance regime which is supported by
  sound strategies for making, keeping and using
  digital records.
• That vendors provide implementations of standards
  developed by ADRI.

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ADRI Objectives (2)

• That the evidence of e-government of Australia
  and NZ is captured, preserved and accessible for
  the benefit of current and future generations.
• That professional leadership and development is
  provided in digital recordkeeping for Australia
  and New Zealand.
• That, in a digital environment, agencies can meet
  their legal and functional responsibilities
  effectively and economically.
• That the best possible strategic use of limited
  collective resources is made.

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ADRI Guiding Principles (1)

• 1. Advocacy and assistance responsibilities of
  government archives.
• 2. Primary importance of the design and
  implementation of recordkeeping systems. 
• 3. Shared rights and responsibilities and the
  need for adequate support and training.
• 4. Commitment to common standards.
• 5. Importance of identifying recordkeeping
  requirements.
• 6. Importance of standardised recordkeeping
  metadata.

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ADRI Guiding Principles (2)

• 7. Records that are made in digital form should
  be retained in digital form.
• Digital records need to be actively managed and
  maintained.
• Preservation formats should not be constrained by
  proprietary rights.
• Need for trusted digital repositories.
• Public access should be maximised by full use of
  available networked technologies.

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Uniform Australasian Approach

• Making Managing Digital Records
• Keeping Digital Records (both in agencies and in
  the archives)
• Transferring Digital Records to Archives
• Using Digital Records

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Making Managing Digital Records

• Guidelines and tools for
•    Creating accurate reliable records
•    Classification and control metadata for
  records
•    Technology-specific issues for records (eg.,
  email encryption web-based resources)
•    Functional requirements for r/k systems
•    Model software procurement specifications
•    Compliance assessment and/or self-diagnosis
•    Schemas for record genres
• Standards for
•     Recordkeeping metadata
•     Methodologies for recordkeeping system
  design and implementation

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Keeping Digital Records (both in agencies and in
the archives)

• Guidelines on
•    Preferred long term data formats
•    XMLbased approaches to digital preservation
•    Migration paths for long-term digital records
•    Preservation treatment of specific data
  formats (e.g. database-derived records web
  records)
•    Process models for preservation of digital
  records in agency custody
•    Dealing with changes in the machinery of
  government over time
•    Process models recommendations for
  retrieval of records from defunct systems or media

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Keeping Digital Records (both in agencies and in
the archives)

• Standards for
•   describing digital records
•   minimum requirements for preservable data
  formats
•   trustworthy digital repositories
•   maintenance of provenance and authenticity for
  digital records

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Transferring Digital Records to Archives

• Guidelines on
•   Preferred data formats methods for
  transferring records to archival custody
•   Methods for automatic transfer of
  recordkeeping metadata
•   Maintenance of provenance and authenticity
•  
• Standards for
•   Transfer between government agencies and from
  agencies to archival custody
•   Minimum authenticity requirements
•   Transfer media

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Using Digital Records

• Guidelines on
•   Legal provisions re access to digital archives
•   Expunging sensitive data from public access
  copies
•   Storage presentation of preserved data
  formats
•   Certification of provenance authenticity
•   Fraud prevention
•   Data re-formatting and presentation (e.g.
  databases)
•   Searching discovery mechanisms
•  
• Standards for
•    Uniform resource discovery based on metadata
  sets (e.g. AGLS)
•    Thesaurus-based searching

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Uniform Australasian Approach

• Public standards
• ISO 147212003 (OAIS Blue Book)
• ISO15489 Records Management
• XML rfc
• Managing the entire continuum
• Recordkeeping standards
• Metadata standards
• Genre schemas
• Implementation approaches

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Uniform Australasian Approach Public standards

• ISO 147212003 -
• Reference Model for an Open Archival Information
  System

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Uniform Australasian Approach Implementation-leve
l approaches

• XML package wrapping
• Industry commodity platforms
• Open, documented formats
• Minimise migration requirements
• Provenance authenticity mechanisms (e.g.
  checksums)

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Uniform Australasian Approach What is not
uniform?

• Legislative regimes
• Access regimes
• Implementation details
• State of play

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ADRI Projects/Products

• Common transfer/ingest format and/or standard for
  a Submission Information Package (Exposure Draft)
• Generic business cases for digital recordkeeping
• Generic specifications for digital archive
  hardware and software functionality
• Staff training workshops/modules
• Generic specs for digital archive
  hardware/software
• Generic specs for records management software
• Advice on Digital Rights Management Technology

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Issues to be resolved?

• Whole of archives reinvention for end to end
  digital archiving
• Capacity planning/scalability
• Metadata encapsulated objects vs distributed
  metadata management?
• Digital Rights Management technology

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ADRI Website

• http//www.adri.gov.au
• http//www.adri.govt.nz