LBSC 708X

1
College of Information Studies

• LBSC 708X
• The Record Nature of Electronic Records

2
Key Components of an Electronic Record

• You must be able to prove
• Authenticity
• Reliability
• Integrity
• Usability

3
Types of Electronic Records

• Office Automation
• E-mail
• E-mail attachments (in all varieties of file
  types, including PDF, photo, audio, and video)
• Word-processing
• spreadsheets
• calendars
• Powerpoints
• Instant messaging

4
Types of Electronic Records

• Data
• Structured databases
• Metadata
• Network activity logs and audit information
• Voice mail, VOIP
• Web
• Website
• Wiki
• Blog

5
Sources of Electronic Information

• Organization PCs
• Desktop, networks, mainframes
• Mobile devices
• Blackberries, Palm Pilots, laptops
• Storage devices
• Backup tapes, CDs, Zip drives, thumb drives

6
Electronic Records as Evidence

• Legal Foundation
• Rule 901 of Federal Rules of Evidence
• Federal Rules of Civil Procedures 12/06
• Record is what it purports to be
• Focus on adherence to policies and procedures
• Creation, control, use, access

7
Electronic Records as Evidence

• Authentication
• Method of preservation
• Identity name, date, origin, content
• Integrity
• complete
• uncorrupted
• unaltered
• Usability
• Attributes of storage media, software
• Procedural controls access, audit, metadata,
  reporting,
• Adherence to best practices

8
A Question to Ponder

• On average, enterprises upgrade their hardware
  and software every 18 months to 3 years
• Will the electronic record you need be there, and
  will it be accessible when you need it?

9
Email

• Volume
• 2005 2.8 billion
• 2008 7 billion (est.)
• RM Policy
• 50 have policy in place
• 30 no mention in policy
• Must be addressed due to SOX, HIPPA, etc.

10
Email

• RM retention based on content not type
• Relate content to other business records
• Preserve business email with related records
• Metadata, indexing for retrieval
• Search retrieval from saved records not daily
  backup media

11
Long Term Impact

• New focus on how to manage email, treat it as
  record being used to record substantive
  information
• Clearer, broader view on metadata and providing
  context for e-records/printouts

12
Long Term Impact

• Organizations
• Still struggling with email policy
• Some have 100 capture and retention
• Some have x days before delete
• A few actually schedule email by content not type

13
Armstrong v. EOP

• Core issues
• Is e-mail a record or transitory communication?
• Does print file capture full essence?
• What metadata is required?
• Differences between live system and archives
• Armstrong v. Executive Office of the President, 1
  F.3d 1274 (D.C. Cir. 1993)

14
Public Citizen v. Carlin

• GRS 20 lawsuit (son of PROFS)
• Does print file provide surrogate?
• Can GRS 20 be extended to program records
  (office automation)?
• Supreme Court waived right to review Court of
  Appeals decision
• Public Citizen v. Carlin, 184 F. 3d 900 (D.C.
  Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 529 U.S. 1003 (2000)

15
Search this e-mail
Date 12/12/07 From Employee A Subject To
Employee B
Attachment A
Attachment B
Attachment C
16
Websites

• Websites may be (only) source of some
  organization records/information
• Roles
• Official information
• Transactions orders, payments, responses
• Interactions wikis, blogs,
• Common misconception
• Web information unimportant, nonrecord

17
Websites

• Websites are not recordkeeping systems
• Legacy records
• Litigation exposure
• Need to apply records management to content
• Players
• Webmasters
• Content managers
• RM staff
• Users

18
Websites

• Requirements
• Official, consistent look and feel
• Control over creation, posting, removal
• Manage internal/external expectations
• Records must be managed, scheduled

19
Wikis, Mashups, Blogs

• Wiki website lets users add, evolve content
• Mashup integrates content from multiple sources
• Blog web journals/logs
• Online social networking
• Based on easy to use software
• Software extendable by users
• Interactive, evolving,
• Multi-media sources

20
Wikis, Mashups, Blogs

• Records Management Issues
• Policy custodianship, responsibility, liability
• Application compatibility
• Managing creation, collection, growth
• What, how much is record
• Intellectual property rights
• Hyperlinks
• Retention
• System security and integrity
• Legal implications
• Public access

21
Instant Messages

• IM realtime communication/collaboration
• Issues
• Informality of messages, user names
• Lack of RM control
• Question of record status
• Compatibility with computer systems
• Back door channel for viruses, hackers
• Breadth of functionality

22
Instant Messages

• Organization view should be
• The information content should be handled like
  all other organization information
• Policies should be in place
• Business use only, personal, mixed use
• What information can be exchanged
• How to place information under RM control