Email Management is not a Natural Act

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Email Management is not a Natural Act
Managing the Digital University Desktop
Introduction and Preliminary Findings

• Megan Winget - Co-Project Manager

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Email As Record

• Email considered insignificant mode of
  communication
• Appropriate user decisions

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The insignificant nature of either their email
or their job

• I don't think that I produce the kinds of
  documents that are legally of interest, it's not
  like I am discovering DNA or anything, its not
  of potential relevance to a broad enough spectrum
  of people to be worth it Sociology Faculty
  member
• Email is the equivalent of the pink "while you
  were out" notes
• No, archivists have better things to do with
  their time
• There are a lot more interesting things
  happening at the university
• I don't think of emails as permanent
  documents
• It's not as though I transfer deep thoughts via
  email.

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Important Emails Printed / Stored Somewhere Else

• Things that are truly important typically have a
  hard copy somewhere that gets routed through
  records retention.
• Id like to believe that everything that we have
  this is important we have in paper files.
• Whatever I think of as permanent I would print
  out, Ive never considered email to be archival.

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Technical / Monetary / Archival Challenges

• It doesnt seem like its worth spending
  resources to save that sort of stuff forever.
• My instincts say noand thats simply out of a
  belief about the relationship of that information
  to me. Its all about context and whats relevant
  at the moment.
• You could kind of say that anyone would want to
  save anything, but someone would have to write
  out a history of it.
• I just see that as an insurmountable amount of
  data.

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Email Should Be Saved

• Historical Purposes That would be an
  interesting thing to look at 1000 years from
  now
• Legal Purposes medical, student, administrative
  records
• Institutional Memory After I leave, someone
  will have to know how I did things.

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Storage, Organization Management

1. Reliable Storage and Retrieval Mechanisms
2. Comprehensible Organization Schemas
3. Metadata to Provide Context

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Reliable Storage (digital preservation)

• the practice of storing email messages with
  long-term value on machine readable media such as
  CD-ROM, 3480 tape, or digital linear tape
  presumes that the hardware and software required
  to read the data will exist into the future.
• Reserves the right to accept into the State
  Archives email stored only on those media it has
  the ability to read and that it might delegate
  the responsibility of long term maintenance and
  preservation to the creating agency.

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Comprehensible Organization Schemas

• The email messages must be organized in a system,
  so that one may determine the general topic to
  which the messages relate.

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No Folders People

• 25 have over 3000 messages in their inbox,
• 25 have between 200 and 1000 messages
• 50 have fewer than 20
• Tend to be most satisfied,
• None of them reported problems finding an older
  email
• Not compliant with state guidelines.

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Context / Metadata

• For those messages that have permanent, archival
  value
• Messages transferred to the Division must have
  metadata concerning the email and its related
  electronic records recorded on the Divisions
  electronic records inventory form.

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Attachments
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User Knowledge

• Users of email must understand the ways in which
  email has changed workflow and business practices
  in recent years.
• These users, as well as information technology
  (IT) professionals who will be asked to preserve
  email over time, must receive training
  regarding issues outlined in these guidelines.

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