E-Archiving WG/7

3 March 1998

prepared by Jennifer Paul and Corrado Pettenati

CERN relies, more and more, on electronic records to conduct and document it’s activities and therefore needs solutions to issues of management, authenticity and retention of electronic records. Decisions taken today by the Organization in relation to these issues will greatly influence the Organization’s capability to ensure the long-term preservation of records with archival value, i.e. it’s future archives.

Today at CERN, two distinct categories of electronic records can be identified: those that are created on electronic support but transferred to a traditional medium, e.g. paper, and consequently treated as traditional records and those that are never transferred to a traditional medium. Electronic records in the former category are subject to the Operational Circular No. 3 and therefore a copy of them on a traditional medium should be archived. However, electronic records in the latter category are, despite the existence of the Operational Circular, slipping through the "archive" net, due to technical constraints.

"The WG mandate is to explore the size and the typology of the electronic documents at CERN, their current status and to prepare a basis for an organised records management and an archiving policy to preserve their historical, scientific and economical value."

The group members are D. Foster, J.-Y. LeMeur, J. Paul, C. Pettenati (Chairman) and A. Taddei.

The working group has already met four times. The first meeting was held on 8th December 1997.

In order to keep budget and resource requirements to a minimum, it has been decided to abandon the dream (or the nightmare!) to create a unique centralised system for archiving, and hence storing, electronic records at CERN. There already exist several information systems at CERN and it would be unrealistic to request the creation of a "giant" system to duplicate the data already stored in these systems. Instead the WG proposes the creation of an electronic archive system which will exploit the Organization’s existing information systems. However in order to properly archive electronic records, CERN information systems will need to satisfy certain criteria. Once these criteria are met, the information systems will be classed as Certified Information Systems (CISs). These CISs will then become responsible for the long-term management of electronic archival material.

CERN needs to ensure that all electronic records of archival value are software compliant with, and transmitted or captured and subsequently managed by, Certified Information Systems. For certain types of electronic records, e.g. electronic mail messages, the development of additional CISs will prove necessary.

The criteria for Certified Information Systems have been identified as the following^* :

• preserve "recordness":
• structure: physical format and the relationships between the metadata elements
• content: what the records "says"
• context: where, when, why and by whom the record was created and what role did it play in the activities of the Organization
• preserve accessibility to data: possibility of batch migration. It is inevitable that some losses will occur at the point of migration from one version of software to the next, or one platform to the next, but this is acceptable as long as the aspects of the record required for evidence are preserved.
• version control: identification of revised documents and safeguard of obsolete documents
• inviolability: prevention of unauthorised access, alteration or removal
• authenticity: requires preservation of a history of the record’s creation, transmission, use and preservation over time
• standard document formats
• metadata for archive search engine: context, title of record, classification plans, etc.
• retention schedules
• back-up

The working group proposes the creation of a CERN-wide electronic archive server to store uniquely the metadata of all records in all CERN Certified Information Systems. An interface will need to be developed to provide a search engine to this metadata, and links created to the actual records which will be stored on the Certified Information Systems. A diagram representing the WG’s first proposal for the flow of metadata from CISs to a CERN E-Archive is attached (see Annex 1).

A seminar entitled "Issues in and approaches to electronic archiving" by David Bearman, an expert in electronic archiving from the US, has been organised by the Scientific Information Service, on behalf of the CERN Archives, on 6th October 1998 at CERN.

Plans should be made to make resources, in the order of 50 KCHF for 1998, available to the WG. This would enable the WG to carry out studies of other organisations that have already successfully implemented electronic archive record management systems, in order to avoid "reinventing the wheel". Also with these resources, expert advice could be sought from consultants to help the WG in their studies and to finalise their proposals.

The next task of the WG is to study CERN’s existing information systems. A questionnaire has been prepared to aid discussions with persons responsible for such systems (see Annex 2). A study will then have to be carried out to determine whether existing information systems could eventually meet our criteria for Certified Information Systems.

Discussions are also planned with CERN staff specialised in specific areas, i.e. finance, personnel, to determine what documents in their domains are created on electronic support.