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11 requirements regarding the medium in which these records must be preserved to ensure accessibility in future, can be set at an early stage. Electronic storage media is an inherently unstable storage medium. The life expectancy of the information stored on these media is influenced by various environmental factors, including temperature, humidity, oxidation, dust and magnetic fields, and they are extremely sensitive to physical damage through careless storage, handling and use. Nevertheless, magnetic tape or cassette, CD-WORM (preferably executable CD- WORM) and DVD-WORM can be used for the storage of electronic records. The National Archives and Records Service does however recommend that governmental bodies take note that each type of storage medium has its own storage and handling requirements which must be adhered to strictly because improper treatment of electronic storage media causes physical and chemical damage to the media themselves. The result is that the data stored on these media cannot be accessed. 4.1.3.1.1 Magnetic storage media The anticipated life expectancy of a magnetic tape is 12-20 years, if stored under optimal conditions and if subject to regular maintenance. This means that simply to preserve the electronic signals on the tape, it is necessary for annual precision rewinding, physical inspection and cleaning to prevent deterioration through chemical reaction. Furthermore, the data has to be transferred to new tapes periodically to ensure that the data on the tapes remains readable. (See Annexure F for detail on the handling and care of magnetic media.) 4.1.3.1.2 Optical storage media CD-WORM and DVD-WORM seem to offer greater stability for archival storage of electronic records. Accelerated-ageing tests done in terms of the American Standard for Life Expectancy of Information Stored in Recordable Compact Disks Systems (ANSI/PIMA IT9.27) indicates that the life expectancy of these media is 100 years and more if stored under prescribed conditions and handled with care. Since the real goal of archival preservation is to access to the disks’ content, not merely the preservation of the physical objects themselves, it is imperative that optical storage media should be taken care of properly (See Annexure G for detail on the handling and care of optical media.) Since accessibility of records is not only concerned with the storage media on which the records are captured, but also with the processes and procedures to preserve a records bit stream, to interpret that bit stream and to preserve the records’ context, content, structure, appearance and behaviour, it is imperative that long term preservation strategies should be established as soon as possible as part of the long term maintenance of records. Managing electronic records_Policy Guidelines.doc First Edition Version 1.1 April 2003
12 There is a wide range of possible digital preservation options currently under investigation. (See in this regard the investigations into migration, emulation, encapsulation, XML etc., which are conducted in the Digital Preservation Testbed on the website http://www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl, the Interpares project on the website http://is.gceis.ucla.edu/us-interpares/index.html, the Cedars project on the website http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/guideto/dpstrategies/dpstrategies.html and the San Diego Supercomputer Centre’s PERM Project on the website http://www.npaci.edu/online/V6.2/perm.html. The National Archives and Records Service is benchmarking its requirements against international best practice. Until these investigations lead to a best proven method of digital preservation, the National Archives and Records Service requires governmental bodies to migrate records through hardware and software changes to ensure that they remain accessible. The National Archives and Records Service, rather than settle for one digital preservation strategy, might in the end determine a range of suitable digital preservation strategies, and might require governmental bodies to implement strategies suitable to specific records and systems. (See Annexure B). 4.1.3.2 Migration Electronic records need to be migrated to new hardware and software platforms constantly to enable them to remain accessible. Migration of data from one storage medium or software standard to another when changes in technology occur is essential. Migration involves the transfer of electronic records from one hardware or software configuration or generation to subsequent configurations or generations, preserving their integrity and retaining their accessibility in the face of constantly changing technology. In order to preserve their integrity records must retain their reliability, completeness, authenticity and context. Migration strategies have to be planned for during the design phase of the electronic records system. If added at a later stage it might be $ that the format in which the records were captured does not lend itself to data interchange amongst different types of storage media and software applications; $ that records are lost in the migration process and that there is no proper recording of what was lost; $ that the necessary metadata could not be attached during the migration process because the links between the documents and the metadata were lost or never properly managed in the first place. Ideally, migration should be carried out without the loss of any information. However, loss of some information may be inevitable because of the incompatibilities between the original hardware and software platforms and the new ones. Certain formats of records are better suited for specific migration strategies. Furthermore, the adoption of internationally recognised data and document standards and the use of open source software will simplify the migration process. It might be necessary to convert the data to standard formats to enable migration strategies to be put in place. [Consult the European Commission’s Open Information Interchange Services' Standards and Specifications List at http://www.diffuse.org/oii/en/oiistand.html and Managing electronic records_Policy Guidelines.doc First Edition Version 1.1 April 2003
Page 1 and 2: MANAGING ELECTRONIC RECORDS IN GOVE
Page 3 and 4: Content PREFACE ...................
Page 5: i PREFACE The increasing use of ele
Page 8 and 9: 3 The Public Finance Management Act
Page 10 and 11: 5 guidelines set out in this public
Page 12 and 13: 7 means that it takes up very littl
Page 14 and 15: 9 o identifying records that are du
Page 18 and 19: 13 the AIIM International Standards
Page 20 and 21: 15 invalidates accounting entries.
Page 22 and 23: 17 While some of the records publis
Page 24 and 25: 19 The National Archives and Record
Page 26 and 27: 21 electronic document management,
Page 28 and 29: 23 necessary to avoid technological
Page 30 and 31: 25 • if and e-mail is received an
Page 32 and 33: 27 records to capture of their webs
Page 34 and 35: 29 only be necessary to provide an
Page 36 and 37: 31 bodies should ensure that, even
Page 38 and 39: 33 Managing electronic records_Poli
Page 40 and 41: 35 To ensure that records remain ac
Page 42 and 43: 37 Because users have high expectat
Page 44 and 45: 39 records. Archiving Electronic re
Page 46 and 47: 41 The electronic records managemen
Page 48 and 49: 43 duplicating documents that alrea
Page 51 and 52: 46 ANNEXURE B: Digital preservation
Page 53 and 54: 48 Migration Strategy 5. Store reco
Page 55 and 56: 50 ANNEXURE C: Schedule for electro
Page 57 and 58: 52 the system. A transfer list in w
Page 59 and 60: 54 Supportive legal documents attac
Page 61 and 62: 56 ANNEXURE D: General disposal aut
Page 63 and 64: 58 Africa, EXCLUDING records contai
Page 65: 60 4.13 Security Backup Files Elect
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63 (e) (f) (g) annotated drafts whe
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65 - Information in a form intended
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67 3. Deterioration of magnetic med
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69 Floppy disks and diskettes shoul
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71 signal which can be read using a
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73 in optical disks. WORM and rewri
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75 Insects and rodents once attract
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78 ANNEXURE I: Glossary Act The Nat
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80 Electronic records Any informati
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82 microfilm or electronic media).
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84 Transmission data Information in
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86 ANNEXURE J: Bibliography Aeon Ar
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88 Kronauer, C.: Special Report SAN
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90 Vasudeva, A.: Special Report SAN
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