A Manager's Guide to the Long-term Preservation of Electronic Document

Citation

(2008), "A Manager's Guide to the Long-term Preservation of Electronic Document", Records Management Journal, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/rmj.2008.28118cae.002

A Manager's Guide to the Long-term Preservation of Electronic Document

Article Type: Publications From: Records Management Journal, Volume 18, Issue 3

N. Pitman A. ShipmanBIP 0089. BSI, 2008978-0-580-61351-7£55.00

Keywords: Records management, Electronic records management, Digital preservation, Meta data

The two authors have drawn on their extensive 50 + years of experience in information, document and records management, the IT industry and legal admissibility of electronically stored information to write this book. The back cover explains its purpose, viz. to provide:

Guidance for the adoption of practices and standards that will enable organizations to have confidence that their digital documents will be preserved for the long-term.

The first chapter considers aspects of the digital preservation problem including the concept that long-term relates to the life of a document's technical format and is typically only 5-10 years; the main challenges and the main approaches. The challenges are seen as file formats, storage media, metadata and managing compound documents, i.e. those containing embedded components. The main approaches to digital preservation are technology preservation, emulation, encapsulation, conversion to standard formats (e.g. XML, ASCII and PDF/A) and conversion/migration. It is a pity that conversion and migration have been combined in this way, reading as if they were synonyms when other leading authorities make subtle but important distinctions between the two approaches [1].

The next chapter briefly considers the principles of determining and then implementing retention periods. Records managers might not agree with the explanations of terms such as disposal, disposition and appraisal, the latter having a much broader meaning than the one given here - "determining the action to be taken at the end of the retention period" (p. 18). Chapter 3, the longest, is a very good overview of standards in the area and Table 31. (p. 59) provides a useful initial guide to mapping source formats (e.g. office documents, audio and image) to document or "archive" formats (e.g. PDF/A, MPEG and JPEG).

The remaining three chapters briefly consider metadata formats, schema and initiatives; archive creation and maintenance, focusing on the OAIS Open Archival Information System model; and related standards and publications. The latter covers the OAIS model; ISO standards on aspects of the long-term preservation of electronic records such as ISO/TR 18492 (2005) and ISO 19005-1 (2005) the PDF/A format; and BIP0008 (2004), the code of practice on the legal admissibility of electronically stored information [2] . The remaining sections are a brief list of the main standards referenced in the book and a sample policy document for digital preservation, which some readers will find a useful starting point for developing a policy for their organisation.

Despite its 110 pages the book's size and layout make it very quick and easy to read. Readers expecting detailed treatment of any of the topics covered will be disappointed, but readers in search of high-level summaries of issues and options from well-respected and experienced professionals will be delighted. In the absence of an index, its structure allows the read to quickly refer back to specific topics. A glossary or list of acronyms would be useful but they could no doubt easily be found via a Google search or on Wikipedia.

Overall, I found myself wanting more detail in certain places (e.g. what routing information is lost when printing an email) but perhaps that is inevitable. The book is a welcome addition to the literature, and will be useful for anyone who wants an introduction to the key long-term digital preservation issues and options to consider. Interestingly, the authors do not say which "managers" the book was written for – business managers, IT managers, information or records managers – and I am still unsure. But I will add it to our students' reading lists.

Julie McLeodNorthumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Notes1. ISO 15489:1. (2001), Information and documentation records management. Part 1: General. ISO. Clause 3 Definitions: 3.7 Conversion: process of changing records from one medium to another or from one format to another and 3.13 Migration: act of moving records from one system to another, while maintaining the records authenticity, integrity, reliability and useability; and the Digital Preservation Coalition www.dpconline.org/graphics/intro/definitions.html and www.dpconline.org/graphics/orgact/storage.html#con3

2. ISO/TR 18492 (2005), Long-term preservation of electronic document based information. ISO. ISO 19005-1 (2005) Document management Electronic document file format for long-term preservation Part 1: Use of PDF 1.4 (PDF/A-1). ISO. BIP0008 (2004). Code of practice for legal admissibility and evidential weight of information stored electronically. BSI.