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Recently, increasing importance has been given to electronic records in China, despite the lack of understanding that institutions and organizations have regarding the security status of electronic records preservation. Wuhan, the largest city in central China, serves as a case to investigate the preservation security of electronic records. Challenges to security are summarized, and solutions are proposed to support policy-developing and operational guidance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The Delphi method is applied to analyze the advice of nine experts, select survey items and design questionnaires. Data are collected from 34 archives in Wuhan through field surveys, oral interviews and e-mails, which are analyzed and illustrated with three representative cases.

Main achievements of electronic records preservation are concluded in the electronic records management system, carrier types and storage formats, and data backup. Problems are summarized as a lack of awareness and capability of defending against security risks, disaster recovery capability, and understanding of electronic record characteristics. Solutions are proposed as follows: carrying out regular security risk evaluation, adopting new technologies, implementing application-level backup, strengthening technology-related education and attracting more IT talent to join the archive discipline. In addition, it is critical to promote an understanding of the characteristics of electronic records.

This paper investigates the security status of electronic records in central China by surveys and case studies. Critical problems and corresponding solutions are raised to support policy-developing and operational guidance for the research and practice of all kinds of institutions that implement electronic records preservation.

Terms such as medium preservation and technology preservation are now widely used when discussing issues related to the preservation of electronic records. The advent of electronic information introduces new preservation requirements. Medium preservation has been addressed in discussions on environmental and handling concerns for tapes, magnetic disks, optical disks, and the like. Greater attention should instead be directed to the obsolescence of technologies. It is a challenge to imagine not only how to technically preserve electronic records indefinitely, but also how to choose what to preserve and how to guarantee the electronic record’s reliability and authenticity in the future. The combined problems of immense volume, unstable storage media, and obsolete hardware and software add up to some very tough problems, which have to be dealt with. Digital preservation is becoming a business issue. Not only are historians, librarians and archivists alarmed by the loss of cultural and government records due to a lack in digital preservation, but certain industries have also realised that they need to keep data longer and longer for regulatory or business reasons.

The purpose of the paper is to establish whether Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Records Continuum Model (RCM) frameworks could be used to mitigate long-term preservation challenges.

Qualitative research was undertaken using two case studies and interviews were conducted with the different categories of the municipal personnel to solicit answers to the research questions. The questions were designed using the lens of the RCM and its four dimensions that cover the creation, capture, organization and pluralization of records and prescribed factors of ECM which include business process management, enterprise architecture, collaboration, system integration, re-purposing of information, change management, knowledge management and the life cycle management of information. Not all the ECM factors are dealt with in this paper: the remainder have been dealt with in the author's earlier works.

Challenges of long-term preservation of information still persist despite the enormous research that has been generated over the years. The municipalities that were subjects of this research are still grappling with issues of lack of long-term information management policies, enterprise architecture, disparate information systems, collaboration and system integration. This is likely to work against the investments that are being ploughed into e-Government developments should the municipalities fail to espouse strong information and records management regimes. Embracing the ECM prescribed factors and the RCM thinking might mitigate these challenges.

The author's licentiate research proved that there was no discourse between records managers/archivists and ECM proponents. Therefore, the originality of this article lies in the application of the two frameworks of ECM and RCM. The findings confirmed that even within the records management framework the municipalities were addressing factors similar to ECM prescribed factors. Embracing both the RCM model and the ECM prescribed factors might mitigate the challenges of long-term preservation and hence the re-use of information and enhancement of the societal memory.

The Center for Electronic Records of the National Archives and Records Administration was established in 1988 as the custodial unit for the permanent electronic records of the U.S. federal government. The program for the long‐term preservation of electronic (or machine‐readable) records by the National Archives goes back to 1968, and the acting archivist of the United States has recently acknowledged the thirtieth anniversary of the first formal appraisal of electronic records. This article will highlight both the Center for Electronic Records' program and the various levels of access to information about the records in its custody.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a viewpoint using analogies to musical media of the issues that information professionals face in selecting the right digital preservation strategy.

Analogies to the changes in music media along with a selection of articles between 1995 and 2008 provide the basis for a number of views from the author. The preservation portions are sorted into the three main categories of translation/conversion, migration and emulation. A conclusion to the article summarises the difficulties being faced.

Having the correct electronic records policies, procedures and systems that adhere to ISO 15489 is a cornerstone of an electronic record preservation programme. Stephens noted that, in practical terms, this means that any recordkeeping system, regardless of the particular technology or storage medium employed, should be designed and implemented in a manner such that its operators can demonstrate the integrity of the records if called upon to do so.

The paper provides a useful viewpoint from an experienced records manager tackling the issues of digital preservation.

This study aims to assess the status of the digital records preservation practices in the South African public sector at the national department level. It set out to establish to what extent digital preservation policies have been implemented in South Africa’s public sector, to determine the related skills and competency of public sector staff, and to make any necessary recommendations of the basis of the results.

A content review of Southern Africa literature dealing with the preservation of digital records, its importance and related factors over the past 20 years was conducted.

The current state of preservation of South African digital records suggests serious consequences of existing knowledge and training gaps. Addressing those gaps may provide the knowledge needed to support new ways of working. Records management professionals in the South African public sector at the national department level are currently ill-equipped to adequately preserve digital records. This complicates the application of tools offered by the information and communication technologies that have resulted in increased creation of digital records.

The study was limited to only the public sector of South Africa.

The study makes practical implications concerning the policy framework for improving the state of digital preservation in South Africa so as to ensure long-term preservation of digital records. For instance, government departments are recommended to formulate and implement in-house policy frameworks, guidelines and plans that address digital preservation of records.

Sufficient funding and resource allocation ought to be provided to advance electronic records management programmes. In addition, the formulation of proper strategies needed to preserve digital records should incorporate technological tools and media software in the existing operations for the creation, capturing, appraising and preserving of digital records.

This study offers informed recommendations to address the challenges of preserving digital records in South Africa so that future losses may be avoided and allow readers to see changes over the 20-year period.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to establish a framework for managing trusted records in the electronic environment.

The study collates the criteria required to manage trusted electronic records through the available literature and best practice and tests these on experts through an opinion survey. The study was done via email inviting 40 selected experts (18 participated), known in the fields of records and archives management all over the world, to respond to a structured framework of managing electronic records.

The findings indicate that the experts are unanimously agreed that the five main contexts, namely governance, recordkeeping, archival, technological, skills and competency, serve as an audit list providing the trusted environment for managing records in the electronic environment.

The collation of the criteria for trusted electronic records management, based on available literature and best practice in the field, may not be exhaustive as new literature on the latest information and knowledge, debates and practices continues to emerge throughout the records and archives community.

The study's findings are significant in confirming that the criteria collated are highly recommended and crucial in ensuring the reliability, authenticity, integrity and long term accessibility of electronic records.

The study establishes the elements in building trusted management of electronic records. This framework provides a basis for good records management practices to ensure that electronic records are to be managed in an efficient and consistent manner. This is vital for the long‐term preservation of those records with continuing value or as the evidence of transactions and the accountability that the records held for their current use.

The purpose of this paper to describe the research work on the long‐term preservation of Chinese digital information funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) since 2001.

The paper provides an overview, in text and figures, of ways in which e‐documents originating in China, in now obsolete formats, can be made readable again. Also, results of a recent survey of electronic records management in government and corporations are given.

The lifecycle management gap with respect to electronic records is highlighted and the main factors that restrict the Chinese anti‐disaster data backup plan are analysed. It is suggested that the data backup centre which can be accepted by small medium enterprises should be the e‐government disaster recovery centre for local government.

All the research results are useful for those who need to understand the long‐term preservation of Chinese digital information and electronic records management.

State government archivists confront special problems in selecting and making available machine‐readable records with enduring research value. Today no more than half a dozen state archives have addressed the issue of electronic records and only two or three states have even rudimentary programs for selecting and preserving electronic records. The National Archives of the United States and Canada provide models for some aspects of program development, but archival programs in states and smaller government entities also face unique problems.

This paper examines existing research on the topic of personal health records (PHRs). Areas covered include PHR/patient portal, recordkeeping, preservation planning, access and provider needs for future reuse of health information. Patient and physician PHR use and functionality, as well as adoption facilitators and barriers, are also reviewed.

The paper engages in a review of relevant literature from a variety of subject domains, including personal information management, medical informatics, medical literature and archives and records management literature.

The review finds that PHRs are extensions of electronic records. In addition, it finds a lack of literature within archives and records management that may lead to a less preservation-centric examination of the new PHR technologies that are desirable for controlling the lifecycle of these important new records-type.

Although the issues presented by PHRs are issues that can best be solved with the use of techniques from records management, there is no current literature related to PHRs in the records management literature, and that offered in the medical informatics literature treats the stewardship aspects of PHRs as insurmountable. This paper offers an introduction to the aspects of PHRs that could fruitfully be examined in archives and records management.