Electronic and Digital Records

LIS 389C.14, Unique Number 45145

Instructor: Patricia K. Galloway

Class meeting location: SZB 464

Class meeting period: Monday, 1:00-4:00 PM

Office: SZB 566

Office hours: Tuesday, 1:30-2:30 PM or by appointment

Office telephone: 232-9220

Email: galloway@gslis.utexas.edu

Teaching assistant: Lori Eichelberger

Email: lkeich@gslis.utexas.edu

Office: SZB 445

Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-4:00 PM or by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The management, preservation, and use of electronic records and other digital objects with enduring value are all as yet problems with only partial solutions. There are two reasons for this: the supporting technologies are changing constantly and change is accelerating; and creators and users of these records (if not the records’ potential managers and preservers) are themselves caught up in a culture of immediacy that makes the problems with electronic records invisible until some legal entanglement brings them into sharp focus. Yet as governments and other human institutions have depended upon technologies of memory to assure their longevity in the past, it is a safe bet that they will continue to do so in the future. For that reason these problems must and will be solved by those who are charged with the custody and preservation of such records, at least in a way that will be good enough to achieve the ends of the institutions in question.

The problems are not just technological; if that were so they would (and could) already have been solved. They are, more importantly, social, economic, and political. The archivist called upon to solve them in a real-world setting will have to understand not just a set of ideal archival requirements, but how to cope with applying them to and tailoring them for an actual functional environment, one where change never ceases and getting it right once and for all is not an option.

OBJECTIVES

In this course we will address primarily government records, although we will look at how the same principles apply (or not) to business and personal records and other digital objects. We will be concerned with the issues that cluster around the acquisition, preservation, and use of electronic records. To be more specific:

Most readings will be available online; if you should encounter difficulty accessing them, please contact me immediately, preferably NOT the day before class. The syllabus will be posted and should be checked regularly for any changes. Any students requiring accommodation for disability or religious holy days should contact me at the beginning of class.

ASSIGNMENTS

The class will generally be run like a seminar, with discussions focusing on the assigned readings and in-class exercises.  There will be formal lectures on key areas of interest in electronic records throughout the course. Course requirements consist of class attendance and participation and the completion of written assignments.

Class participation (33% of grade)

Class attendance is mandatory for all students; multiple absences will affect a student’s final grade for the course. Each student is expected to complete the required readings on a weekly basis. Class participation is an essential part of the student's educational experience; each student will be expected to participate fully and regularly in class discussions. Individual students will be expected to lead the class discussion on individual readings. In addition, each student will be expected to make a formal appointment to meet with the instructor before or just after spring break in order to discuss his or her progress and work on the assignments.

Semester project (33% of grade):

Our class has been asked to evaluate and provide serious comments on two documents:

·         First, a Federal recordkeeping rule, for which our evaluation has been requested by the Railroad Commission of Texas: EPA 40 CFR Parts 3, 51, et al., Establishment of Electronic Reporting: Electronic Records: Proposed Rule. This Rule was made public on August 31, 2001.

·         Second, Electronic Records Lifecycle Model Specification, a work product being prepared under an NHPRC grant by the Global Electronic Records Association, for which we shall serve as an Institutional Review. The document is due to be available by February 15, 2002.

In addition, this class will have the opportunity to continue a task undertaken by the members of the class last year:

·         Third, last year’s class inventoried the electronic records of GSLIS and made recommendations for their management and preservation. This year, a team from this class will evaluate commercial recordkeeping software and make a recommendation for software purchase for electronic recordkeeping at GSLIS. Last year’s reports will be available immediately.

Our class will divide into three teams, each of which will carry out one of these evaluation tasks and write a report to be delivered to the relevant requestor. The whole class will read all documents, and the “owning” team will be expected to lead discussion on the day of class when “their” document is being discussed, in order to bring the expertise and insights of the whole class to bear on the issues in question. Students will thus need to prepare for this class especially well so as to be able to take advantage of their classmates’ assistance for their project. Each team will prepare a 3-5 page plan of work for its project including activities to be carried out by each team member, due March 4, and will formalize its evaluation in a 15-20 page report to be handed in and presented in class on April 29.

Essay (33% of grade):

Each student will write an evaluative essay of 7-10 double-spaced pages, properly documented from online and offline readings, on one of a list of topics to be announced early in the course. Examples may include:

Centralized vs distributed custodianship

Metadata schemes

Migration vs emulation

TEXT

The following text is alas two years old, but it offers a clear introduction to some of the main problems and opportunities in electronic records:

Anne J. Gililand-Swetland, Enduring Paradigm, New Opportunities: The Value of the Archival Perspective in the Digital Environment (Washington: CLIR, 2000). Available online at www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub89/contents.html

You can purchase it online from the CLIR site if you want a nice paper copy. Other readings will be made available where possible through Electronic Reserves.