Electronic Records Committee Meeting Minutes

September 1, 2004
Executive Conference Room, Center for Historical Research, KSHS

Attendees: Doug Cruce, Judicial; Sherry Williams, KU; Cathy Nicoletti, KITO; Terri Clark, Legislature; Christy Harvey, SOS; Scott Leonard, Cynthia Laframboise, Pat Michaelis, Justin Dragosani-Brantingham, Matt Veatch, KSHS.

Minutes of Previous Meeting: Approved with minor amendments.

KSPACe Update: Doug Cruce and Cathy Nicoletti are working as part of the Policy Advisory Group (PAG), and we expect a test version up in time for the 2005 Legislative Session in January. There is also a Technical Advisory Group (TAG), chaired by Matt Veatch, providing technical guidance on the purchase hardware and acceptable file formats. Both the PAG and the TAG are composed of representatives from other agencies, and Scott chairs the Project Team, which is made up of staff from KSHS and the State Library. The project underway now is working on preserving electronic state publications and reports to the Legislature, and we have submitted grant application to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC, the funding arm of the National Archives and Records Administration) to test DSpace, the software behind KSPACe, as a repository for electronic records. We are currently answering questions from the reviewers of that application and determining which agencies we will partner with on the electronic records project. We are planning on making a presentation to ITAB in October on the KSPACe project. We received a grant from the INK Board to purchase equipment for the publications project; the NHPRC grant will allow to expand the project and to hire two staff. Terri asked about the metadata requirements, and Matt responded that agencies' inputs will be minimal, like eight fields, and government document librarians (at KSHS, the State Library, and at state universities) will enhance the metadata to aid access to the publications in KSPACe.

Risk Assessment Tool Project (RAT): New draft document created, "What Risks Do Your Agency's Records and Recordkeeping Practices Pose for Your Agency?" ("RAT Draft") and another document "Legal Risks of Unavailable or Contaminated Data" ("RAT Appendix"). Terry Nuckolls provided feedback on the value of the Appendix and one suggestion was to drop the word "Legal" in title. Scott would like ERC's approval of the document but Matt suggested approving it in the future after the Committee has reviewed and commented on it. Pat suggested reformatting the Appendix so that the three columns are incorporated into one. Scott will remind the ERC by email to review the documents and provide comments back by Sept. 15, with the goal to have it approved soon.

Future directions for ERC: Scott reported that the KSPACe project taking much of the time of KSHS staff and has taken priority in the area of electronic records. However, there are some things that the ERC can work on in the future. One is an update of the Electronic Records Management Guidelines. As KSPACe expands as a repository for electronic records, the ERC will play a greater role in overseeing that project. And we will need to review what is going on in other states, nationally, and internationally. Scott asked Matt to report on what he learned at a couple of meetings this summer as a start to that review. 

• Reports from NAGARA and SAA Meetings: Matt reported on some projects he learned about at the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators (NAGARA) and Society of American Archivists (SAA) meetings he attended this summer. 
• The State of Washington has a new electronic records repository that will go live in October. It is funded by fees collected in the local Register of Deeds offices. It is housed in a regional repository located in Cheney, WA, and they have purchased twenty-six different servers. They are ingesting state as well as local electronic records and have hired five staff to oversee the archives. They have a partnership with Microsoft to develop the software that will run the archives. 
• Virginia has purchased a storage system for electronic records and will build the software around it. They purchased EMC Cetera, a system designed to meet the retention requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. Their main staff person, the Electronic Records Specialist, has an IT background and has been trained in records management. 
• The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has contracted with Lockheed-Martin and Harris Corporation to design a system and at the end of a year will choose one to build its electronic records repository. NARA is trying to process to 20 million emails from Clinton's administration, among other electronic records. The Clinton administration had a records management application (RMA), but everything was listed as a record so the e-mail includes everything, including SPAM. (As an aside, no e-mails where received by KSHS from the Graves administration.) 
• The Library of Congress has received 100 million dollars for digital preservation projects. Twenty-three million dollars may go to state and local government to preserve electronic records. 
• Matt attended a session by Bruce Miller who has worked at IBM on electronic records management (ERM) systems. He said that IBM has failed creating a good ERM system, but Matt gleaned five good points from the session: 1. Employees have to declare documents to be records and they then have to classify those records according to a file plan or retention schedule. 2. It's really hard to get employees to do that because the benefit is not to the employee but the employer. Miller has what he calls the "Five-Second Rule" that if it takes longer than five seconds to declare and classify, employees won't do it. 3. Regulations are pushing ERM in the private sector and that compliance to those regulations is key. Miller has redefined ROI (return on investment) as "Reduced Odds of Incarceration." 4. Employees have an electronic records skills gap. 
• Florida librarians are developing an electronic records archive being specifically built for records, and are taking a really hard look at file formats.

Other Business: None

Next meeting: December 1, 2004, 2:00 p.m. West Conference Room, CHR, KSHS.

 

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