Keeping records of your website

WE Believe in Community conference

Local Government Web Network

20-21 August 2009

About State Records 1,553,894 website visits

55,948 reading room visitors

25,554 original archives used

42 community access points to State archives collection across NSW

395 kilometres of noncurrent records stored at Western Sydney

59.8 kilometres of standard format archives in custody

239,876 record items discoverable State Records Annual Report 2007-8

Future Proof

Digital records strategy for New South Wales government

Aims:

improving digital recordkeeping across government

implementing a digital archiving facility for New South Wales government

Products, services:

Published guidance, standards, updates and training

Ad hoc advice to public offices including Councils

What is a digital record?Digital information captured at a specific point in time that is kept as evidence of business activity.

Why?, Twin Peaks, 2009, http://www.flickr.com/photos/twinpeaks/334

1130550/in/photostream/

Some digital records are State records That is, digital records that are “..made and kept, or

received and kept, by any person in the course of the exercise of official functions in a public office, or for any purpose of a public office, or for the use of a public office.” State Records Act 1998, s.3 (1)

Council websites Many official functions of a Council are performed via the

Council website

Much of the information on the website will satisfy the criteria for being State records

Digital State records must be managed in conformance with the requirements of the Standard on digital recordkeeping

Standard on digital recordkeeping A set of 9 minimum requirements for making and keeping

digital records, to ensure Councils have available, authentic, meaningful evidence of their past business:

minimum requirements for defining which records are saved into digital recordkeeping systems & what these systems’ minimum functionalities must be

minimum requirements for recordkeeping metadata, and

minimum requirements for recordkeeping metadata management.

Government 2.0 – depends on recordkeeping! Government 2.0 Issues Paper cites the OECD Principles

for public sector information, including:

5. Integrity. Maximising the integrity and availability of information through the use of best practices in information management. Developing and implementing appropriate safeguards to protect information from unauthorised modification or from intentional or unintentional denial of authorised access to information.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/0/27/40826024.pdf or http://tinyurl.com/kpgova.

Ok so how do we do it?

1. Share responsibility

Sharing, Ryancr, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr/142455033/

2. Tackle high risk business first

‘Man on wire’, 2009 http://witneyman.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/man-on-wire.jpg,

3. Assess website records type/s

4.Identify the recordkeeping requirements Is there a business / regulatory / societal requirement for a record to

be kept?

How often does this information change? Are all changes required as records?

What is the risk in not keeping this record? Or keeping some changes but not all?

Is the information already captured as a record elsewhere?

Is it necessary to (also) capture the web version as a record? the date when the page was published / taken down, by whom? the page exactly as it looked or just its content?

How long does the record need to be kept?

5. Devise an appropriate recordkeeping strategy Consider the recordkeeping requirement, including:

The type of record needing to be kept The rate of change of the information Static / dynamic / transactional? The retention period Risk

And determine: How (technically) to capture the record How often to keep a record Who is responsible Where to keep the record

Options for keeping web records Retain in WCMS – use ‘roll back capabilities’ - short term

value, needs to be kept exactly as viewed

Copy / export documents or pages to an EDRMS – necessary when records are longer term value

RSS feed to records manager – for frequently updated pages

Web harvesting – good for ‘snapshots’ – but may miss dynamic content and some pages eg. Heritrix, HTTrack

Capture transactions at the web server – to save requests and responses including on the fly content. For high risk business. eg Vignette, PageVault

Example 1: Council meeting papers and minutes Long term retention (Required as State archives) Possibly already captured in Council recordkeeping

system Council may need to demonstrate date published to meet

s.12 requirements Options

Make a record of uploading of documents, point to records already kept in recordkeeping system

Also save web published versions to recordkeeping system

Example 2: News updates

Mixture of high and low risk information Important to keep a record of when item was published in

some cases Selective capture not easy Mixture of short and long term retention periods Options:

RSS feed to records manager Automated capture of each version of the news page

as published

Example 3: Website transactions

Online surveys, forms – where low risk the record may best be made in back end systems (eg change of address). Keep a record of the form and all changes.

More complex transactions eg interactive maps – if high risk there may be value in capture of interactions (sessions), but will be high cost

Compromise is to ensure records are kept of the capability and contents and dates in use

..and finally

Don’t forget to ‘Future Proof’ your web records!

ObsolescenceObsolescence can affect hardware, software and even the arrangement of the data in a stored file.

Obsolescence can occur at an alarmingly fast rate.

MAGLEV Train and Rickshaw, Shanghai, Soctech, 2005, http://www.flickr.com/photos/soctech/43279549/

File formats may be superseded

MacDraw, FHKE, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/fhke/370326408/

Storage medium may be superseded

Magnetic tape

Gallery of Obsolete Formats 1, jen-the-librarian, 2007 http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennieb/921595498/

The device needed to read the medium may no longer be produced

Sony Betamax, Nesster, 2009, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nesster/3714783252/

Software used to create, manage or access digital content may be superseded

Windows 1.0: the MS-DOS executive, Renan Birck, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/renanbirck/354258596/

Computers themselves are being superseded

Old computers, eurlief, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/eurleif/255241547/

Vendors merge, emerge and fade

GONE

Things can fall apart

Broken computer. Miss Rogue, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/missrogue/347361369/

Tips for long term accessibility of your web records

Use open formats

Keep records in recordkeeping systems

Comply with Standard on digital recordkeeping to ensure adequate metadata

Migrate with care

Avoid removable media

For more information

www.records.nsw.gov.au

http://futureproof.records.nsw.gov.au

Cassie Findlay

Ph: (02) 8247 8629

cassandra.findlay@records.nsw.gov.au