Electronic mail was first used between users on the same mainframe computer in 1965 and allowed communication between compatible systems starting in 1966. The first email sent between different computer networks was over ARPANET in 1969. Standards for email addressing and transmission were established in the 1980s, allowing proprietary email applications to develop for personal computers and local area networks. Attachments and HTML were added in the mid-1990s through MIME standards. Email standards have continued to be updated, and email data has been used as evidence in litigation and should be treated as an official record. Effective electronic records management systems are needed to adequately archive email communications.

1. Riccardo F
Ri d Ferrante
t
Smithsonian Institution Archives
ACDA 2010 – Mundelein, IL

2. 1965 – Electronic mail allows users on a single mainframe
computer to communicate with each other. MIT’s CTSS and
t t i t ith h th MIT’ d
SDC’s (System Development Corporation, a spinoff of Rand
Corp, that was sold to Unisys in the mid 80’s) Q32
1966 – users of compatible systems can “email” each other:
f tibl t “ il” h th
BITNET, Unix mail, IBM, DEC
1969 – first electronic mail sent between disparate systems over
ARPANET
1971 – “@” address demarcation first used to send email from
one DEC system to another DEC system
1982 – Email transmission protocol standard SMTP (RFC 821)
and ARPA ITM (RFC 822) published.

3. 1980’s – Email applications developed for PCs and LANs.
Proprietary systems include features to “decode” the
P i t t i l d f t t “d d ” th
mail from competitors’ systems. Cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail,
Banyan VINES, Lotus Notes, AppleMail, Groupwise
(previously WordPerfect Office)
Mid 1990’s
– attachments and HTML added as a result of MIME
standard (RFC 2045 in 11/1996)
– web hosted email services
2001 – Email standard RFC 822 superseded by RFC 2822
Mid 2000’ - E
2000’s Enron emails used as evidence iin liti ti
il d id litigation,
posted to the Web
2008 – RFC 2822 superseded by RFC 5322

4. Messages sent within one computer system

5. Messages sent between systems that are the same

6. ARPANET
DEC
IBM
BITNET
Messages sent between different systems

7. ARPANET
@company.com
Person
BITNET

8. 1982 -- Standard published for message format – RFC 821, RFC 822
PC and LAN’s support proprietary email apps
PC’s & LAN’s

9. 1982 -- Standard published for message format – RFC 821, RFC 822
PC and LAN’s support proprietary email apps
Examples:
WordPerfect Office
Microsoft Mail
(later Novell Groupwise)
Cc:Mail Lotus Notes
Banyan VINES

10. 1982 -- Standard published for message format – RFC 821, RFC 822
PC and LAN’s support proprietary email apps
Examples:
WordPerfect Office
Microsoft Mail
(later Novell Groupwise)
Cc:Mail Lotus Notes
Banyan VINES

11. Email
E il
Signature
Organization
Docs

12. Web-based
Web based email services
… and others
Email
Signature
Organization
Docs

13. Email data format standard updated
2001 – Email standard RFC 2822 supersedes RFC
822 (1982)
2008 – RFC 5322 supersedes RFC 2822 (2001)
Emails used as evidence in litigation posted to
litigation,
the Web
Legislation passed to include electronic records
g p
in discoverable documents

14. Email is ubiquitous
That means email can be is:
Official records
Organization records
O i ti d
Personal papers

15. Paper-based recordkeeping systems
Electronic recordkeeping systems
Adequate and reliable?
ERMS systems (
y (DoD 5015.2))
http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/recmgt/register.html
Both
U.S. GAO reports
Information Management: The Challenge of Managing
Electronic Records June 17, 2010.
Records. 17 2010
Federal Records: Agencies Face Challenges in Managing E-
mails. April 23, 2008.
None

16. Acquiring historic correspondence at very high risk.
With records management systems in place, still a hit
or miss proposition
Tension between minimized vulnerabilities and keeping
historic records
Also applicable, policies calling for destruction of email
based on non-content criteria (age, number in account,
etc.)
Without a companion Record Management System
Catch as catch can – which usually means it doesn’t get
captured
Individual
I di id l emails saved t a diskette and t
il d to di k tt d tossed iin a f ld
d folder
Printed and filed
Nothing

17. What we get is what we get
g g
Proactive acquisition
Electronic record management systems
Email capture systems
EMCAP,
EMCAP a joint project of North Carolina and
Kentucky
System-configured declaration or user-declared

18. Under the hood
Classification
Records Disposition Schedules
Working with an ERMS implementation

19. Relationships
Email administration
Disaster recovery plans
Policy

20. Reducing liabilities without losing history
g g
Thorough application of records management
practices
Policy directives supporting acquisition & retention
of historical documents
Ability to constrain access based on litigation or
other legal activities
Consistent, documented procedures and policies

21. What is the archival object?
The lifecycle question
Message by message, or in groups
What about attachments and nested emails (threads)?
Obsolescence

22. Using ERMS’s
ERMS s
Using XML
Individual or consortial systems approach?
Projects to consult
EMCAP – Email Capture & Preservation
CERP – Collaborative Electronic Records Project
PEDALS – Persistent Digital Archives & Library Systems
HUL – Harvard University Libraries

23. Ricc Ferrante
IT Archivist and Director of Digital Services
Smithsonian Institution Archives
202-633-5906
FerranteR@si.edu