1. Resourcing for the future
Cassie Findlay
Project Manager, Digital Archives

2. Resourcing for the future
• Not just about the $.
• ‘Digital preservation’ can mean a lot more than keeping stuff in
a readable form; is about establishing an environment in which
your digital information can be useable and reliable – for as
long as you need it. Also known as recordkeeping.
• Little things can have a big impact.
• When you do need additional resources, use a range of tactics.
• There’s heaps of free stuff around!

3. Know your information
• Understand what systems are
generating digital information that
needs to be kept and relied upon down
the track
• Not just in EDRMSs!
• Understand retention requirements
• Be aware of formats and technological
dependencies

4. Design your systems so they can support your
business information
• Define the records! Single document? Grouping of data?
Whole database?
• State Records, Standard on digital recordkeeping (2009) sets
out minimum functionality and metadata requirements
• ICA Guidelines and Functional Requirements for
Electronic Records Management Systems / for Records in
Business Systems
• State Records, Strategies for documenting government
business: The DIRKS manual (2003)

5. Limit the number of file formats you use - use open
formats where possible
• It is estimated in the business environment that 4500 types of
record formats exist today. Try to only use a few of them!
• Use non proprietary/open formats and templates to add more
structure to your unstructured documents and facilitate easier
migration
• Examples of open formats: PDF (A), Open Document Format,
JPEG, FLAC

6. Dispose of digital information when it is appropriate
to do so
• Keeping digital information indefinitely is expensive and
potentially very complex. Digital storage, despite the popular
myth, is becoming an increasingly significant cost. In 2008
Diane Bryant, the CIO of Intel predicted that her company
would double its storage costs by 2012 and said this was
unsustainable.
• Organisations can save money and mitigate risk by destroying
information when it is appropriate to do so. You need to know
how long information should be kept to meet business and
legal requirements before you dispose of it.
• You also need to know which digital records are permanent!

7. Metadata is better data!
• Digital information needs to be described well so that it can be
found, used and managed.
• Put in place strategies that will enable systems and staff to
easily or automatically apply necessary descriptions (also
known as metadata) to business information.
I Metadata

8. Manage migration
• Without migration, access to digital information would be lost.
Migration, however, is a high risk process.
• It changes data and therefore threatens the integrity and even
the existence of important business information.
• Migration projects must therefore be designed to mitigate risks
associated with migration and to protect the authenticity,
integrity and accessibility of information.

9. Educating staff on good practice
• Little things can help – you needn’t spend
lots of money on external courses
• Single sheet flyers; occasional briefings;
competitions (for chocolate!)
• At State Records, the month of June was
‘DAM!’ (Digital Awareness Month)

11. Securing resources for more substantial projects
• Earlier this year State Records secured $3.6M in funding over
3 years for the Digital State Archives project
• Our team to deliver:
? Physical infrastructure and hardware
? Requirements gathering, process design, testing
? Modular approach to ensure flexibility
• It took us 7 years so am not saying we’re the experts
• However, some of our strategies were:
? Gathering a network of supportive influential people
? Linking into politically popular ideas such as shared service
delivery
? Perseverance!

12. Free stuff!
• OpenPlanets Foundation wiki:
http://www.openplanetsfoundation.org
• PRONOM file format registry:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
• Archivematica: micro –services designed digital preservation
system http://archivematica.org/
• Chris Prom’s Practical e-records: software and tools for
archivists http://e-records.chrisprom.com/

13. Thank you
• http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/
• http://futureproof.records.nsw.gov.au/
• http://twitter.com/futureproofnsw