Digital Curation: A Framework for Managing and Preserving E-mail Records

1. Maureen Pennock Digital Curation Centre, UKOLN UKOLN Open Forum, IWMW 2006, 14 June 2006 Digital Curation: A Framework for Managing and Preserving E-mail Records

2. Today’s talk The DCC Background & context What is digital curation? DCC aims & objectives Digital Curation & E-mails Why curate e-mails? Life-cycle perspective Stakeholders & roles Framework

3. UK Digital Curation Centre JISC and the e-Science Core Programme funding for development, services and outreach in digital curation for a research programme Impetus to action Growth in e-Science activity and data creation Recognition that continuing access to digital information is crucial Launched early 2004

4. What is Digital Curation? • Digital curation is all about maintaining and adding value to a trusted body of digital information for current and future use; specifically, we mean the active management and appraisal of data over the life-cycle of scholarly and scientific materials. • Enables organisations to address the many challenges of effectively managing, preserving, and re-using digital materials • A challenge best tackled collaboratively

5. DCC Objectives Lead a vibrantinternationalresearch programme to improve quality in data curation and digital preservation Deliver effective, efficient and high demand services undertake evaluation of tools, methods, standards and policies work with the community to establish registries of tools and technical information Create an active, innovative and collaborative Associates Network Connect communities Universities and Research institutions Scientific data and documents International & cross-sector Achieve the ‘virtuous circle’

6. DCC Research Annotation in Databases Data archiving Socio-economic and legal issues Metadata extraction and curation Provenance and databases Data transformation, integration and publishing Security Supporting technologies Organisational and cultural challenges to digital curation

7. DCC Development DCC Approach to Digital Curation (white paper) – sets out the path for development activities: Monitoring international standards Development of a Representation Information Registry/Repository (DCC RIR) Development of recommendations for tools and methods for generating Representation Information Creating testbeds for digital curation tools Creating auditing and certification processes for trusted repositories

8. DCC Services Information Services Community-developed Digital Curation Manual Briefing Papers Technology Watch, Legal Watch, Standards Watch Case Studies Best Practice Checklists Advisory Services Events: information days, workshops, training, conferences Helpdesk Audit and Certification Services

9. DCC summary Support and promote continuing improvement in the quality of data curation and preservation activity Nurture strong community relationships between practitioners, researchers, and curators Address digital curation from all aspects of the records life-cycle Develop and promote curation knowledge, tools and techniques Identify and research new organisational, technical, and supporting curation challenges

10. Why curate e-mails? • E-mails are records too • Misconceptions concerning ‘ownership’ • Subject to technological obsolescence • More complex than people think • It’s not just about e-mails • Legal requirements • Financial consequences • Historically and culturally valuable

11. Life-cycle model

12. Stakeholders & Roles • The range of stakeholders that affect the survival of digital material cuts across the whole lifecycle; everyone plays an important role • Management & policy-makers • Users - creators & receivers of e-mail records • Records Managers • IT staff • System & mail-server administration • Local Area network (LAN) Manager • Archivists (‘Curators’) • Re-users

13. Creation • E-mails must be: • Well-formed • Well-managed (re - sent items) • Important elements: • Good creation/responding practices • Inserting metadata • Headers – subject line, addresses • Message body - context • Message formats • Attachments • Complying with house-style • Guidance must be provided for users on: • Acceptable use of e-mail system • Organisation policy on the above

14. Active Use • E-mails must be: • Well-managed (re - sent & received items) • Captured into organisational record-keeping system • Important elements: • Identifying e-mail records from non-records • Organisational retention requirements • Meeting legal requirements • Proper filing of e-mail records • Deletion of transient e-mails • Proper filing of e-mail records • Saving e-mail records independently of e-mail client

15. Archiving • E-mails must be: • Captured and transferred into organisational archival repository • Whole - comprising message body, headers & attachments • Archival metadata must be created and linked • Persistent identifiers must be assigned • Authenticity of the e-mails must be verified • Integrity of e-mails maintained • Persistent links must be established between various parts of an e-mail (and also with other related records) • Storage must be secured from unauthorised or malicious access • Access rights must be implemented

16. Preservation • E-mails must be: • Stored in a format that allows authenticity, integrity, & access to be ensured over time • Migrated to avoid technological obsolescence • This includes attachments • Authenticity requirements must be determined • Preservation strategy must be developed and tested • Preservation metadata must be collected and maintained • Storage infrastructure must also be carried through time • Organisational and cultural challenges must be addressed

17. Access & Re-use • E-mails must be: • Accessible for appropriate re-users • Exported in an appropriate and usable format • Legal access and re-use restrictions must be observed • Re-use software may be needed • Different re-users may have different re-use requirements • E-mails can be re-used for very different purposes to why they were originally created

18. Conclusions • Curation begins at source: curation activities therefore start at the creation stage • Stakeholder responsibilities cannot easily be allocated to one specific stage in the life-cycle • Communication between stakeholder groups is essential to achieve successful curation • Policy and training are key elements of curation • Proprietary formats severely hinder long-term preservation and access • The ‘do-nothing’ and print-to-paper approaches are not appropriate approaches to managing and preserving e-mail records

19. Thank you. Questions? Maureen Pennock m.pennock@ukoln.ac.uk Join the DCC Associates Network at http://www.dcc.ac.uk