Processing and Accessing Electronic Records at George W. Bush Presidential Library

1. George W. Bush Presidential Library Electronic Records Alan Lowe April 24, 2012

2. George W. Bush Presidential Library • Temporary Facility • Lewisville, TX

3. George W. Bush Presidential Library • Permanent Facility • Dallas, Texas

4. Archives • 19 Archivists, Archives Specialists, and Archives Technicians • Currently processing textual records under the Presidential Records Act and Freedom of Information Act

5. Systematic Processing Plan

6. EOP ERA at Bush 43 • 80 Terabytes, which includes: • More than 200 million emails • Over 4 million digital photographs • Shared drives • Scheduling assets, including the metadata compiling the President’s Daily Diary • Additional digital assets ingested throughout other parts of the Executive Office of the President.

7. Email Searching

8. Email Searching (Cont.)

9. Photo Searching

10. Photo Searching (Cont.)

11. Electronic Records Processing Plan • Segments of Emails: • Focus on Important Events (i.e., 9/11) • For instance, process a staff member’s emails regarding a major event during a span of time. • Mirror Systematic Processing Plan • Emails from the Freedom Corps during a span of time. • Press Releases • This is where the full set of press releases exists in one distinguishable series.

12. Electronic Records Processing Plan (Cont.) • Additional Search and Access Sets (SASes) • Photos • We have uploaded photos to OPA, but not yet through EOP ERA. • WH Office of Records Management Subject Files

13. Business Issues for Bush 43 • FOIA – we must be prepared for FOIA on 1/20/14 • Redaction Tool • Needed to begin fully processing electronic records. • Consistency of Review • Review is subjective; match with textual records. • Classified Instance • Currently on stand-alone servers in Washington, DC. • Bush 43 Library will need a copy of this instance on-site before January 20, 2014.

14. EOP ERA, Bush 43, and OPA: Partnership • Things to Consider: • OPA Storage Capacity • ERA BRG Prioritized Task • Digital Photos • Public Release Formats • Successful Partnership is Vitally Important to Bush 43

15. In Closing • Immense Volume of Electronic Records • FOIA drives our concern – records accessible via FOIA on Jan. 20, 2014 • Desire to begin fully processing these records, and making a portion of them available to the public by April 2013 • Long-term strategy and tools to make significant portions accessible

16. Thank you

17. FOIA/Public Access Development in EOP ERA Sam McClure April 24, 2012

18. EOP ERA Development in 2011 • Support for public access review our top priority in last year of original contract • Working group of ERA staff, EOP ERA users from DC area, Bush Library archivists, and Presidential Libraries staff • FOIA review capabilities deployed by LMC in September 2011 • Remaining Issues • Acquisition of standalone redaction tool • Automated means of making EOP ERA output available in OPA

19. FOIA/public access review enhancements in EOP ERA • Archivists can update the metadata of individual assets in EOP ERA to support output for public access • Access decisions of Release, Withhold in Part, or Withhold in Full • Citation of the relevant PRA restriction and FOIA exemption • The FOIA case number for which this decision is made • Each asset already has metadata (added at ingest) indicating its records status and to what set of records it belongs • For example, an email knows it’s a Bush Presidential email from the “Exchange Email” Search and Access Set

20. FOIA/public access review enhancements in EOP ERA • Archivists can generate electronic output from EOP ERA based on their access review decisions • Dossiers in system to manage work on FOIA cases • Output packages as .zip files • Copies of assets released in full (in their original formats) • Withdrawal sheets (as .EML files for emails, plain text files for all other format types) for all assets withheld in part or in full • Redactions (image files) for assets withheld in part (pending purchase of redaction tool) • Every withdrawal sheet and redaction will be associated (via system-generated metadata) with their corresponding original assets

21. Redaction • We are in process of testing and purchasing this standalone tool for archivists using EOP ERA to process electronic records for public access • Based on software used by intelligence agencies • Testing by EOP ERA archivists in DC area first • Testing by Bush Library staff next • Purchase and deploy

22. EOP ERA Priorities in New Contract • EOP ERA user community representation on Business Requirements Group (BRG) • Office of Presidential Libraries • George W. Bush Library • Presidential Materials Division • Our top priority this year is to make EOP ERA records available through OPA • Task given high priority by BRG and NARA management

23. Current EOP ERA Work • Making EOP ERA output available in OPA • Working group of EOP ERA users from DC area, Bush Library archivists, OPA staff, ERA staff, and Presidential Libraries staff • Developing documentation (Vision, Concept of Operations, Assumptions, High-Level Requirements) to define task for vendor • Goal is to have EOP ERA records included in April 2013 opening • These capabilities, when deployed, will allow EOP ERA to support processing of other bodies of electronic records for online public access