Archiving by design means designing information systems to support the work process in such a way that the long-term accessibility of that information is taken into account from the outset. This integrated approach to archiving helps to bridge the gap that often exists between the work process and the archiving process.
A government losing its mind?
In 2005, the Dutch Cultural Heritage Inspectorate issued a report entitled ‘Een dementerende overheid?’ (A government plagued by memory loss’?). It states: “We are rapidly developing a hole in our collective memory because digital information is often being stored with insufficient care”. More than ten years on, almost all government information is now digital. But the hole has yet to be plugged. Time and again, experts are identifying shortcomings in the government’s digital archiving. They are also finding it difficult to bring about any improvements. However, there is no lack of good intentions or initiatives. Nor is there any shortage of fine words on the importance of archiving, backed up by numerous digital archiving projects. Despite this, the desired effect remains too small and is coming too late. Why is that?
The scapegoat
Archiving experts often blame poor archiving on the work process that produces the information. You often hear such criticisms as: ‘The staff are failing to follow by our rules’, ‘The work process managers don’t support our work properly’ and ‘The managers are postponing the problems of poor archiving, seeing it as something for the future, when they have more urgent problems to contend with’. In other words, ‘They don’t really care’.
This kind of scapegoating is all too convenient. But are we, the experts, also doing something wrong? Of course, we know that we struggle to convince staff in a work process of the merits of our case. But that is an easy excuse. It is reminiscent of a political party losing half of its seats and then blaming poor communication or the media. Perhaps it’s time to rethink the case we are presenting?
Work process takes centre stage
In archiving, it’s time to allow the work process to take centre stage. Why? To enable archive specialists to gain a proper understanding of how the work process and the information systems used for it operate, allowing them to engage in serious conversations about it with managers and staff. To ensure that managers and staff are prepared to take the necessary measures within the work process to enable proper archiving. How? By giving them the space to contribute their ideas on the requirements for archiving and what is needed to achieve them. When? When designing information systems to support the work process (the work systems). That is the time to discuss such measures. That is the time when resources are available to apply them. In addition, the design process offers the opportunity for archiving also to take account of other key issues, including user-friendliness, privacy, security and open data.
Designing
An information system design is a description of how the system should work. It can be compared to an architectural drawing for a building. You draw up a design before the start of construction, renovation or the sales process. During construction, it is often extended and amended. A design has several forms and stages, including a schedule of requirements, functional design, architecture or procurement specifications.
A design is always a compromise between divergent wishes and wide-ranging possibilities. For this reason, drawing up a design involves numerous people with different roles and interests. These include the commissioning party, future users, the architects, the information manager and the security officer. Together, they ensure that a design is balanced.
In archiving by design, a Digital Archiving consultant is part of the design team. He or she highlights the importance of archiving and explains what needs to happen to achieve it. However, he or she also listens carefully to others’ contributions and takes them into account. In this, he or she is creative in devising new ways of reconciling contradictory wishes or requirements.
Designing information systems is not only about automation. It is also about the people and processes around that. Of course, archiving will ideally be arranged automatically, for example by allocating metadata and determining retention periods automatically. But not everything can be automated. Some things still need to be done manually, including the entering of metadata. Some activities are also determined during the design process itself in order to ensure that all interests are taken into account.
Know your goal …
Designing starts with a good shared understanding of the various objectives one would like to achieve. The goal of archiving is to document work processes for different reasons: as input for your own work process and other work processes, to provide accountability, as evidence for the public, businesses and government and to enable historical and scientific research. To achieve that, the information received and created within a work process must be accessible for the long term.
That means it must be findable, available, readable, interpretable and reliable – for everyone with an interest in it and for as long as necessary.
... then consider the instruments to achieve it
Only after all of that is it time to consider the instruments that are best placed for achieving the goals. These could include legislation, standards, selection lists, meta-dating, file formats, Document management system (DMS) and e-Depot. The issue of instruments should not be raised to early in the process because they do not appeal to the imagination if it is unclear what purpose they serve. Besides that, they may not necessarily be the most logical instruments for achieving the shared goals. This is why we need to continually reinvent archiving using the appropriate instruments in view of the work process, future users of the archive and the technology available. But we still need to maintain the same underlying archiving objectives.
The archiving system
The central instruments for archiving have always been the archiving systems. The digital versions of these are the DMS, the Records management (RMA) and an e-Depot. These systems are specially designed for archiving digital information. Generally, the idea is that you move the information to be archived from the work systems to an archiving system. This is done as soon as possible, but at the very latest at the time when the dossier concerned is closed. After that, the information can only be consulted in the archiving system.
In the case of paper-based information, it is easy to justify moving it into an archiving system. Otherwise the storage areas and workplace become cluttered and you do not want everyone coming to the workplace to consult long-closed dossiers.
Things are different with digital information. Digital work systems are able to contain an unlimited amount of information and can be consulted via the network. Transferring information into archive systems also has several important disadvantages. It is expensive and may also undermine the completeness and original condition of the information. Work system users often find it more difficult to access the information after it has been moved. As a result, there is often a lack of motivation to move digital information into an archive system. This creates the risk that the information may not be moved and may not be accessible over the longer term.
Archiving in the work system
Is there not an alternative approach? In many cases, yes. Information can also be archived in the work system itself. This is providing that the work system meets the requirement for long-term accessibility, i.e. opening it up to other users, making it easier to search and using standard file formats. These modifications can also be of benefit to the work system in other ways. This creates a win-win situation in which archiving is seen as useful. Sometimes, the best and only solution is to move information to an archiving system, but in that case that is the result of the design process rather than its starting point. For that reason, anyone involved will understand why the choice was made. The disadvantages of moving information can be minimized, for example by automating the process or only moving that part of the information that would otherwise be insufficiently accessible.
Existing work systems
Archiving by design is intended for work systems that are still being built or modified. It cannot be used for existing work systems that are no longer being developed or no longer used at all. In such cases, there is no design process after all. However, if the risks of poor archiving are demonstrably significant for this kind of system, that may justify further modifications to the system. In that case, the design approach can still be applied.
Not a miracle solution
Archiving by design is not a miracle solution. It is a way of tackling the issue of digital archiving. However, it does not provide any specific guidance on how you should do the archiving. Digital archiving remains a stubborn problem. It cannot be resolved by formulating a total solution in advance and then implementing it according to a set plan. The problems are too diffuse for that, the causes too wide-ranging, the interests contradictory and we do not know exactly what an effective solution looks like. It is much more advisable to discover what really works step-by-step and then stick with it. Archiving by design helps us to take these steps. Discover it with us!
Author: Erik Saaman, Strategic Advisor at the National Archives of the Netherlands