Hi Bruce,

A few further thoughts...

I also do wonder if what we will find is that it is actually easier and
> cheaper to retain the entire system ( if it is worth retaining at all) than
> to spend time and effort appraising it?

This was exactly the point I made in my first message about the future
of the archive profession and professional training.  If the core of
archival theory nolonger becomes centred around appraisal but around
'retaining the entire system' are repositories and their staff ready
for that change?  What skill sets will such a role require?  Do
archivists possess them and the relevant technical skills required?  Do
county record offices, institutional archives have the infra-structure
to retain them?  Do we actually know what is involved and whether it
would be cheaper?

We all do have an option of deciding not to accept potential deposits which
> are offered to us, and I would expect that the overwhelming majority of "
> personal electronic record systems" which may be offered over time would
> fall into this category - just as most collections of routine personal
> papers, or home videos would!

I agree entirely and at this high level appraisal is likely to continue
to play an important role for the foreseeable future (ie do we accept
the papers of institution or person X for accession within this
repository).  My concern is that a few years down the line such
decisions may not be taken according to the value of relevance of
the collection but will be based primarily on issues of technology
("I'm sorry, we would love to be able to accept your exceptionally
interesting and important collection but we can't support Eudora
emails", or "we can take your paper records but not your
electronic...").  What impact would that have on the completeness and
integrity of our collections?

Regards

Steve



On Mon, 25 Nov 2002 10:08:11 -0000 "Jackson, Bruce"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I was about to email the list on another matter, but thought that I would
> stick on a few thoughts on this issue as well.
>
> We all do have an option of deciding not to accept potential deposits which
> are offered to us, and I would expect that the overwhelming majority of "
> personal electronic record systems" which may be offered over time would
> fall into this category - just as most collections of routine personal
> papers, or home videos would!
>
> I also do wonder if what we will find is that it is actually easier and
> cheaper to retain the entire system ( if it is worth retaining at all) than
> to spend time and effort appraising it? It should be structured and
> searchable already by definition, so a lot is going to depend on what the
> on-going costs of migration would be (if that is the strategy that is
> decided on). If emulation is the approach adopted, then surely there is no
> additional cost arising from either the size of individual collections, or
> the number of them? Or I missing something about the cost implications of
> the two strategic options?
>
> Enough of this. I will send my other email separately , as I have a sneaking
> feeling that there will be little overlap in the readerships for each!
>
> Bruce Jackson
> Lancashire Record Office
> 25 Nov 2002
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Bailey, Joint Information Systems Committee
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 25 November 2002 09:33
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: More on MyLifeBits
>
>
> Dear Rick,
>
> Many thanks for your reply and comments.  As you probably guessed my
> original message was intended to be slightly provocative and to
> stimulate some (in my view much needed) debate as to the future role of
> our profession in our rapidly changing information environment.  That
> yours was virtually the only response I received - either on or off
> list - would seem to further confirm my view.
>
> The gist of my argument was thus not against MyLifeBits, or any other
> personal electronic archive product, but was intended to draw attention
> to some of the trends that are developing in information/archives
> management and what they may mean for our profession.
>
> To offer an opinion on some of your specific points:
>
> " The fact that some individuals may choose to save everything
> > indiscriminately, does not mean that everyone will"
>
> Agreed, but this is increasingly being perceived as the goal by many
> people and that in itself is interesting.  One former colleague of mine
> informed me that at a conference he went to recently it was revealed
> that when NARA accessioned the Bill Clinton archive recently they
> archived *everything*. An exceptional case perhaps, but one indicative
> of an emerging trend?  How many archivists would in previous years have
> been involved in the appraisal of such a collection?  What is the focus
> of the work and methodology of those archivists currently working on
> this collection?
>
> "Yet this is surely the stuff that many current and future manuscript
> archivist must deal with. Thus, I think this development is a really
> good sign for the archives community."
>
> Again agreed.  My concern, however, is how prepared the current and
> future archive profession is/will be to fulfil this role when the
> material concerned is currently in, and needs to be preserved in,
> electronic format. This *should* be our role, but are we ready and
> willing to take it on? And if we are not, who will and what will be the
> consequences for our profession?  Too often there appears to be this
> perception that dealing with electronic records is something for
> records managers and not archivists.  Not only is this untrue it may
> well be the case that these old distinctions have little relevance
> anymore.
>
> I do not intend to imply that we are all doomed and that it is a
> picture of dispair.  Quite the opposite.  This is an age of
> unprecedented opportunity and potential for professional development.
> History has never been as popular in our society and culture as now
> (beaten only by gardening and cooking in our TV schedules it sometimes
> seems).  We have the technology to manage and access our collections in
> a way that would make our predecessors turn green with envy and there
> are challenges ahead of supreme importance to our society that no one
> yet knows the answers to, but to which our profession can play a
> *vital* role.  And yet if we miss that opportunity now we may well find
> ourselves a part of the history that until now it has fallen to us to
> preserve.
>
> Regards
>
> Steve
>
> Please note that the views expressed here are my own views and not
> necessarily that of my employer
>
>
>
> On Sat, 23 Nov 2002 00:08:34 EST Rick Barry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > In a message dated 11/22/02 7:38:43 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> > [log in to unmask] writes:
> >
> >
> > > Now if you follow the MyLifeBits vision of the future such skill will
> > > soon be redundent.  Why bother trying to work out what to keep when you
> > > can keep it all?  Why waste your efforts on appraisal and selection
> > > when it could be better spent refining search engines and the user
> > > interfaces that will enable people to search literally everything they
> > > have ever created or used?
> >
> > Dear Steve and colleagues: I understand and appreciate what you are
> saying,
> > Steve, but I'm not sure that such a dim view is warranted of MyLifeBits
> and
> > hopefully other such personal ER tools that may emerge in competition with
> > Microsoft. There has been such a dearth of discussion in the professional
> > community and fewer products related to personal electronic records.  Yet
> > this is surely the stuff that many current and future manuscript archivist
> > must deal with. Thus, I think this development is a really good sign for
> the
> > archives community.
> >
> > The fact that some individuals may choose to save everything
> > indiscriminately, does not mean that everyone will. Shortly after retiring
> > from the World Bank in 1992, I transferred the first corpus of personal
> > electronic records to the Bank Archives. Admittedly they were business
> > related; nevertheless, they were personal business records maintained over
> a
> > 9 year period using a personal e-filing system and constituting about 3000
> > email records in digital form.  They represented about 7-8% of the email I
> > had sent/received since I began using email in late-1983/early-1984 --
> about
> > the same as the proportion of Bank archives to total records at that time.
> I
> > think many others will do the same thing give the opportunity, including
> for
> > their purely personal, non-business records.  And even for those who do
> store
> > and transfer all of it to some archival institution, the role of the
> > archivist will still be to assess those records according to usual and
> > customary appraisal criteria and practices and inform the donor/estate
> that,
> > lacking justification to the contrary, that is what the institution
> considers
> > appropriate to preserve on a continuing basis.
> >
> > Of course, if the personal records are NOT handed over to an institution
> for
> > archival safekeeping, then we should perhaps be happy that they were NOT
> > appraised by someone ill equipped to do so. If, many years later, that
> > person's personal electronic records become important, then it will still
> not
> > be too late to subject them to appropriate and professional appraisal and
> we
> > will be glad that we had the whole corpus on which to make such decisions.
> >
> > In short, I think the risks associated with providing advanced digital
> > personal recordkeeping tools to individuals (mainly whether the terabytes
> of
> > data storage will  be matched with appropriate information management and
> > navigation tools) are far less than than the risks we are subject to in
> the
> > current situation without such tools.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Rick Barry
> > www.mybestdocs.com
>
> ----------------------
> Steve Bailey,
> Records Manager
> Joint Information Systems Committee
> Tel: 07092 302850
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>

----------------------
Steve Bailey,
Records Manager
Joint Information Systems Committee
Tel: 07092 302850
Email: [log in to unmask]