Management of Electronic Records 
Course Content

1st Part

• Introduction
• Records and Information defined: its relation with and differences to other disciplines of similar nature.
• Life-cycle of e-records
• Retention/Disposal of e-records:
• Why?
• Differences with "back-up"s.
• Archives:
• Defined.
• Why is it important?
• Management of active e-documents
• Functional analysis
• Subject classification
• Case files
• Appraisal and disposition
• Document management
• Differences with records and information management
• Purpose
• Workflow systems
• Associated problems and solutions
• Digitization
• Why digitize?
• For archival purposes (significant intellectual or artifactual value)
• For dissemination of information (high demand for access)
• For preservation?
• Of text

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
• Problems: High error rates
• Solution alternatives
• Spell checking via artificial Intelligence
• Selecting alternative words via fuzzy logic
• Of images
• Of Sounds
• Of moving images
• Associated problems:
• Preservation issues
• Light level damaging originals?
• Disbinding?
• Book cradles
• Handling procedures
• Use of intermediates and surrogates
• Cost
• Copyright
• Access issues
• Policies
• Naming conventions
• Metadata and finding aids
• Technical issues
• Resolution
• Compression ratios and methods
• Formats and standards
• Obsolescence
• Hardware and Software dependency
• Importance of keeping related documentation
• Alternative solutions suggested:
• Computer museums:
• Emulation
• Migration
• XML
• Legal admissability and authenticity
• How it is done on paper records
• Watermarks
• Structure of the paper and ink
• Diplomatics and style
• Calligraphy
• Signatures, stamps and seals
• E-signatures
• Watermarks
• Biometrics
• Integrity vs alteration (after creation)
• Networking and security
• Cryptography
• Firewalls
• E-mail management
• Policy
• Importance of forming an e-mail policy
• Steps in forming an e-mail policy
• Why archive?
• Associated problems
• Attachments
• Capturing Metadata
• How to archive?
• Archiving databases (and casefiles)
• Why archive?
• Associated problems.
• How to archive?
• Disaster preparednes
• Back-ups and archival copies:
• Differences.
• Vital records management
• Media durability
• Problems and solutions.
• Metadata
• Defined
• Why important?
• Principle of provenance
• How to capture?
• Associated problems
• Standards and Guides for Computer Specialists
• AS 4390: Australian Records Management Standard
• ISO 15489: International Records Management Standard
• ISO 9000: International Quality Standard
• DoD 5015.2 = Department of Defense Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management Software Applications
• FDA = Food and Drug Administration Guidance for Industry
• MoReq = Model Specification of Requirements for Electronic Records Management Systems
• The National Archives Digital Preservation Department PRONOM 3 User Requirements
• PROV= Public Records Office of Victoria Standard 99 07: Management of Electronic Records
• VERS = Victorian Electronic Records Strategy
• DIRKS = Designing and implementing recordkeeping systems:
• Research and Collaboration Efforts
• INTERPARES = International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems
• ERPANET = Electronic Resource Preservation and Access NETwork

2nd Part

• Usability and information architecture
• Defined
• Concepts
• Search engines
• How they work?
• How to make the best use of them?
• Dublin Core and preservation metadata standards
• XML and its use in putting databases on the web
• The Z39.50 protocol
• The Spectrum standard and its use in museums
• EAD = Encoded Archival Description
• Interoperability of different standards

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