How State CIOs Should Preserve Digital Records -- Electronic records are at risk and vulnerable

How State CIOs Should Preserve Digital Records. Phil Goldstein. November 05, 2018.
     States are not well prepared for long-term preservation of digital records, which means the electronic records are at risk and vulnerable. State governments are living in the world of digital records, which has many challenges with preserving content. The records are essential for state governments and must be preserved 

• Electronic records require attention to ensure they are preserved and accessible. They are more complex to preserve than paper records
• “Sustained attention and resources are needed to ensure the long-term management and accessibility of our nation’s electronic records.”
• Collaboration is key, since digital records management involve multiple organizations.  “Collaborative effort is key to developing and adopting best practices and sustainable models for the long-term preservation of electronic records,”
• “adequate employee awareness and training activities are keys to ensuring that employees correctly carry out new or existing policies and procedures and understand how to use any new technologies associated with improved electronic records management.”
•  “Establishing fixity, or the property of a digital file or object being fixed or unchanged, is a critical part of confirming evidentiary status of electronic records,”
• some systems for document management don’t preserve the content, structure, context and integrity of the record over time.  “States must select technologies that properly manage and store electronic records, while ensuring that the inevitable obsolescence of the technology does not compromise the records’ integrity or accessibility,” 
• “The need for digital preservation of state electronic records will outlast commercial service providers and current technological infrastructures. The state needs to clearly understand its rights regarding its data and how the preservation provider is helping it perform its obligations to its citizens.”
• State CIOs can help state archives and records management personnel perform a cost-benefit analysis about outsourcing preservation services in relation to data security, the report says. 
• Contracts with third-party digital preservation service providers should “establish responsibility for functions that are critical to ensuring the integrity of state data including fixity checking and audits or compliance with state government legal responsibilities,” according to the report. 
• State CIOs and archivists should also establish audit trails when working with a third-party preservation service provider. “A verifiable audit trail of the activities involved in the processing of digital records ensures that the reliability and authenticity of the data is secure,” the report says. 

Digital Preservation Matters.