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Themes
The nature of records in the digital age
The digital age has not merely introduced records in digital form. The digital revolution has unleashed the creation and storage of immense volumes of information. Communication processes have become multichannel and fragmented. Records no longer accumulate on dedicated locations, and certainly not in a prestructured and easily identifiable form. The session will focus on the characteristics of records in the digital age, how digital records can be identified and how they can they be managed and secured.
New Digital Media Practices: Access, documentation and privacy protection in electronic media
This session is focusing on the variety of challenges of the participatory culture in online communities such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs, etc. What are the main challenges of such networked communication? Clearly a core issue is related to privacy protection. How is social media influencing practices in the archival institutions? Do we have the means of archiving the social messaging? Should we archive social media posts? In many countries rules and regulations for social media governance have yet to be decided, and few conclusive answers have been given so far.
Managing trustworthy digital records
Digital information may easily be modified or manipulated. Moreover, digital records are not static, but constantly in a process of being transformed during the different phases of their life-cycle. But how can the reshaped digital records be trusted to be authentic? Which requirements must digital records fulfill in order to serve as reliable evidence? The session will discuss these requirements - and how digital repositories can meet them.
Citizen Rights in the Digital Age
This session gathers together an international group of experts working within the rapidly developing area digital archives, and focuses their attention on the specific interaction between human rights and digital technology. Discourse on human rights need no longer be limited by national or cultural boundaries and individuals have the ability to create new forms in which to exercise their rights or even to bypass national limitations to rights. The session will explore the challenges brought about by digital technology to fundamental freedoms such as privacy, freedom of expression and access.
InterPares – Case and general studies
InterPares 3 was initiated in 2007 and will continue through 2012. This third phase of the Project builds upon the findings of InterPARES 1 and 2, as well as of other digital preservation projects worldwide. It will put theory into practice, working with small and medium-sized archives and archival / records units within organizations, and develop teaching modules for in-house training programs, continuing education and academic curricula. Interpares will present three case studies at the Citra conference in Oslo. These studies will show theory put into practice on longterm preservation of e-mail Records and archives. This is best practices from all over the world related to how to secure trusted records over decades of years.
Digital archives – simple and robust
In our digital age the processes of records creation and archives preservation has one common denominator: complexity. To what extent can complexity be reduced? Do simple and robust methods exist which can represent a “digital archives for dummies” – still without violating the integrity and authenticity of the preserved records? The session will approach standards to support the simplification of records management and tools to support the automation of digital preservation tasks.
Architecture and digital archives
Architects develop their ideas about architecture through drafting and design. Museums and archives provide scholars and the public access and unique insights to the creative process leading up to the realization of a building. Since 1990s the architects started to use CAD and today most of their design is born digital. The session approach what this shift of technology implies to the architects and their design and to the depot institutions regarding what kind of documentation of the built environment will we be able to keep for the future.
How do digital records challenge traditional approaches?
Do processes in connection with digital records transcend “gravitation laws” within traditional paper based archival theory? The session will discuss the need for revision versus revitalization of basic principles within archival theory and practice.
Private Sector:
Digital Records and Archives Management and Accountability.
During the last few decades the private sector of society, businesses of all kinds, associations, societies, foundations and political organizations, do represent an increasingly important part of societal activities nationally and internationally. The growth in the overall importance of non-public actors leads to a corresponding need to access to records and archives from the private sector. This need comprises not only the physical documentation as such but also access to information about the quality level of governance and of authenticity and accountability of records and archives preserved. The session will approach the challenges we are faced with in this field based on a variety of examples introduced by professionals from many countries sharing and discussing their experiences with the session participants.
Starting up:
Initial Approaches to Managing Electronic (digital) Records
This session will focus on the multitude of human, technological and strategic skills and equipment required in the process of moving from a paper-based to an electronic environment in a safe and secure manner. These important issues will first be discussed in a session and then further followed up in a workshop the same afternoon.
Digital Practices – Archival Portals
The session will focus on the ongoing work with Archives Portals which gives access to websites of archival institutions around the world. Such portals will make it easier to access and to use diverse archival material kept by private or public cultural heritage institutions. The archives portal Europeana is an important contribution to fulfilling the vision of a common multilingual access point to Europe's distributed digital cultural and scientific heritage. For the first time it will be possible to retrieve archival information in Europe regardless of national, institutional and sector boundaries.
Panel Presentation:
The National Archivists Reflection Hour
The National Archives from all regions in the world are still the basic members of ICA. The National Archives preserve the public records and archives. They are the main source of documented history for the general public and for historians. Many National Archives have expanded the traditional borders of preservation of archives to include a wider range of information than the what is contained in archives created solely by the public sector. The fast developing new electronic and social media have transformed the role as well as the challenges for the National Archives. The panel presentations given by a selection of National Archivists from countries from the various geographic regions will contribute to create a better understanding on how they reflect and plan to deal with these present and future challenges.
