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Meeting Minutes
August 23, 2002
Birmingham, Alabama
Attendees:
- Thomas Battle, Howard University
- Tracey Berezansky, Alabama Department of Archives and History
- Lynn V. Bernard, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- Michele Christian, Iowa State University
- Mark Conrad, National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)
- Gordon Daines, Brigham Young University
- Lisa Daulby, Royal Bank of Canada
- Jean Deken (Incoming ERS Webmaster), Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(SLAC), Stanford University
- George Despres, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory
- Christine Di Bella, University of Michigan
- Phil Eppard, State University of New York (SUNY), Albany
- Patricia Galloway, University of Texas
- Tamar Granovsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory
- Michael Hooks, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Bob Horton, Minnesota Historical Society
- Jennifer Jacobs (ERS Newsletter Editor) University of California at Irvine
Libraries
- Edith Jeter, International Mission Board
- Joanne Kaczmarck, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
- Kris Kobi, Global Electronic Records Association
- Joseph M. Komljenovich, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Nancy Kunde, University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Nancy McGovern, Cornell University
- Ken Megill, Software Directions (affiliated with Cuadra Associates)
- Margaret Merrick, Presbyterian Historical Society
- Mark Myers Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
- Cal Lee (Outgoing ERS Chair, ERS Steering Committee), University of Michigan
- Chad Owen, University of Louisville
- Richard Pearce-Moses, Arizona State Library and Archives
- Gord Rabchuk, Royal Bank of Canada
- Rose Roberto, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL/NASA)
- Tom Rosko, University of Kentucky
- Tom Ruller, New York State Education Department
- Deborah Skaggs, Frank Russell Company
- Cindy Smolovik, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Southwest
Region
- Rob Spindler, Arizona State University
- Cheryl Stadel-Bevans (ERS Steering Committee), National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA)
- Ed Staples, Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
- Lee Stout, Pennsylvania State University
- Jill Tatem, Case Western Reserve University
- Kate Theimer, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- Bill Walker, Amigos Library Services
1. General Announcements
Tom Battle introduced himself as the ERS Council Liaison. He encouraged us
to contact him if we have any concerns or issues of which we would like Council
to be aware.
Rob Spindler informed us of some of the highlights of the annual Preservation
and Access for Electronic College and University Records (ECURE) conference.
He also distributed fliers with information about the event, which will be
held in Mesa, Arizona on October 9-11, 2002. Those interested in ECURE should
visit http://www.asu.edu/ecure/.
Cal Lee announced that there is working going on within the National Electronic
Commerce Coordinating Council (NECCC) that might be of interest to members
of the ERS. And has currently identified three sub workgroups on records management
issues: "E-mail: Legal and Records Management Issues," " Creating
and Maintaining Proper Systems for Electronic Recordkeeping," and "Generating
and Retaining Signed Electronic Records." Many archivists are involved
in this work, including several members of the ERS. More information is available
from http://www.ec3.org/.
In her capacity as representative of the SAA 2003 Program Committee, Cheryl
Stadel-Bevans encouraged us to consider submitting session proposals for next
year's conference in Los Angeles. She conveyed that we should only request
audio visual equipment that is necessary to the session, since the use of this
equipment is an expense for SAA. Cheryl also reminded us that we should be
sure to complete all components of the proposal form, which is due to SAA by
October 7. She also emphasized that we need to confirm all speakers before
listing them on the form. This has been a problem in the past. Finally, Cheryl
indicated that international speakers and those coming from outside of the
archival profession can receive free registration for the conference.
Nancy McGovern alerted us that the Instruction, Research, and Information
Services Division and the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections of Cornell
University Library is developing a digital preservation training program called "Digital
Preservation Management: Effective Short-Term Strategies for Long-Term Problems" with
funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The program will consist
of an on-line tutorial and a one-week on-site workshop. It aims to enable effective
decision making for administrators who will be responsible for the longevity
of digital objects. Those interested can visit the digital programs site at http://www.library.cornell.edu/digital/ or
go directly to the page about the workshop at http://www.library.cornell.edu/iris/research/workshop.html.
Cal Lee mentioned that Tom Ruller will be teaching the SAA Basic Electronic
Records workshop on October 21 in Edwardsville, Illinois.
2. Kudos and Thanks
Cal Lee extended thanks to the following individuals:
- Chuck Thomas for all of his work on the ERS newsletter and web site
- Joe Laframboise and Jean Marie Deken for their service on the Steering
Committee
- Tom Ruller for almost a decade of administering the ERECS-L mailing list
- Chris Frey for serving as the outgoing Webmaster and Jean Deken for agreeing
to take on this role for the coming year
- Cheryl Stadel-Bevans, Nancy Deromedi, Geof Huth and Steve Hussman for reviewing
and endorsing proposed sessions for the SAA 2002 Annual Meeting on behalf
of the ERS
- Nancy Deromedi and Cheryl Stadel-Bevans for representing the ERS at an "office
hours" table at the International Archives and Information Technology
Exposition at this year's conference from 10-11 am on Thursday. Nancy and
Cheryl distributed copies of the newsletter and bookmarks about the ERS.
They reported that this went very well.
3. Election
Cal Lee distributed ballots and asked everyone to please vote for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
and Steering Committee. Rosemary Pleva Flynn was the sole candidate for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect,
while the Steering Committee candidates included Charlie Arp, Kate Theimer
and Mary Cordato. Cal explained that, according to the ERS bylaws, two of the
Steering Committee positions are vacated each year, and one of those open positions
is filled by the outgoing Chair. Cal will fill this open position, while the
ERS members are called on to vote for the other position. Kate Theimer said
a few words about herself. All other candidates were unable to attend the ERS
meeting. Cheryl Stadel-Bevans volunteered to count the ballots.
We are pleased to announce the election of Rosemary Pleva Flynn as the new
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Kate Theimer as the new Steering Committee member.
4. NHPRC Electronic Records Research Agenda
Bob Horton gave an overview of a current project called the NHPRC Electronic
Records Research Agenda being managed by the Minnesota Historical Society.
It aims to provide input into the NHPRC planning process, improve the electronic
records grant program in order to improve electronic records management in
the nation, investigate ways to enable archivists to use information technology
in more sophisticated and effective ways, and promote more effective electronic
records grants and projects. Bob is the director of the project and Cal Lee
is serving as its consultant. The Advisory Board to the project met in St.
Paul, Minnesota on May 31 - June 1 of this year and identified a number of
considerations and themes to define the direction of the project and the NHPRC
agenda more generally. Bob encouraged everyone to contact him with any questions
and to attend the session on Saturday at which Bob, Cal and Mark Conrad would
present on some of the preliminary work and facilitate a dialog with the audience
about themes from the Advisory Board meeting. Cal also encouraged everyone
to respond to the project's online survey if they have not already done so.
Information about the project can be found at http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/records/eragenda.html.
5. Newsletter Editor Report
Jennifer Jacobs encouraged ERS members to submit information to her for inclusion
in future issues of the newsletter. She pointed out the last issue as an example,
which included a number of brief reports on efforts to accession electronic
records. She would like to receive more of these reports to inform members
of current practice in this area. Everyone should also consider sending Jennifer
information about new standards, events, projects or resources related to electronic
records.
6. Reports on Old Business
During this portion of the meeting, we discussed the status of the following
three areas of activity, all of which were addressed by small break-out groups
during last year's Annual Meeting.
6.1 Copyright discussion group
Last year, we discussed the possibility of putting together a white paper,
FAQ or some other type of document on the preservation concerns related to
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Cal Lee reported that he still considers
this to be a pressing concern, but he apologized for not getting much work
done on this in the past year. He did send out calls for participation last
year, and several individuals contacted him to express their interest. At this
year's meeting, we discussed the possibility of writing a white paper that
could then be submitted to Council for review and potential approval as a statement
from SAA.
6.2 Standards
Nancy Kunde summarized several standards efforts, including the ongoing work
between SAA and ARMA on "Conversion and Migration Criteria in Records
Keeping Systems (ANSI/ARMA-16-200X)." This project is planned as a collaborative
effort among archivists and records managers. It plans to address the fundamental
issues related to converting and migrating from one records system to another,
while preserving the records structure. Nancy encouraged ERS members to take
part in this effort by formally joining the Conversion-Migration Task Force.
She also announced that the Task Force would be holding a meeting immediately
after the ERS meeting. More information about this work can be found at http://migrationtaskforce.homestead.com/ (note:
your browser must support Javascript). Nancy also said that she would be happy
to answer any questions through email.
6.3 Membership Needs and Information Sharing
6.3.1 Electronic Mailing Lists
Cal Lee began this discussion by summarizing some recent discussions about
the ERS leaders about the future of ERS's use of electronic mailing lists for
discussion, announcements and coordination. The mailing list formally associated
with the ERS is which has been around for about a decade and is moderated: http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/archives/erecs-l.html.
ERECS-L mailing list has continued to serve as a valuable resource. Many have
grown increasingly concerned, however, that the list does not get much traffic
and that its moderated status may stifle dialog. In May 2001, Rosemary Pleva
Flynn created another list called SAA-ERS as an un-moderated eGroup (now a
Yahoo! Groups) list described as "a discussion forum for the Electronic
Records Section of the Society of American Archivists." While greatly
appreciating Rosemary's work in setting up a second list to facilitate more
active dialog, the leadership shares a concern about hosting any ERS-backed
lists through Yahoo! Groups, given its commercial nature and possible concerns
about intellectual property, privacy, advertising, etc. Cal suggested that,
aside from our need to be careful about what sorts of forums we officially
endorse and support as a section, we also need to recognize that some people
will simply decide not to take part in a discussion that requires them to sign
onto Yahoo!'s user agreement.
Cal has also set up a list through the University of Michigan specifically
for the SAA leadership. He suggested that there would also be value in working
with the SAA office to set up an additional list composed exclusively of ERS
members, in order to make announcements or solicit feedback on issues of specific
interest to the section. He has spoken with Teresa Brinati, Susan Fox and Brian
Doyle in the SAA office about this, and they have told him that SAA could host
such a list, based on the section affiliation information in their membership
database. There are many potential advantages to hosting this members-only
list through SAA. One disadvantage is that it seems, at least in the near future,
SAA will not be able to support a Web-based archive of postings to that list.
Tom Ruller expressed that there are at least three distinct needs we would
like to address through our electronic communication: wide information dissemination,
active discussion (not currently met very well) and section communication.
Tom suggested that ERECS-L does a good job of addressing the first and, to
some extent, the third, but it does not very well address the need for active
discussion. He also pointed out that it's important for us to identify what
we see as the goals of any given list. It's possible that moving electronic
records discussions off to another list could be perceived or serve as a direct
competitor to discussion the Archives and Archivists lists. Patricia Galloway
argued that too much traffic on the list could be a liability rather than an
asset; we do not want to overload subscribers to the list with too many messages.
Cal Lee conveyed from Rosemary Pleva Flynn that she was exploring the option
of using the "self-moderation" feature of the Listserv software,
which allows all subscribed members to post freely but requires a moderator
to approve any messages from those not subscribed to the list.
Tom Ruller proposed that we run ERECS-L un-moderated for a year as an experiment
to see whether it can serve both the dissemination and discussion functions
at the same time. We could then revisit this issue at next year's meeting.
Cheryl Stadel-Bevans offered a slight amendment to this proposal, suggesting
that we use the self-moderation feature for the next year. All members present
unanimously approved the following motion:
The administrators of ERECS-L (Rosemary Pleva Flynn and Kevin Glick)
will run the list in self-moderated mode for one year as an experiment to see
whether or not it can successfully serve the dual roles of disseminating valuable
information and fostering active discussion. The administration of the list
will then be revisited at next year's annual meeting.
We also discussed the possibility of creating ad hoc lists for various groups
or topics within the ERS. Cal Lee suggested that we could ask SAA to create
such ad hoc lists, or he would be willing to host them at the University of
Michigan. He pointed out that longer-term lists would probably warrant hosting
by a persistent organization, rather than someone like him he would just be
offering a temporary service. He once again emphasized that one drawback to
using SAA for email lists could be that they do not currently have support
for Web archives of the messages. Kevin Glick suggested that it would be helpful
to allow wider access to discussions of smaller discussion lists. He said that
there is often a paradoxical situation in which those with the most expertise
on a topic do not post to the larger discussion lists but instead discuss issues
among themselves. Having a wider window into these discussions could be quite
instructive. Cal agreed that this could be valuable but also pointed out that
some groups, particularly those working on the details of a document or policy
statement, may not want their discussions to be public. This would probably
have to be managed on a case-by-case basis. The question arose about the possibility
of creating more ad hoc lists through the existing Listserv server made available
through the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany. Phil Eppard of SUNY,
Albany is responsible for this arrangement, and he was no longer present at
the meeting when this discussion arose.
Several ERS members agreed that it would be good to make use of the SAA-hosted
ERS-members-only list for announcements related to the section itself. In addition
to email, Rose Roberto suggested that we use a new section of the ERS web site
to more actively push out announcements. Cal Lee pointed out that the newsletter
and web site have traditionally been quite closely tied together, with the "Current
Stories" on the front page reflecting the newsletter items. Unfortunately,
the site is now quite out of date, and we could benefit from much more active
postings to it. Christine Di Bella suggested that we think even more broadly
and creatively about online communication and collaboration options. She pointed
out that many groups at the University of Michigan make use of Web-based groupware
and collaboration software to carry out group work. Perhaps the ERS could make
use of such of such tools. Cal asked Christine if she would be willing to head
up an effort to explore such options. She agreed to do so. Other volunteers
for this group were Rose Roberto, Kevin Glick, and Jean Marie Deken. Kevin
also suggested that we should ask Rosemary Pleva Flynn to take part.
Patricia Galloway pointed out that this discussion has many overlaps with
the recently released exposure draft of the SAA Task Force on Electronic Publishing
(TFEP). Tom Battle agreed, and he suggested to everyone that they read and
comment on that exposure draft, which is available at http://www.archivists.org/governance/tfep-report2.asp.
6.3.2 Membership
Survey and other Issues
Nancy Deromedi reported on the membership survey that she had distributed
in order to get contact, interest and expertise information from respondents.
This was an activity that we discussed at last year's Annual Meeting. Nancy
reported that she had received only two responses and asked the section for
advice on how to proceed. Jean Marie Deken suggested that we hold off on sending
out another survey until we have made more progress on the issue of web site
functionality. Patricia Galloway suggested that it might be easier to get responses
from people who are subscribing to an online forum. They would be a more captive
audience and might have more incentive to contribute information about themselves,
particularly if they were allowed to decide whether they wanted to share this
information with anyone who visited the site or only to select individuals,
such as members of the ERS. Richard Pearce-Moses said that we may be able to
accomplish the goals of the survey by adding some fields to the SAA's planned
online membership directory.
Tom Ruller suggested that we express to SAA Council that we are very interested
in having an online membership directory and that we would like to suggest
to Council what fields and functionality would be included in that directory.
Some suggestion from the group were added fields for professional interests
or areas of expertise, URLs to home pages, and separate management of home
and work address). Richard suggested that the ERS provides the sort of expertise
that is necessary to consider these issues, which are much more general than
the needs of the section itself. He suggested we specifically move to "support
Council to develop" an online member directory. Cheryl Stadel-Bevans and
Nancy Deromedi both volunteered to further pursue this issue.
The ERS membership present unanimously passed the following motion: The Electronic
Records Section conveys our interest in supporting SAA Council to develop an
SAA online member directory, to include not only information from the existing
paper directory but also data elements and functionality that can better support
online collaboration, communication and data sharing.
As a member of the Task Force on Electronic Publishing, Cal said that one
of their concerns was matching up the "vision with the reality," thinking
creatively about new possibilities but also keeping in mind the current architecture
of the SAA and the sorts of services and functions it can support in the near
future. Cal said that he is familiar with many open-source software (OSS) options
for online collaboration that also support the sorts of member profiles and
permission controls that we have been discussing. Slashcode, the software used
by Slashdot and many other sites, is one popular example. Cal said that he
was not sure the extent to which the SAA office could support such software,
since they're moving toward a content management approach based on Microsoft
Site Server.
7. Recent Activities (since last year's meeting)
7.1 Response to NARA's Call for Comments
Cal Lee explained that in October of 2001, the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) sent out a call for comments on a Public Citizen Petition
related to portions of 36 Code of Federal Regulations 1234, "Electronic
Records Management." On October 19, Peter Hirtle emailed Cal as the Chair
of the Electronic Records Section and Jelain Chubb as the Chair of the Government
Records Section, asking for their assistance in drafting an SAA response to
NARA. Peter said that the issue "falls squarely in the realm of the Electronic
Records Section" and thus asked Cal to take the lead on the process. The
following individuals from the two sections contributed texts and comments
during the process of drafting the response document: Paul Bergeron, City Clerk,
Nashua, New Hampshire; Jelain Chubb, Missouri State Archives; Christopher Frey,
University of Michigan; Geof Huth, New York State Archives; Craig Kelso, Missouri
State Archives; Joe Laframboise, Kansas State Historical Society; Cal Lee,
University of Michigan; Scott Leonard, Kansas State Historical Society; Pat
Michaelis, Kansas State Historical Society; Marry-Ellyn Strauser, Missouri
State Archives; Matt Veatch, Kansas State Historical Society; and David Wallace,
University of Michigan. Cal then worked with Peter Hirtle and Richard Pearce-Moses
to further refine the document, before it was ultimately endorsed by SAA Council,
sent to NARA and posted on the SAA web site: http://www.archivists.org/statements/ers_grs_response_4_January.pdf.
Richard Pearce-Moses interjected that Council was "ecstatic" to
receive the document authored by the two sections. Cal said he hopes the ERS
can continue to take part in such activities by providing expertise and assistance
in drafting SAA responses to timely issues.
7.2 ERS Endorsements of SAA 2002 Sessions
Cal Lee explained that the endorsement of session proposals is a very important
activity of the ERS. He thanked again Cheryl Stadel-Bevans, Steve Hussman,
Nancy Deromedi and Geof Huth for their great work on managing endorsements
for this year's Annual Meeting. This resulted in many valuable sessions on
this year's program. Cheryl, who took the lead on this last year, said that
part of the endorsement process is ranking the proposals to give the Program
Committee a sense of our priorities.
8. New Business
8.1 Session Proposals for SAA 2003
Nancy Deromedi will be in charge of the session endorsement process for this
year. She encouraged people to submit sessions for endorsement. She said that
she would also soon be sending out a call for a couple volunteers to help her
in this process. Since proposals are due to SAA on October 7, Cheryl suggested
Nancy set a deadline of some time around October 1 for submission to ERS for
consideration. Cal also added that one role the ERS endorsement group can play
is advice on putting together a proposal. If you have an idea for a session
but don't know exactly who to include or how to organize it, you can contact
Nancy or another member of the endorsement group.
8.2 Email elections?
Cal Lee raised concern that many of our most active members, including many
of our officers were unable to attend the meeting this year. He threw out the
idea of possibly carrying out elections through email, in order to better represent
the full section. He pointed out that there can be some advantages to only
counting the votes of those members present, but suggested that these might
be outweighed by the disadvantages. Cal explained that any decision on this
matter would require a change in the bylaws, since they currently state: "The
Vice Chair will be elected by the section members present and voting at the
annual meeting of the section." and "Each year, at the Annual Section
Meeting, one new member of the steering committee will be elected by a majority
of Section Members present and voting."
Cal discussed what he saw as a variety of technical options for possibly carrying
out a an electronic vote. Since SAA will have a member directory on the server
in order to support authentication of users, Cal argued that it should be possible
to carry out the vote through the SAA web site. There are some authentication
concerns, but Cal believed that these probably wouldn't be insurmountable,
given the fairly low profile of the ERS elections in comparison to (say) the
U.S. presidential election. Through our email discussions before the meeting
this year, Geof Huth raised the concern about ensuring anonymity of voters.
Cal provided some ideas for how he thought this also could be addressed through
an online voting system. An such system would have to assume a lot of trust,
but that is probably true with any type of voting that we would reasonably
explore.
One ERS member suggested that we were actually just talking about the option
of having an absentee ballot. Tom Ruller suggested that one option could be
to include a ballot in one issue of the ERS newsletter and then allow members
to submit their votes by mail. Richard Pearce-Moses moved that Cal and Richard
explore this further.
The ERS members present unanimously passed the following motion:
Cal Lee and Richard Pearce-Moses will further explore the possibilities
for carrying out remote voting for ERS leadership positions. They will report
back to the section about this on or before the next annual meeting.
8.3 Other Business
The meeting ended with an announcement by Richard Pearce-Moses about the NHPRC
fellowship program that offers $10,000 for one year of archival research. This
includes 2 trips to Boston. NHPRC is encouraging applications for research
on electronic records issues, and Richard urges those interested to consider
applying.
Submitted by Cal Lee, Outgoing Chair, Electronic Records Section
August 30, 2002
Page last updated: 13 August 2005
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