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MINUTES OF THE ELECTRONIC RECORDS SECTION MEETING,
SAA ANNUAL MEETING,
FRIDAY, 8/31/2007, CHICAGO, IL
INTRODUCTIONS/OPENING
Arian Ravanbakhsh, ERS Chair, welcomed everyone to the 2007 Electronic Records Section (ERS)
meeting and noted the overflow crowd for the record in terms of meeting space for next year.
Members of the ERS Steering Committee were introduced. Ravanbakhsh expressed appreciation to
Eliot Wilczek and Rosemary Pleva Flynn for their service as they rotate off of the steering
committee, along with ERS’s gratitude to Mark Duffy, out-going SAA Council liaison.
Flynn will remain as the ERS Communications Officer. Dr. Bruce Ambacher was acknowledged
as the incoming Council liaison.
SLATE OF CANDIDATES
- Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect:
James Cassedy, NARA
Mark Myers, Kentucky Department for Library and Archives
- Steering Committee:
John Bolcer, University of Washington
Greg Johnson, University of Toledo
Daniel W. Noonan, Ohio State University
Christopher J. Prom, University of Illinois
Candidates spoke about their backgrounds and motivations/goals for service in ERS leadership
positions prior to the election. The overflow crowd was reminded that only ERS members could
vote and very few were ineligible.
COUNCIL ISSUES—TECHNOLOGY BEST PRACTICES TASK FORCE REPORT
Guests:
- Elizabeth Adkins, SAA President, 2006-2007
- Phil Bantin, Technology Task Force Member
- Naomi Nelson, Technology Task Force Chair
Background:
As a result of the Society of American Archivists' Council's strategic planning efforts in technology,
a Technology Best Practices Task Force was formed in September 2006 to work with appropriate SAA and ARMA
groups to identify competences and standards and to collect, review and clarify best practices relating to
all areas of archival practice that are affected by electronic records and digital asset issues. Through
surveys of sources, the Task Force has produced a preliminary document called "Managing Electronic Records
and Assets: a Bibliography". This document can be found at:
http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/bptf/index.asp .
The document is in the comment phase and all ERS members are urged to review the findings and offer their opinions.
ERS Issues:
Despite the critical importance of these issues to the ERS and the expertise found within the section as practitioners,
technologists, change management specialists, and the like, Council did not avail themselves of this expertise when forming
the task force. The ERS leadership was not informed that the task force was forming, nor were their opinions sought in
terms of task force membership. The same was true of the Science, Technology, and Healthcare Roundtable, the other SAA
group with relevant experience and interest. Council and Task Force Representatives held a brief question and answer
session to address these concerns and subsequent actions taken once this came to light. In light of concerns about the
lack of electronic records practitioners and opportunities for participation by relevant groups, Council has decided
that in the future 50% of task force membership will consist of Non-Council members and that all relevant Section and
Roundtable Chairs will be asked for their input when task forces are formed.
Ravanbakhsh indicated that he had attended the SAA Leadership forum on Wednesday and had been assured that Council
policies in regard to consulting relevant constituent groups has evolved and events like this would not occur in the future.
Other substantive issues arose over the lack of definition and task force charge regarding the meaning of “best practices”
and the title of the preliminary document. Although it is still in the comment phase, the title has an authoritative sound
that may mislead those searching for guidance.
Ravanbakhsh thanked SAA President Adkins and other members of Council for taking the time to attend our meeting
and listen to concerns raised by the membership.
PRESENTATION
Peter Bajcsy spoke on Understanding Challenges in Preserving and Reconstructing Computer-Assisted Decision Processes
Dr. Bajcsy discussed the power of archival simulation frameworks for understanding challenges in preserving and
reconstructing electronic records derived from computer-assisted decision processes, specifically those based on visual
image inspection. The presentation outlined such a prototype simulation framework called Image Provenance To Learn
(IP2Learn) that is currently available for exploring tradeoffs related to information granularity, information
gathering mechanisms, representation of provenance and other contextual information, compression, encryption,
watermarking, and possible ways to improve the recordkeeping capabilities of computer-assisted decision processes.
About Peter:
Peter Bajcsy is a Research Scientist in the Image Spatial Data Analysis Group at the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
You can find some related information here:
Peter's web page http://isda.ncsa.uiuc.edu/peter/
Information on the Image Spatial Data Analysis Group http://isda.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
Information about Peter's NARA funded work:
http://isda.ncsa.uiuc.edu/CompTradeoffs/
The web page where you can download the actual software referenced in the talk:
href="http://isda.ncsa.uiuc.edu/download/
PDF version of Peter's slides:
Image:DecisionProcesses PeterBajcsy.pdf
COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT
Dr. Bruce Ambacher, Council Liaison, 2007-2008, discussed the recent changes to Section and Roundtable requirements in the
Council Handbook. These changes can be found at:
http://www.archivists.org/governance/handbook/section9.asp. Further, he encouraged all voting members of SAA to
attend the Business Meeting to make their voices heard on the proposed dues increase and the constitutional amendment
granting institutional members the authority to designate voting members from those covered by an institutional membership.
2008 PROGRAM COMMITTEE REPORT
Mark Myers, 2008 Program Committee representative, outlined the theme for the 2008 Annual SAA Meeting in San Francisco and
invited the ERS to develop proposals for that meeting. ERS can endorse two proposals submitted for the 2008 program.
ELECTION RESULTS
Ballots were tallied during the presentations and reports. After thanking all candidates for their willingness to stand
for election, Arian Ravanbakhsh announced the election of Mark Myers, Kentucky Department for Library and Archives,
as Vice-Chair/Chair Elect, and Daniel Noonan, The Ohio State University, to the steering committee.
CLOSE
Arian Ravanbakhsh, expressed his appreciation once again to those in attendance and to the steering committee for their
support during his tenure as ERS Chair. He ended the meeting by passing the leadership gavel to the incoming ERS Chair,
Dr. Suzie Long.
Submitted by Dr. Suzie Long, Incoming Chair, Electronic Records Section, 7 September 2007
Page last updated: 7 September 2007
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