Laws, Policies, Standards, and Guidelines

INLS 525: Managing Electronic Records

Week 8 (3/5)


Access, Openness, & Discovery


Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)


Open Records Laws – North Carolina

... the people may obtain copies of their public records and public information free or at minimal cost unless otherwise specifically provided by law.

... no public agency shall ... acquire any electronic data‑processing system for the storage, manipulation, or retrieval of public records unless it first determines that the system will not impair or impede the agency's ability to permit the public inspection and examination, and to provide electronic copies of such records.

... it is the public policy of North Carolina that the hearings, deliberations, and actions of [public] bodies be conducted openly.


Discovery


Privledge


Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

New Rules as of Dec 1, 2006 for ESI


Holds (reminder)

When receiving notice or having reasonable anticipation of litigation, must cease normal disposition actions that would destroy related data, e.g.


Warrant

Derived from laws, regulations, case law, IT standards, auditing standards, best practices that suggest or mandate particular recordkeeping behavior

A society or culture endorses certain recordkeeping procedures and endows them with the ability to create trustworthy records.

If archivists are to take their rightful place as regulators of an organization's documentary requirements, they will have to reach beyond their own professional literature and understand the requirements for recordkeeping imposed by other professions and society in general.

Duff, Wendy. "Harnessing the Power of Warrant." American Archivist 61 (1998): 88-105.


Legal Requirements


Standards

Although tedious and obscure, negotiations over standards are among the most complex and important political arenas of modern societies, with myriad institutional, financial, symbolic, and practical dimensions.

—Edwards, Paul N. "'A Vast Machine': Standards as Social Technology." Science 304, no. 5672 (2004): 827-28, 828.


XKCD: Standards

XKCD Standards Comic


Lessons


Standards Strategies for Stakeholders


The User-Provider Standardization Planning Model

Cargill, 1997, p. 92


The User-Provider Standardization Planning Model

Cargill, 1997, p. 92


Proprietary and Open Standards


The Players

Detail work usually done within individual organizations & technical committees

Formal approval through ISO by member bodies


Standards Profiles