New Global Standards for Corporate Governance

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ISO has published two new global records management standards:

ISO 30300:2011 - Information and documentation - Management systems for records - Fundamentals and vocabulary and ISO 30301:2011 - Information and documentation - Management systems for records - Requirements   

More information about these and the new ISO/IEC 27035:2011 - Information Technology - Security techniques - information security incident management can be found here.

Future of Social Media at the National Archives

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NARA uses social media itself and provides guidance to federal agencies on the records management challenges they face when they use social media. In November the National Archives representatives described a dashboard for "citizen archivists."  One message is that the Federal Government no longer wonders if it should use social media. The question now is "how?"  And David Ferriero, the Archivist of the US, stated that "Access to records in this century means digital access."  Read more and watch a video at http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/11/national-archives-social-media.html

Microsoft Acquires Skype

Tweet In October Microsoft closed its acquisition of Skype Global for $8.5 billion dollars.  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said they are looking forward to working with the Skype team "to create new ways for people to stay connected ..."  Skype is such a simple, easy tool for the end user, my hope is that Skype won't change too much.  Read more

Smithsonian celebrates October Archives Month by sharing archival and historical records

Tweet October is Archives Month. To celebrate, the Smithsonian will host a FREE Archives Fair on Friday, October 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the S. Dillon Ripley Center (National Mall) on the concourse level. The fair, organized by the Archives and Special Collections Council of the Smithsonian, will showcase archival treasures, present speakers spotlighting stories to be told through the archival holdings, and provide time slots for attendees to consult with experts including archivists, conservators, and librarians about their own archives-worthy holdings.  If you can't attend in person, you might be interested in participating virtually. Learn more about the activities planned by the Smithsonian by visiting http://www.aaa.si.edu/archivesmonth

Documents play key role in ATF Fast and Furious hearings

Tweet Records managers will appreciate the key role Justice Department documents are playing in hearings on the Fast and Furious operations that resulted in allowing thousands of weapons to cross the border into Mexico.  Read the news article at http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20115038-10391695.html?tag=pop;stories

Follow the links under the "Read the new documents" subhead to view documents in question and see how much of each is redacted (sensitive information has been expunged).

New Facebook Profile called TIMELINE available

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Timeline is being marketed as “a home for all the great stories you’ve already shared.”   It will include now include posts, photos, and life events you’ve shared as they’ve occurred. You choose what to feature on your timeline.  An interesting feature is that you can go back to the day events occurred and add them to the timeline if they are not already there.  You can even go to your private activity log, click on any post, and add it to your timeline.  There’s more. Read about the “timeline” on the Facebook Blog at http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150289612087131

Firms often consider the profile section of Facebook as a static piece of information that can be pre-approved.  They also may provide permission to create a profile to one individual for responsibility that it is created according to the pre-approved plan.  But now another concern is that someone with permission now or far into the future may decide to add something to the profile that has not been pre-approved.  Just another new feature designed to please the user that has potential risk for the organization. Has anyone read more about Timeline?  Any thoughts - pro or con?

Second Life one of several communication channels for U of Delaware

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Last week the University of Delaware hosted 2 events on their Virtual Campus in Second Life last that reinforced, for me at least, the value of providing multiple delivery methods for place-based presentations.  Both were live video-streams into Second Life.

The first was CNN's Candy Crowley speaking on Broken ... and Broken?  Assessing the US Political Scene. At one point, 32 participants were in attendance.  The presentation was also distributed as streaming media on the U of Delaware website.  A Q&A period followed the presentation, and questions were taken from Second Life and in-person participants. 

The second was a ceremony during which Vice President Biden, a U of Delaware graduate, donated his Senatorial papers to special collections on Delaware campus. About 19 participants were in the Second Life Audience, but Tweets from the physical location indicated long lines waiting to get in to see the VP in person. The Vice President spoke on the Constitution and Citizenship. He did not entertain questions. Streaming video was available only on campus.  

"A People is... what it remembers" Flight 93 Memorial

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At the memorial service in Shanksville, PA, this afternoon, former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky said, "A people is what it remembers."  He often speaks of shared memory that defines a people.  Today, the Flight 93 National Memorial and the land on which it stands was dedicated.  Now a part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, the memorial pays tribute to the passengers and crew of Flight 93.

Today, as I see the images and hear the stories, I become reminded once again of how fortunate we are to work in the the field of archives and records administration--to play a small part in keeping not only records but preserving memories.   Read more about the Flight 93 National Memorial.

PB Works - Personal, education, business--and now legal--versions

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PBWorks is a collaborative environment that started as PBWiki in 2005. In 2009, it was rebranded as PBWorks, a collaborative platform. I've used it since it was a simple wiki, both the free version and the educational version. It's one of the tools I recommend to students when they embark on group projects and need a reliable, free place to collaborate.

In May of this year, the next generation of its business solution was announced offering the what they call "first cloud-based collaboration software with massive scalability and the security features enterprise businesses need." The scalability feature allows businesses to move from a single corporate account to include thousands of individual workspaces and store multiple terabytes of data. The search feature is a universal "faceted" feature that allows users to refine search results by a variety of parameters including file type and who last edited the document.

In an article published online yesterday in Law Technology News, the PBWorks Legal Edition was described. The Legal Edition "supports document sharing, co-counsel teamwork, client interactions, and overall management of complex cases and the teams that handle them." A template store makes getting started easy; one, a Departmental Workspace template, can be used to set up an intranet-style workspace for a department or group. Read the article to learn more about PBWorks Legal Edition. And visit PBWorks to create your own collaborative environment.

Voicethread

Tweet Classes started Wed, August 24th. What a short summer!  One of the first activities we engaged in utilized a tool called voicethread.   This tool allows the creator to upload images, documents, or video and begin a conversation around that content.  Participants can post a comment in one of 5 ways:  voice (mike), voice (telephone), text, audio file, or video (via webcam).  Images of the participants form a border around the content, as shown at the left.  Learn all about this free tool at http://voicethread.com/

Society of American Archivists 360 Conference, Chicago, August 22-27, 2011

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If you're not here, you are missing some very good sessions.  One session titled, What Happens After 'Here Comes Everybody,' was presented by a panel that included the author of Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections, Kate Theimer. The focus was on "participatory archives" and included examples of the ways in which non-archivists are contributing content and metadata to archival projects. The abstract reads:

Many archivists believe the key to the success of our profession in the future lies in effectively harnessing the participatory culture of the Web. But what does it really mean to be a “participatory archives”? The speakers provide a definition and examples of participatory archives, discuss the latest research on the impact of user participation on authenticity, reliability and credibility, and share research about user collaboration efforts at the National Archives (UK).

A sell out session (seriously several hundred people and I felt lucky to find a spot on the floor) was Practical Approaches to Born-Digital Records: What Works Today (part 1 of 2). Part 2 is tomorrow and I'm afraid I'll miss it...unless the storm causes a delay in my travel plans.  The abstract for part 1 can speak for itself:

The panelists present and discuss effective ways to manage born-digital records today. The chair and five practicing archivists lead a discussion of specific projects that marry traditional archival processes to digital curation tools, covering such areas as beginning a program, surveying records, accessioning, processing, and providing access. The speakers provide examples of how professional practice has come “360”: new tools inform traditional theory and vice versa in practical approaches to born-digital records.

 Plan now for next year's conference. The program theme, thinking "Beyond Borders," is designed to help us envision new opportunities beyond our institutions and specializations, to expand our perceptions of history, culture, memory, and recordkeeping to arrive at a more inclusive and holistic view of the great work of archives. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for that conference, see the call for papers.

IFLA Conference - August 13-18, 2011, San Juan, Puerto Rico

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The World Library and Information Congress 2011, 77th IFLA General Conference Assembly took place in Puerto Rico this past week.  It provided the opportunity for library and information professionals from around the globe to exchange ideas and learn from one another. This was my first IFLA conference but it won't be the last.  The theme this year was: Libraries beyond libraries: Integration, Innovation and Information for all.  The challenge of creating, managing and preserving digital information was a topic of several workshops I attended (and even one at which I presented).  One session reminded me of the virtual time capsule project required of LIBR 284 Archivists: Meet Web 2.0. It was on e-legal deposit: from legislation to implementation; from ingest to access.  Representatives from several countries--including France, Finland, UK, and Chile--explained the processes they use to capture, manage and attempt to preserve digital objects from the web.  No, the picture isn't from the conference site. Who could resist a trip to the El Yunque rain forest when in Puerto Rico?

Highlights from the 2nd Annual VCARA Conference in SL

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I see the last post made was 'before' the conference.  The 2 months since have flown by--very busy with a number of tasks that I'll fill you in on eventually.  Right now, though, thanks to Caed Aldwych and Brande Hall Gex, the two keynote speakers at the May 24th conference.  

 

Caed shared the history of The Road to Deadwood build with an enthralled audience.  He even brought a set from the wild, wild west to provide an authentic background for his presentation.  

 Brande shared the results of her research into the preservation of virtual worlds, forcing the audience to consider the question, "Should we? and if so, How will we?  preserve virtual worlds, like The Road to Deadwood, for future generations? 

These keynotes were followed by a tour of 7 poster presentations.  At each stop, the researcher responsible for the presentation provided a summary of their work and findings, and visitors were encouraged to return later to listen to the podcast if they wanted to hear the presentation in more detail.  

Each of the poster presentations provided the visitor a glimpse into the lives and times of individuals, either past or present, including Lower East Side Tenement Museum in NYC, Virtual Texas, 9/11 New York City & DC, American Reality Television, Web 2.0 & the Fluxus Movement, Last Soul Surviving Knowledge Keepers, Nodaway, and A Foodie on Each Continent.

If you missed the conference and wold like to visit the poster presentations, just log into Second Life and head to SLURL: http://tinyurl.com/VCARA

VCARA 2nd annual Conference in SL/Meet Caed Aldwych, co-founder of The Road to Deadwood

Tweet Caed Aldwych, co-founder of the Road to Deadwood, is one of two keynote speakers at the 2nd annual conference to be held in the Virtual Center for Archives and Records Administration (VCARA) at 5:30 p.m. SLT (pacific time) on Tuesday, May 24. If you haven't visited yet, you should!  Caed will explain the tought process that went into developing this environment and describe its social and economic model.


Brande Gex, MARA 2011 graduate and the 2nd keynote speaker at 6:00 p.m. SLT (pacific time), will describe her efforts to develop an appraisal process for virtual worlds, including Second Life.  


Following the keynotes, conference participants will move to the open courtyard to view and hear presentations on 8 unique glimpses into "lives and times past and present."  Poster presentation topics are:  Last Soul Surviving Knowledge Keepers," "There's a Photographer in  Your Town: Brining Family Stories and Photographs to Life," "Lower East Side Tenement Museum in NYC," "Virtual Texas: Information delivery into virtualw worlds," "9/11 New York & DC: A Decade of Revival," "American REality TV Virtual Time Capsule," "Web 2.0 and the Fluxus Movement," and "Around the world in one day: A foodie on each continent."  


Everyone is welcome--you do not need to be a SLIS student, alum, or grad to attend. Plan to join us on VCARA beginning at 5:30 p.m. SLT on Tuesday, May 24.  The SLURL is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SJSU%20SLIS/50/25/33

SLIS Commencement 2011

Tweet Approximately 178 of the over 700 SLIS graduates attended commencement ceremonies in San Jose on Saturday, May 21.  Dr. Ken Hayckock, former SLIS Director and commencement speaker, encouraged the graduates to consider employement opportunities by how well they fit the student's interests and goals and not by  job title, stressing that in over 40 years in the field, he has never held a position with the title of "libriarian." The digital environment has brought with it a myriad of opportunities for graduates of SLIS; the task of finding just the right opportunitiy is now up to each individual graduate.  Congratulations and good luck to all!!

Reflections on a semester almost over

Tweet It's been a busy few weeks, and instead of blogging I've been teaching and reviewing final projects and reports. One report, in particular, struck me with how much the worlds of archives, records, and even museums are converging. To learn more about one Master of Archives and Records Administration student's semester-long experience in the archives at the Museum of Idaho, read his blog.

Start at the bottom with week one and work your way to week 16--the end of his successful internship experience. Note the variety of tasks completed that include accessioning, scanning, working on both wired and wireless networks, and indexing using PastPerfect. This is a small museum that required someone with knowledge in archives, records, and information technology/management.  John is an example of the 'new breed' of "recordkeeper" that exemplifies the "convergence" of knowledge and skills needed today.

Community Virtual Library Tour, Monday, April 25, 7 p.m. SLT (pacific time)

Tweet ARA student group meeting/virtual tour: Arranged by ARA but open to all!
Date: April 25, 2011
Time: 7 p.m. SLT (pacific)
Location: Community Virtual Library
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/150/96/23
Host/Tour Guide: Dr. Diane Nahl (avatar Adra Letov)

Note: To save time, we will not meet on VCARA but head straight to the Community Virtual Library.

Dr. Nahl is a Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the Library and Information Science Program. She publishes research on information behavior, affective computing and information technology literacy, and teaches courses in reference services, information literacy instruction and human computer interaction. Dr. Nahl is going to invite some of her students to join us as well, so you will have a chance to meet fellow LIS students.

Did you know April is Records & Information Management Month?

Tweet Well, it is. And ARMA International, along with local ARMA chapters, have many exciting and educational events planned across the globe. Just yesterday, I had the pleasure to be one of the presenters at the Metro Maryland Seminar 2011, which took place at the University of Maryland Shady Grove Conference Center.

Highlights of the conference were shared on Twitter, and once in a while with the audience on the large screen shown in this image.

It provided me the welcome opportunity to discuss a topic I passionately believe in Reocrds Management: The Cornerstone of an Effective Information Governance Strategy. I also was invited to provide highlights of a recent research report, How Federal Agencies Can Effectively Manage Recorsds Created Using New Social Media Tools.

It was also an opportunity to learn from my two co-presenters: Michael "Mike" Daconta and Richard Hogg.

Michael "Mike" Daconta, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Accelerated Information Management (AIM), LLC provided his perspective on Information Management and Transparency in the Cloud. Mike is the author of a number of works, including The Smeantic Web: a Guide to the future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management.

Richard Hogg, ERMp, B.Sc, MBCS, CITP has been with IBM since the 2003 acquisition of Tarian Software, where he served as Chief Client Officer. Richard, an IBM Redbooks author, shared his views on RM for the Future .. what is needed today and future challenges, in his presentation titled, Information Governance 2.0+.

Social Media @ BHIC: How we achieve our goals by using Social Media

Tweet Last evening Christian van der Ven captivated an audience of students and professionals during a Webinar as part of the MARA Guest Lecture Series in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.

His presentation described how archivists at the Brabant Historical Information Center (BHIC) in the Netherlands use social media to highlight the archives' collections, keep in touch with patrons, for crowdsourcing and more.

Christian van der Ven is a Coördinator of Reference Services at the Brabant Historical Information Center (BHIC) in the Netherlands. At the BHIC he is also responsible for the Web 2.0 and Social Media projects. Among Dutch archivists he is a world-famous blogger, and community manager of the online Dutch Archives 2.0 network.

Among the tools in the BHIC's Web 2.0 toolbox that are used to interact with the public are: the BHIC Website in general, Forums and Webcare, Chat, Blogs, Flickr, Twitter, Wikipedia and Facebook.

To learn more about Christian, read his profile on the Archivists: The Social Network for Archivists at http://archives20.ning.com/profile/ChristianvanderVen

Voki Cartoon

Tweet Just had to try this tool! Select the arrow below my 'cartoon' picture to hear me speak.  

The Road to Deadwood

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It's been such a busy week that I haven't had a chance to recap our tour in Second Life of "the Road to Deadwood" on Monday, April 4th.  The sim that replicates a Colorado mining town from the late 19th Century provides a realistic glimpse into the lifes and times of the inhabitants.  A group of students and friends met in the Senate in VCARA (Virtual Center for Archives and Records Administration) to learn about the sim from resident Martha Jane Cannary Burke, better known as Calamity Jane.

The group then teleported to the sim and were greeted by co-owner Caed Aldwych.  Visitors were required to wear appropriate garb and had the opportunity to shop for items in the general store and pan for gold in a creek near the town.  What fun!  If you are interested in learning more about what's behind "the Road to Deadwood," plan to attend the VCARA Conference on May 24th in Second Life.  Caed Aldwych is one of the two keynote speakers.  Poster presentations follow the speakers and provide glimpses into lives and times of others. Watch for a futrue blog post about the conference. But in the meantime, visit their website to read more about "the Road to Deadwood"

Augmented Reality Apps & Libraries

Tweet You may be familiar with augmented reality apps for the iphone. They've been around a few years.  One of my favorites is an augmented iphone application that shows you information about nearby landmarks and historic locations on your iphone's viewfinder. Point at the Washington Monument, for example, and you will see the Wikipedia entry over the landmark.  The app is called Cyclopedia and relies on 65,000 entries on Wikipedia that are geotagged.  One golfers would find useful is Golfscape GPS Rangefinder.  It covers 35K+ courses and displays the distance from front, center or back of the green.  See descriptions of these and other 38 other augmented reality iPhone applications at http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/best-augmented-reality-iphone-applications/ 


 Some wonder, though, how we can take advantage of augmented reality at work.  Now we have one answer for librarians. Miami University's Augmented Reality Research Group has developed an Android app that reads a bookshelf with an AR overlay, flags those books that are misplacaed and even points to the correct place on the bookshelf so the book can be re-shelved correctly and easily.  Read more about this awesome augmented reality app at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/awesome_augmented_reality_app_could_save_librarian.php

ARMA International Educational Foundation annouonces new research report: "Mergers, Acquisitions, Divestitures and Closures: Records and Information Management Checklists"

Tweet Revised and updated with new research, this report continues to focus on a major problem for the RIM community.  As Executives form Merger and Acquisition teams, Due Dilligence processes are initiated, business consultants are retained, and Legal Counsel becomes involved, the Corporate RIM Program must reach out to accomplish new record keeping objectives while working within constrained resources and time frames. The goal of this report is to provide a ready reference that can serve as a starting point for Records Managers and their Programs in discussions of the record keeping challenges that will arise. By exploring issues in advance of problems occurring, organizations will be able to assure that records required for quality decision-making and long-term retention are identified and properly preserved.  The report written by John T. Phillips, CRM, FAI, CDIA+, and CDIA, can be downloaded from the AIEF website at: http://www.armaedfoundation.org/report3.html

Sunshine week: Nashua reviews public record keeping -- Practical reasons for records retention schedules

Tweet In this digital world with our seemingly unlimited capacity to store information, some think we should just "keep it all."  Archivists may prefer this because, as one colleague likes to remind me, "you never know what will be of value to future researchers."  But the article on the challenges of public record keeping brought to the attention of municipal employees in Nashua, NH, this week (Sunshine Week), provides rationale for using a records retention schedule for two purposes: 1) ensure public records will be retained as required by law, and 2) outdated or unnecessary records are destroyed in a systematic, thoughtful way.  

The second important message from this article is that there is such a thing as Sunshine Week to underscore the importance of a citizen's right to know. According to the Nashua Telegraph, "Newspapers are watchdogs of government because of laws protecting the public’s freedom of information. Sunshine Week is an annual examination of government’s responsiveness to citizens. The Telegraph participates with newspapers from around the country."  A link to Sunshine Week-related stories brings up some interesting titles, including C-SPAN's archives brings history to life, Open Government for more than just a week, and Unlocking data in Washington.

Virtual worlds, the hypergrid, and where are all the avatars?

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During a presentation in Second Life March 14, Alexina Proctor (Heather Ebey to those of us in SLIS) discussed the number of virtual worlds beyond Second Life and described one in particular, InWorldz.  According to Alexina, InWorldz had 18,485 user accounts in early October 2010 and has added 10,000+ accounts by January 2011.  She describes the inhabitants of all virtual worlds as "pioneeers and entrepreneurs, adventurous and independent, building worlds with their own creativity."  

Learn more about InWorldz at http://inworldz.com/ 

The group was left with this quote from Thomas Friedman, MIT Milestone Celebration (2008) keynote:

The most important competition is no longer the competition between one country and another country, or between one company and another company. The most important economic competition is between you and your own imagination.

 Virtual Worlds present an opportunity for you to explore your own imagination! 

Presidential Libraries, Budgets, and Cost of Digitizing

Tweet Presidential Libraries are spread across the US and preserve pieces of history for citizens in the context of their home towns or regions of the country most relevant to each president.  While established with private funds, the government is expected to staff and maintain 13 bricks-and-motar sites.  It's not surprising, then, that the $77 million required to keep them running each year is under scrutiny.  Recently, a House Infrastructure & Oversight Joint Committee met to discuss the value of the Presidential Libraries, the papers contained therein, and the potential for digitizing the 8 million documents to allow citizens to access them online.  Read the entire document at http://www.westbranchtimes.com/article.php?id=6782.  Learn more about the Office of Presidential Libraries that administers the 13 facilities at http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/about/office.html