Should We Keep Everything Forever? Determining Long-Term Value of Research Data

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's library-based Research Data Service (RDS) launched an institutional data repository called the Illinois Data Bank (IDB) in May 2016. The RDS makes a commitment to preserving and facilitating access to published research datasets for a minimum of five years after the date of publication in the Illinois Data Bank. The RDS has developed guidelines and processes for reviewing published datasets after their five-year commitment ends to determine whether to retain, deaccession, or dedicate more stewardship resources to datasets. In this poster, we will describe how the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign preservation review planning team drew upon appraisal and reappraisal theory and practices from the archives community to develop preservation review processes and guidelines for datasets published in the Illinois Data Bank.Ope

Fleeting Film: Using Story to Seek Archival Permanence in the Transitory and Globalized Digital Visual Effects Industry

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston. Archiving is a long-standing vocation, founded on principles such as provenance, original order, truth, evidence, preservation and permanence. A far cry from the visual spectacle and movable feast of film visual effects (VFX) - a transitory and globalized industry of disposable firms, ever-advancing technologies and a roving workforce which craft digital animations and seamless effects for the big screen. In this paper we utilize the concept of "story" as a premise to bring together the seemingly different vocations of archival science and film VFX. Through an exploration of digital film production and archival practice under the context of storytelling, we aim to highlight the need for archivists to work with the VFX industry to ensure evidence of this culturally significant aspect of filmmaking and cinema discourse is preserved into the future. As well present the argument that archives are more than collections of historical evidence. Archives are story - and archivists are storytellers

Research Data Management (RDM) in agricultural research institutes: a literature review

This article presents a survey of literature on Research Data Management (RDM) with focus on agricultural research institutes. This is to help the  understanding of core issues in RDM such as legal, policy and regulations; skills set and infrastructure in order to strategically position the agricultural sector in the knowledge economy and also help in reducing duplication of effort, promoting innovation, minimizing loss or destruction of research data sets and that ensuring compliance with funders’ requirements. The author argues that while RDM has been widely embraced in developed countries Africa is lacking behind. The literature reviewed in this article seem to suggest that legal, policy and regulatory framework in agricultural research sectors are either nonexistent or outdated. This is exacerbated by inadequate technical infrastructure, human resources capacity, and paucity of national or international partnerships. As a result, research data setswithin agricultural institutes are poorly managed. The establishment of a legislative and policy framework for RDM; capacity building programs, and improvement of technical infrastructure are highly recommended.Keywords: Research Data Management, data curation, research data, agricultural research institutes, Keny

Les trois âges des archives au Maroc : entre réglementations et pratiques

L’archivistique marocaine établit un cycle de vie pour les archives distinguant ce que l’on appelle les trois âges des archives. Le suivi et le contrôle de ce cycle de vie se base sur un ensemble d’outils de gestion dont le mode a évolué au fil du temps. Passant d’un mode traditionnel et manuel à un mode modernisé employant les applications informatiques mais reposant toujours sur les archives papier ou analogiques, pour enfin s’appuyer sur le mode numérique, où les archives sont nées numériques. Cet article a pour but d’analyser, pour chaque mode, l’application de ce cycle de vie au niveau des administrations nationales. Il expose les difficultés rencontrées, souligne quelques pratiques nationales et internationales, et rapporte aussi quelques réflexions influentes sur l’applicabilité de ce modèle, notamment aux archives numériques

Una propuesta metodológica de relevamiento para iniciar proyectos de digitalización y preservación

A partir de la revisión de casos externos, se presentan los debates y decisiones que se generaron en vista de la construcción de un instrumento de relevamiento para la planificación de proyectos de curaduría de datos y preservación digital en el IdIHCS/FaHCE. En lo relativo a la revisión de estos casos externos, se analizan propuestas metodológicas resultantes de los principales proyectos europeos, preocupados por el armado de infraestructuras de información para la investigación. Asimismo, a nivel nacional, se toma en consideración el antecedente de la Plataforma Interactiva de Investigaciones en Ciencias Sociales (PLIICS), proyecto del CONICET. En cuanto a la definición de una metodología de relevamiento de fuentes, adecuada a las características de trabajo propias de nuestras instituciones de investigación, se presentan los principales aspectos a considerar y los elementos requeridos en el instrumento a elaborar. El mismo deberá reflejar los principales problemas relativos a: valoración de la importancia para las investigaciones en curso, estado de procesamiento, interés de los investigadores en la visibilización de las fuentes, ponderación de acuerdo al uso, evaluación de las posibilidades legales de difusión en acceso abierto, etc. Todo lo anterior con la finalidad de priorizar proyectos que permitan preservar las fuentes en riesgo, y obtener información que facilite una planificación adecuada a las necesidades del ámbito local.Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociale

FROM OVERWHELMED TO OVERCOMING: DEVELOPING A PRE-INGEST PROCESSING MANUAL FOR BORN DIGITAL CONTENT

This paper discusses the challenges of implementing the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model for born-digital materials in digital preservation. Although the OAIS model has been globally recognized for its universal terminologies and conceptual standards, it offers little guidance in terms of tangible implementation. Consequently, archivists have created various methods and tools for OAIS-compliant digital archival preservation workflows. This paper presents a project at Duke University Medical Center Archives, which aims to enhance the repository’s current Electronic Records Processing Guide using the digital materials from two recent accessions. The revised guide will be tested and developed, utilizing open-source digital forensic tools to process electronic records for ingest into the repository’s OAIS-compliant integrated archives management system. The outcomes of this project will provide increased stability and efficiency in processing a larger volume of digital materials.Master of Science in Library Scienc

Through A Glass, Darkly Technical, Policy, and Financial Actions to Avert the Coming Digital Dark Ages

Through A Glass, Darkly Technical, Policy, and Financial Actions to Avert the Coming Digital Dark Age

Editorial

It is tradition that the Electronic Journal of Information Systems Evaluation (EJISE) publish a special issue containing the full versions of the best papers that were presented in a preliminary version during the 8th European Conference on Information Management and Evaluation (ECIME 2014). The faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the Ghent University was host for this successful conference on 11-12th of September 2014. ECIME 2014 received a submission of 86 abstracts and after the double-blind peer review process, thirty one academic research papers, nine PhD research papers, one master research paper and four work-in-progress papers were accepted and selected for presentation. ECIME 2014 hosted academics from twenty-two nationalities, amongst them: Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia (FYROM), Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Turkey and the UK. From the thirty-one academic papers presented during the conference nine papers were selected for inclusion in this special issue of EJISE. The selected papers represent empirical work as well as theoretical research on the broad topic of management and evaluation of information systems. The papers show a wide variety of perspectives to deal with the problem

Research data management in Kenya's agricultural research institutes.

Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2018.Research Data Management (RDM) refers to the collection, organization, validation, and preservation of data for analysis, discovery, sharing, reuse and transformation. RDM consists of a number of different activities and processes that include creation of data, storage, security, preservation, retrieval, sharing, and reuse while taking into account technical capabilities, human resource capability, ethical considerations, legal issues and government. The strategic importance of RDM within agricultural research institutes is to: enable scrutiny of research findings, prevent duplication of effort by enabling others to use the same data; promote innovation through retrieval, co-analysis of data, ensuring research data gathered is not lost or destroyed, and that the research meet funders’ requirements. The purpose of this study was to examine Research Data Management (RDM) in Kenya’s agricultural research institutes with the view to proposing interventions to improve management, sharing and reuse of agricultural research output. The objectives of the study were to: 1) assess the status of research data management in Kenya’s agricultural research institutes; and 2) to determine the legal and policy framework, ICT infrastructure and human capital that is available to facilitate RDM in Kenya’s agricultural research institutes. The study was underpinned by the Community Capability Model (CCM) framework (Lyon, Ball, Duke and Day, 2012) and Data Curation Centre (DCC) Lifecycle Model (Higgins, 2008). The study adopted pragmatism ontology with mixed methods epistemology that enabled the researcher to collect quantitative data from a large sample of researchers in six purposively selected research institutes. Census was used to select the respondents who consisted of directors of institutes, heads of research, heads of IT and librarians. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS to generate descriptive and inferential statistics while the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings of the study revealed that RDM legal framework did not exist in the institutes surveyed; the RDM policies and regulations were outdated; the institutes lacked unit/department to coordinate functions of RDM; there was limited RDM awareness and advocacy; the institutes lacked RDM security systems; the institutes suffered from lack of or inadequate RDM guidelines on standardization; technical infrastructure; skills and collaborative partnerships. Overall, the findings revealed that RDM was poorly managed. The study recommended among others, the establishment of a formal data governance structure to address RDM issues, a legislative and policy framework for RDM; capacity building programs and plans, incentivisation of researchers; and a sound technical infrastructure

Use and management of electronic mail in the Central Government of Zimbabwe

This study investigated the use and management of electronic mail (email) in Zimbabwe’s central government. Employing a mixed method research approach, the study used a pluralist ontological paradigm and a pragmatic epistemological paradigm within the convergent mixed methods research design. Quantitative responses from questionnaires were corroborated by qualitative findings from semi-structured interviews, personal observation and document reviews. The study was restricted to Zimbabwe’s central government, focusing on head offices of 22 government ministries situated in Zimbabwe’s capital city of Harare. The population of the study was 670. The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown imposed in Zimbabwe as from 30 March 2020 negatively affected data collection as some targeted respondents could not be accessed as the researcher had initially planned, leading to an overall response rate of 37.3%. Nonetheless, 12 out of 22 government ministries participated in the study. Quantitative data were analysed using Microsoft Excel 2010® and descriptive statistics while qualitative data were analysed thematically using Atlas.ti®. The study conformed to ethical standards of research as espoused in the University of South Africa’s ethical review guidelines. The study revealed that due to the adoption of electronic government and the inherent relative advantages of email, among other factors, there was increase in use of email as an official record in Zimbabwe’s central government. Nonetheless, management of email was still in its nascent stages and was largely poorly articulated. Poor email classification, filing, appraisal, security, preservation and disposal were largely traceable to deficiencies in legal, policy and procedural frameworks as well as skills and information and communication technology infrastructural challenges. These in turn triggered email retrieval, access, preservation and authenticity challenges. This study was a first local research to address both the use and management of email in a single study and one which proposed a framework for the effective use and management of email where a call was made to match increase in use of email with increase in professional management of the same. The proposed framework may go a long way in influencing proper and professional use and management of email in Zimbabwe’s central government and similar organisations.Information ScienceD. Phil. (Information Science