Overcoming the Digital Tsunami in e-Discovery: is Visual Analysis the Answer?

New technologies are generating potentially discoverable evidence in electronic form in ever increasing volumes. As a result, traditional techniques of document search and retrieval in pursuit of electronic discovery in litigation are becoming less viable. One potential new technological solution to the e-discovery search and retrieval challenge is Visual Analysis (VA). VA is a technology that combines the computational power of the computer with graphical representations of large datasets to enable interactive analytic capabilities. This article provides an overview of VA technology and how it is being applied in the analysis of e-mail and other electronic documents in the field of e-discovery, as well as discussing several challenges and limitations of the technology. The article concludes that VA has the potential to overcome some of the limitations of current search and retrieval techniques, but that addressing the digital tsunami is more likely to be achieved by using VA in combination with other search and retrieval technologies in the context of creating an effective data governance program

Establishing an international computational network for librarians and archivists

Research and experimentation are underway in libraries, archives, and research institutions on various digital strategies, including computational methods and tools, to manage "Collections as Data." This involves new ways for librarians and archivists to manage, preserve, and provide access to their digital collections. A major component in this ongoing process is the education and training needed by information professionals to function effectively in the 21st century. Accessible and transferable infrastructure is a key requirement in creating a network of collaboration for information professionals to fully realize the full potential of managing "Collections as Data." Elements needed include: 1. Open source research and educational platforms to remove barriers to access to curation tools and resources. These are needed to deliver and share computational educational programs. 2. Creation of a Cloud-based student-learning environment. 3. Development of Open Source software architectures that use computational infrastructure. 4. Exploration of new pedagogies for educating librarians and archivists in computational methods and tools. 5. Establishment of a community of practice for developing collaborative projects, and liaising with the wider international iSchool community and practitioners in the field. Our "Blue Sky" proposal seeks to explore a number of these challenges (infrastructure, computation, collaboration, learning) that stimulate the iSchool research community and have the potential to jumpstart international collaborative networks. The goal is to establish an international computational network for supporting librarians and archivists, akin to the existing Sloan Foundation funded "Data Curation Network", which seeks to model a cross-institutional staffing approach for curating research data in digital repositories.Ope

Blockchain and Recordkeeping: Editorial

Distributed ledger technologies (DLT), including blockchains, combine the use of cryptography and distributed networks to achieve a novel form of records creation and keeping designed for tamper-resistance and immutability. Over the past several years, these capabilities have made DLTs, including blockchains, increasingly popular as a general-purpose technology used for recordkeeping in a variety of sectors and industry domains, yet many open challenges and issues, both theoretical and applied, remain. This editorial introduces the Special Issue of Computers focusing on exploring the frontiers of blockchain/distributed ledger technology and recordkeeping

“Always Follow the Money”: A Call to Investigate Financial Records

This article surveys the literature on financial records and finds that very little has been written on the subject. Noting that as much as twenty years ago the Association of Canadian Archivists called for course content that would increase archivists’ awareness of these records, the author calls for research into financial records and the records of financial institutions. The article describes how the newly formed UBC Centre for the Investigation of Financial Electronic Records (CiFER) aims to conduct research on financial records and the records of financial institutions. The article argues that new studies on financial records and the records of financial institutions will both better prepare archivists to preserve these types of records and provide opportunities to test and explore archival theory, as well as provide greater insight into the factors leading to economic stability and the stability of financial institutions, showing how archival studies can make practical and very relevant contributions to society. The article discusses a number of CiFER’s research initiatives and how these will contribute to filling knowledge gaps and testing theory. The paper concludes with an invitation to interested archivists to become involved in the CiFER research network. RÉSUMÉ Cet article fait un survol de la littérature sur les documents financiers et conclut qu’on a très peu écrit à ce sujet. Remarquant qu’il y a au moins vingt ans l’Association of Canadian Archivists recommandait que des cours soient donnés aux archivistes pour les sensibiliser à ce genre de documents, l’auteure réclame que de la recherche soit faite sur les documents financiers et les documents d’institutions financières. L’article décrit comment le nouveau UBC Centre for the Investigation of Financial Electronic Records (CiFER) vise à mener de la recherche sur les documents financiers et les documents d’institutions financières. L’article soutient que de nouvelles études sur ce genre de documents permettront aux archivistes de mieux les préserver, tout en favorisant la mise en pratique de la théorie archivistique. De plus, ces études offriront aux archivistes une meilleure compréhension des facteurs qui contribuent à la stabilité économique et à la stabilité des institutions financières, ce qui montrera comment les études en archivistique peuvent contribuer de façon pratique et pertinente au développement de la société. L’article présente un nombre de projets de recherche du CiFER et montre comment ceux-ci contribueront à notre connaissance, tout en mettant à l’épreuve la théorie. L’article termine en invitant les archivistes intéressés à participer au réseau de recherche du CiFER

Does E-Government Make Governments in Developing Countries More Transparent and Accountable?

Analiza literatura que explora las consecuencias involuntarias y los riesgos de la poca transparencia y rendición de cuentas, asociados con la forma en que se produce la información digital del sector público de países en desarroll

Toward a “Third Order” Archival Interface: Research Notes on Some Theoretical and Practical Implications of Visual Explorations in the Canadian Context of Financial Electronic Records

This paper addresses challenges related to abstraction and representation of archival records and makes a number of theoretical and practical contributions to discussions in the archival literature on this topic. Reporting on an interdisciplinary research project aimed at creating a high-level interactive reference model of the Canadian context of financial electronic records, it contributes a framework for theorizing about societal context as a domain ontology and an approach to establishing the boundaries of societal context. It also draws upon information systems theory, in particular representation theory, to extend the theory of records as representations. It then moves on to discuss experiments in developing a prototype interactive visual representation of a domain ontology of the Canadian context of financial electronic records, suggesting that interactive visual representations that combine features of ontology editors and builders with features of tools for visual analysis may provide a good foundation for “third order” archival interfaces. RÉSUMÉ Ce texte aborde les défis liés à l’abstraction et aux représentations des documents d’archives et participe au débat sur ce sujet qui existe dans la littérature scientifique par un certain nombre de ses contributions théoriques et pratiques. Présentant les résultats d’un projet de recherche multidisciplinaire visant la création d’un modèle de référence interactif de haut niveau portant sur le contexte canadien des documents d’archives financiers numériques, il avance un cadre théorique au sujet du contexte sociétal comme ontologie de domaine et il fournit une approche pour établir les frontières du contexte sociétal. Il s’inspire également de la théorie sur les systèmes d’information, en particulier sur la théorie des représentations, afin d’élaborer la théorie des documents d’archives comme représentations. Il poursuit en abordant des expériences visant à développer un prototype d’une représentation visuelle interactive d’une ontologie de domaine du contexte canadien des documents d’archives financiers numériques, suggérant que les représentations visuelles interactives qui combinent des caractéristiques des éditeurs et concepteurs d’ontologie avec des caractéristiques d’outils pour l’analyse visuelle peuvent fournir des bases solides pour des interfaces d’archives de « troisième ordre »

How archivists think: Exploring the archival reasoning process using cognitive task analysis and verbal protocols

Development of visual analytics technologies to support archival analysis, such as that conducted during arrangement and description, requires an understanding of the analytic task that the technology is being designed to support. Visualization technologies developed for archival application currently pay little attention to the analytic, cognitive and perceptual aspects of the design process. This paper, based on first results from a cognitive task analysis using verbal protocols, provides a broad brush description of archival analysis during arrangement and description. It then suggests some possible leverage points where visual analytics technology might be applied to support archival arrangement and description practices.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe