Friday, July 29, 2011

Need a Primer for Proper Facebook Conduct? GAO Thinks You Do. - Wired Workplace

This information is worth reading and it will be interesting to see how adjustments are made to such revealing insights!

Need a Primer for Proper Facebook Conduct? GAO Thinks You Do. - Wired Workplace

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Interview with Jason Baron - ECA 2010

Excellent information on this video for those involved in the area of electronic records management.



Speaking @ ARMA Event

I will be sharing an Electronic Records Management Presentation at the ARMA event in October 2011.



Sunday, July 24, 2011

8 Ways To Recruit Startup Talent Using Social Media

8 Ways To Recruit Startup Talent Using Social Media: "




handshake image

Scott Gerber is the founder of Sizzle It!, a New York-based sizzle reel production company and the Young Entrepreneur Council. He is a serial entrepreneur, internationally syndicated columnist, angel investor, public speaker and author of the best-selling book Never Get a “Real” Job: How To Dump Your Boss, Build a Business and Not Go Broke.


The hardest part of growing a blossoming startup beyond infancy is recruiting talent. The right team can take your venture to new heights whereas the wrong one can push it off a cliff.


Even though we are in a “employer’s” market, traditional recruitment channels, such as recruitment firms, may prove too expensive for fledgling businesses. Startups should consider using social media as a recruitment tool.


When executed properly, social media offers recruiting managers a larger applicant pool, more access to information that will enable them to better pre-screen and filter candidates and, most importantly, a more direct line of communication to the potential hires themselves.


It is important to avoid missteps. Spamming people will get your business nowhere fast. It’s a tricky balancing act but by being respectful, honest and human, your next big hire might just come from Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.


I asked a group of successful young entrepreneurs about the best ways to use social media to recruit top notch startup talent. Here’s what they had to say:





1. Achieve Expert Status




wright imageUse social media to help build a strong brand and then let the top talent come to you. The ideal situation is to have others wanting to work with you, whatever the conditions, so by simply being great at what you do and building your brand around that, you shouldn’t have any trouble drawing in top talent (then make them happy they contacted you!).


Colin Wright, Exile Lifestyle





2. Tweet with Hashtags




wong imageWhen promoting any new openings at your startup, tweet out with special hashtags for #hiring, #startupjobs and whatever industry or trade you’re hiring from to get the attention of the right candidates.


Danny Wong, Blank Label Group, Inc.





3. Twitter Is Your Best Friend




saladino imageScout for startup talent using Twitter search with hashtags and terms relevant to your industry. Compile a list of potential candidates and evaluate their Twitter activity by looking at their number of followers as well as the quality of their tweets. Use Follower Wonk‘s “Compare whom they follow” to compare candidates with industry leaders and look at shared connections and “Wonk Score”.


Andrew Saladino, RTA Kitchen Cabinets





4. Pick the Folks You Want




bram imageWhen you’re still early in the startup process, you have to make sure that you’ve got the right team. That means knowing as much as possible before even suggesting that you’re looking … social media makes it easy to find out all sorts of [information].


Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting





5. Have a Contest




bell imageChoose an important trait you’re looking for and host a contest via social media. Get creative with submissions and guidelines. Share the contest with influencers and hubs and invite them to send talent your way.


Lisa Nicole Bell, Inspired Life Media Group





6. Get a Referral




blaskie imageReferrals are the lifeblood of many a business. It works the same when it comes to recruitment via social media. Ask your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn contacts for solid leads for the new position in your company. By having someone come pre-qualified, you end up with (usually) a better candidate and someone whom you can trust.


Erin Blaskie, BSETC





7. Listen, Converse and Engage




holmes imageBesides LinkedIn being amazing for recruiting startup talent, I’d say monitoring job trends on Twitter and keeping your job board updated is also a great pull strategy. If you have a current job board and are sending your opportunities through your social media channels, then your message will be heard and re-posted in all the right areas.


Ryan Holmes, HootSuite





8. YouTube Your Vision




margolis imageYou have to get people to believe in your story. Especially when you’re in startup mode. So record a short video where you describe your vision, progress and motivations. Help prospective talent connect with your deeper story. What’s the next chapter they can help to create? Share that video across social media.


Michael Margolis, Get Storied






Image courtesy of Flickr, oooh.oooh


More About: hiring, Recruiting, social media, startup, yec

For more Startups coverage:



"

Email Preservation and Law of Unintended Consequences, Part II

Email Preservation and Law of Unintended Consequences, Part II: "

As I noted the other day, I was still having trouble getting one of my Macs to download all of the email from an Exchange 2010 server, so that it could go into my triple-redundant email archives.   This morning, when checking my calandar on the offending computer, I finally discovered what the problem was: the connection to my old exchange account was still listed under the Preferences->Accounts pane in iCal:


g

iCal account configuration pane


Basically, there was a duplicate entry here.  Since Exchange manages calendaring through the email server, and the old account was active, it seems to have prevented the download of any email earlier than the last unanswered appointment request in my inbox.  So, to reiterate my original point:


No reasonable end-user of email can be expected to keep track of all of the dependencies and relationships between server types and capabilities, client types and capabilities, IT administrator settings, end-user settings , inherent software limitations, and user behaviors to ensure that a complete record of  messages are actually being saved according to a plan.


 

"

Why is Email Preservation Important?

Why is Email Preservation Important?: "

As I noted in a prior post, I really feel as if no one is making a case to the public as to why email should be preserved for its permanent research value.  Until we do that, the archival profession is unlikely to make much progress in preserving it for future research value.  What might such a case look like?


First, we need to note that email is a ‘saturation’ technology.  Of course, a great deal of business and personal activity takes place within blogs, social networks, instant messaging programs, video chat services, and electronic messaging systems, all of which continue to evolve.   Such materials are well worth documenting and preserving for cultural heritage reason, and several projects are underway to do so: the Library of Congress is capturing an archives of all public tweets and numerous website harvesting services are available. Blog preservation projects, with significant external funding, are also underway.  These worthy efforts must continue, but in comparison to them, email preservation has been treated like an unwanted stepchild, with few projects and relatively little institutional or grant support.


This is particularly unfortunate, because the types of records that email generates probably have even more long-term value than publicly available works that are the subject of major commercial, national, and international projects.  Not only is email use widespread, but actions taken using email software are embedded into people’s daily work and personal lives in ways that other technologies are not.  This is true not only for the many people who deliberately use email programs to organize their digital records and make them searchable–which is a very large group of people– but for others as well.


Email generates a constantly evolving yet fragile record of activities and evidence regarding actions taken by businesses or individuals.  The way in which email transfer agents and end user programs operate means that individual messages evidence that is relatively difficult to modify or corrupt, unlike a blog entry or website which can be changed with nary a trace .  Each time the user hits the send key, their activity is documented through the accumulation of actions, recorded as metadata in the emails headers, showing exactly what an individual wrote, to whom they wrote it to, and what time.


Although it is not difficult to forge some of this information at time of sending, such fogeries are easy to spot, and it is much more difficult to modify metadata after the fact, unless the user has a deep familiarilty with email formats, as well as advanced computer skills. Since email documents actions, it is valuable not only for the information it contains but for the evidence it records: the who, what, where, when (and even sometimes the why questions can all be answered using email.


In spite of policy advice to the contrary  and the fact that email is usually transmitted in unencrypted form, users often write things that were not meant to be revealed to the entire world at the time the action took place.  For this reason alone, it is unlikely that email disappear anytime soon, and it can be a uniquely valuable resource that presents seemingly well known events in a whole new light; it is no wonder that email is frequently the targets of agents provocateurs, who go to great lengths to procure documents that can be used as evidence; the theft of email or leaks of email have resulted in two of the most sensational exposés in recent history, the Wikileaks and Climategate scandals.


Information contained in email has destroyed entire corporations, such as the American power company Enron and its auditor Arthur Andersen, and its mismanagement resulted in some of the largest civil fines in history. While we don’t necessarily want to remind users of this fact, there are positive ways to encourage people to keep a good record of their own lives, and to donate to an archives when they are retired and able to reflect on the true significance of their lives.


In the long term, it is likely that the historical value of email messages will only increase, since it is a documentary form that lays bare the real sinews of history, instead of the makeup that is applied to the surface, via more public forms of communication.  In addition, literary and other scholars have reinforced the invaluable nature of correspondence for historical, sociological, biographical, literary, and other uses.


What is less obvious, at least to the public at large and even to many members of the academic community, is that email constitutes an appropriate object of long-term historical preservation, demanding appropriate management for that goal. As an eminent historian of American higher education, Winton Solberg remarked to the author recently, “historical research will be absolutely impossible in the future unless your profession finds a way to save email.”

"

Gmail Adds Multple Calls, Phishing Features

Gmail Adds Multple Calls, Phishing Features: "

Google has added a slew of new features to Google Docs, Google Sites, and other products, but the new features in Gmail win my vote for best upgrades this week. Now you can make multiple-line conference calls from Gmail for free or reduced rates (free to the US and Canada until the end of the year, reduced rates everywhere else). Combine that with a shared Google Doc, and you've got an office meeting.



On top of that, Gmail has also added new layout options and features designed to cut down on phishing and virus attacks. If you get an email from someone not in your contacts list, you'll see the full address, and you'll also see an alert if it appears that the email address has been spoofed. You can also view the contents of .zip and .rar files without downloading them. That cuts down on the risk that you'll download a virus masquerading as a legitimate attachment. Google learned the hard way just how dangerous malicious email attacks can be when their own computers were compromised by targeted attacks.

Gmail Adds Multple Calls, Phishing Features originally appeared on About.com Google on Sunday, July 24th, 2011 at 08:26:23.

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"

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Do You Have a Virus? Just Google It

Do You Have a Virus? Just Google It: "

Image Courtesy Google



Google has detected infected websites for a while, but now they're experimenting with detecting infected browsers, too. If you visit www.google.com and see a message at the top of your browser saying, 'Your computer appears to be infected,' it's got a very specific piece of malware that Google has detected, and you'll also see a link to fix the issue.



As computing moves from the desktop to the cloud, it's particularly important for companies like Google to keep control of malware. Hijacked machines can slow down and stop Web apps and slow email systems to a crawl. That hurts Google's bottom line, and ultimately it hurts consumers, too.

Do You Have a Virus? Just Google It originally appeared on About.com Google on Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 at 21:27:43.

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"

Mixed-Media Files Bulletin Issued

Mixed-Media Files Bulletin Issued: "

We are pleased to announce that NARA Bulletin 2011-04 has been issued. This Bulletin provides guidance to agencies who frequently manage files with records created or received in more than one type of medium. This Bulletin reminds agencies of the lifecycle management requirements for records in all formats. It also points to the need to maintain the integrity of files and identifies the risks involved if integrity is not maintained.


The bulletin has been posted to our website at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2011/2011-04.html. Also, http://go.usa.gov/BXL is the shortened link.


NARA bulletins are designed to provide fundamental guidance to Federal agencies who must then determine the most appropriate ways to incorporate the guidance into their work. This bulletin was written from feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders, including the agency records officers and the Federal Records Council. We thank all of them for their input.


"

Tool Spotlight: Records Control Schedule Repository

Tool Spotlight: Records Control Schedule Repository: "

image of spotlight Have you ever had a question about the process for scheduling Federal records for disposition? The first step in the process is to complete an SF-115, Request for Records Disposition Authority and submit it to us for approval. After they go through the appraisal process and are approved by the Archivist of the United States, the SF-115s become permanent records themselves.


Our Toolkit for Managing Electronic Records spotlight returns to highlight NARA’s Records Control Schedule (RCS) website at www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/rcs/index.html. The RCS website provides access to unclassified NARA-approved records schedules for Federal agency records from 1973 to the present.


We designed the Toolkit to include any type of tool. Tools can include case studies, best practice documents, process models, policies and directives, tips and techniques, training programs, “lessons learned”, and even presentations. What tools have you discovered that make managing records easier? Did you know that you can suggest a tool? Are there other tools that we should feature? Please let us know by leaving a comment. Thanks!


"

Discussion Guide on Establishing Trustworthy Digital Repositories

Discussion Guide on Establishing Trustworthy Digital Repositories: "

Our Interagency Science Working Group has just released a publication titled, Establishing Trustworthy Digital Repositories:  A Discussion Guide Based on the ISO Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Standard Reference Model.


This guide, developed in collaboration with a team of archivists, records managers, data managers and scientists in Federal agencies, will help Federal agency CIOs, IT and program staff, and records officers determine what high-level data management policies, procedures, and processes are in place now, and what policies, processes and procedures need to be updated or developed to assure that long-term digital information and records and data are appropriately managed, preserved, and made accessible to all stakeholders for as long as needed.


The discussion guide has been posted to the Toolkit for Managing Electronic Records at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/toolkit/pdf/ID373.pdf.

If you have any questions or would like additional information about this guide, please leave a comment here or contact Laurence Brewer, Office of the Chief Records Officer, at Laurence.Brewer@nara.gov, or by phone at (301) 837-1539.


"

Opportunity for Comment: NARA Bulletin on Mixed-Media

Opportunity for Comment: NARA Bulletin on Mixed-Media: "

We are requesting comments on the draft of an upcoming NARA Bulletin on managing mixed-media files. NARA bulletins are designed to provide fundamental guidance to Federal agencies who must then determine the most appropriate ways to incorporate the guidance into their work.


This draft Bulletin will provide Federal agencies with guidance about the records management implications for files comprised of both paper records and electronic records stored on physical media. The Bulletin will remind agencies of the lifecycle management requirements for paper and electronic records and the need to maintain the integrity of files when records are in multiple types of media. It will also identify the risks involved if that integrity is not maintained.


This Bulletin was drafted with the assistance of subject matter experts within NARA and interviews at selected agencies that have experience creating and managing mixed-media files.


Please make your comments about the draft Bulletin and any suggestions here by June 8, 2011. We will review all the comments we receive. We plan to publish the Bulletin by the end of June. You can download the draft of the bulletin as .pdf here.


Thank you for your input!


"

RACO 2011 Update

RACO 2011 Update: "

Logo for RACO DC 2011 conference As those of you following our tweets are aware, RACO 2011 was held yesterday in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives building downtown. Unfortunately, due to space constraints, we were unable to provide access to all of our customers that wished to attend. The early feedback has been positive as we have heard from a number of attendees that this year’s conference lived up to the motto stated at the start: “RACO 2011, light on your wallet, but not on content.”  RACO attendees are encouraged to fill out the conference evaluation by clicking this link.


In the next few days, we will continue to update the main RACO 2011 page on our website with the presentations from the conference and a fuller recap here on the blog. We are also working on getting video of some of the sessions edited and hopefully made available. Stay tuned here (or follow us on Twitter) to get updates as we move forward.


For those who attended, feel free to leave a comment below. We are always striving to make RACO the premier Federal records management event of the year.


"

2011 Records Management Self-Assessment: A Video

2011 Records Management Self-Assessment: A Video: "

The deadline for agencies to submit their responses to the 2011 Records Management Self-Assessment is tomorrow, June 3. We’ve produced a short video about the self-assessment starring Chief Records Officer Paul Wester and Office of the Chief Records Officer Management and Program Analyst Angela Dorsey.



A .pdf transcript of the video is also available.


"

Training Available: Records Management for Legal Counsel

Training Available: Records Management for Legal Counsel: "

Here’s an upcoming training opportunity that you might have overlooked. On Wednesday, June 22 we will be offering The Case for Records Management: Issues for Federal Agency Counsel. This free, half-day briefing by National Archives and Records Administration legal and records management staffs will discuss issues related to discovery, records retention and legal holds, and electronic information. Legal professionals understand that when business-critical information is missing or inaccessible, an agency risks damage to its reputation, failure to perform its mission, and expensive litigation. Good recordkeeping practices that are supported by an informed agency counsel are an agency’s best defense against costly and time-consuming legal challenges.


To register for this offering or to see a complete catalog of our nationwide records management training offerings, please visit our training page. We will have more information about our course offerings around the country in an upcoming post.


"

Telework and Records Management

Telework and Records Management: "

One area for Federal employees that has received a fair bit of attention recently is telework. Telework simply is a work arrangement whereby an employee can perform their duties in a different location. This could be from home or another approved work location. However, just because employees are working from home, their responsibilities to protect and manage the records that they may create and use, do not change.


We have just issued a brief  FAQ designed to remind employees of their basic records management responsibilities and how these apply when teleworking.


"

Mixed-Media Files Bulletin Issued

Mixed-Media Files Bulletin Issued: "

We are pleased to announce that NARA Bulletin 2011-04 has been issued. This Bulletin provides guidance to agencies who frequently manage files with records created or received in more than one type of medium. This Bulletin reminds agencies of the lifecycle management requirements for records in all formats. It also points to the need to maintain the integrity of files and identifies the risks involved if integrity is not maintained.


The bulletin has been posted to our website at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/bulletins/2011/2011-04.html. Also, http://go.usa.gov/BXL is the shortened link.


NARA bulletins are designed to provide fundamental guidance to Federal agencies who must then determine the most appropriate ways to incorporate the guidance into their work. This bulletin was written from feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders, including the agency records officers and the Federal Records Council. We thank all of them for their input.


"

NGA Inspection Report Released

NGA Inspection Report Released: "

We have just issued our most recent inspection report, “Management of Hard Copy Mapping Products in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency” (June, 2011). You can download a .pdf of the report here.


This report presents the findings and recommendations of our inspection of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) that was conducted earlier this year. The inspection focused on the transfer of permanent hard copy map products to the physical and legal custody of the National Archives. The inspection also included a review of NGA’s records management program, particularly as it operates within the Directorates responsible for developing map products. Electronic versions of hard copy map products and any unique electronic products will be covered by a separate inspection and subsequent report in Fiscal Year 2012.


This inspection continues our ongoing efforts to conduct targeted inspections focused on specific aspects of an agency’s records management program.


The NGA inspection report has been added to our inspections webpage.


"

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Email Preservation Guide Teaser

Email Preservation Guide Teaser: "

Here’s the first draft of the intro to my upcoming report on email preservation:


In 1965, Tom Van Vleck and Noel Morris sent what were perhaps the world’s first electronic messages to each other, using the mail function that they developed for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Compatible Time Sharing System (Van Vleck 2010).  Those who used the mail command in CTTS and its successor system, MULTICS (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service), embraced the technology with fervor (Multicians.org n.d.).  However, a late 1960s memo in the archives related to the project noted that “ [t]he memos seems to have been superseded by email.”  After that point, the documentation that has survived and been accessioned to the MIT archives thins out in both quantity and quality. (Morris 2011).  And of course, the first actual email messages exchanged by Van Vleck and Morris have  long since gone missing.


Forty-six years later, a relatively small number of institutions have acknowledged that email should be preserved for historical purposes or to ensure cultural memory. A subset of these instituions have embraced the responsibility to preserve it, and an even smaller number have developed policies, implementation strategies, procedures, tools, and services that can do the job. This report reviews those efforts and offers recommendations for archivists, librarians, and records creators at various sizes, as well as for individuals who may wish to preserve their email correspondence and deposit in a cultural heritage institution.

[to be continued. . .]


 




Reference List:

Bearman, D., 1994. Managing Electronic Mail. Archives and Manuscripts, 22(1), pp.28-50.


Cox, R.J., 2008. Chapter Seven: Electronic Mail and Personal Recordkeeping. In Personal archives and a new archival calling : readings, reflections and ruminations. Duluth, Minnesota: Litwin Books, pp. 201-42.


Marshall, C.C., 2007. How People Manage Personal Information Over a Lifetime. In Personal Informaiton Management. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, pp. 57-75.


Morris, E., 2011. Did My Brother Invent E-Mail With Tom Van Vleck? (Part Three). NYTimes.com. Available at: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/did-my-brother-invent-e-mail-with-tom-van-vleck-part-three/ [Accessed June 23, 2011].


Multicians.org, Multics History. Available at: http://www.multicians.org/history.html [Accessed July 6, 2011].


Pennock, M., 2006. Curating E-Mails: A life-cycle approach to the management and preservation of e-mail messages. In DCC Digital Curation Manual. Digital Curation Centre. Available at: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/resource/curation-manual/chapters/curating-e-mails/curating-e-mails.pdf [Accessed June 2, 2011].


Van Vleck, T., 2010. The History of Electronic Mail. Available at: http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mail-history.html [Accessed July 6, 2011].


 


 

"

NARA Proposes New Rule on Declassification | Secrecy News

NARA Proposes New Rule on Declassification | Secrecy News

Saturday, July 9, 2011

What Does an Indexer Do?

What Does an Indexer Do?


An indexer organizes information and creates an index which can be used to locate that information. Every time someone opens a nonfiction book and flips to the index to look something up, she or he is taking advantage of this person's hard work. Indexers can index books, magazine articles, and other types of publications. They may also provide abstraction and databasing services, depending on their skill sets and the areas in which they work.

Conventionally, authors are responsible for their own indexing. This is a highly specialized skill, however, and most authors are not up to the task, preferring to refer the job to an indexer. Indexers commonly work as freelancers, doing work on a job by job basis. Some may work for publishing companies, with large publishing houses maintaining a staff of indexers. The advantage to working as part of a staff is steady employment along with access to style guidelines which can be helpful when developing an index.

Although computer programs can try to create an index for a book, it usually takes the skills of an indexer to do the job right. Computers are very good at concordance, in which the computer identifies where specific words or phrases appear, and some are intelligent enough to determine how relevant an appearance is, but computers can still make mistakes.

To do the job effectively, the indexer must think about where people might look for a term; with a cookbook, for example, someone who wants a recipe for carrot cake might look for either "cake, carrot" or "carrot cake," and the indexer needs to decide what would be most appropriate. He or she also needs to have consistent style. In other words, if "cake, carrot" is being used, than any cake entry in the index would be formatted this way: "cake, chocolate," "cake, marble," "cake, angel food," and so forth.

The finished index is submitted to the publisher, and it is added to the finished publication so that it can be printed and distributed. The document is also usually reviewed to confirm that it will work with the publication and be appropriate for the audience. The author, for example, might scan it to make sure that key topics are covered in the index. In a book about nutrition, for example, one might expect to be able to find terms like "calories," "diet," "nutritional values," and so forth in the index.

Indexers can receive training through indexing certification classes and seminars. Some community colleges and technical schools also offer this type of training. Membership in a professional organization is open to people with demonstrated skills, and can be useful for people who would like to build professional careers in this field.

Friday, July 8, 2011

MS Word Web App matches Google Docs with collaboration - Page 1 - Information Architecture

MS Word Web App matches Google Docs with collaboration - Page 1 - Information Architecture

A few records management terms defined:

A few records management terms defined:

Disposition Schedule-A disposition schedule is also referred to as a records schedule and this is a document which provides mandatory instructions for what to do with records (and non-record materials) no longer needed for current government business.

Disposition-This refers to the action taken upon a record once the record is no longer needed for current Government business. Some specific disposition instructions are: transfer to Federal Records Center, transfer to storage facility, temporary and destroy, or permanent and transfer to NARA.

Document-A document differs from a record in that a document is a draft which is in process. Another distinction is that a document has not been declared a record. It should be noted that some documents are records or records in process, but once it is declared a record it is a record and should be managed as a record and not as a document.

Electronic record-An electronic record is a record made by a computer and read by a computer, and meets the definition of a record as indicated above.

Electronic Records Management (ERM) System (or ERM Application) - An electronic records management system is a computer software product which is used to manage electronic records and paper records from creation to final disposition. An electronic records management system has many important features, but among the most essential is the ability to create, store, search, retrieve, and delete records.

Lifecycle-This refers to the management of records (paper or electronic) from creation to final disposition.

Non-record-Government owned documents or materials that do not meet the definition of a record. These include materials such as documents kept for reference, extra copies of documents kept for convenience or reference or publications or other library or museum publications

Record-A record is any material or information, regardless of the format made or received by U.S. Government in connection with the transaction of business or preserved for historical reasons. A record records the decisions, business actions or legal actions of an agency.

Records Management (RM)-This refers to the management of both paper and electronic records. Records management is the organizing, controlling, filing, etc. of paper and electronic records from creation or inception to final disposition.





Thursday, July 7, 2011

Rima Foundation

Rima Foundation

Flickr, YouTube views up, Facebook views down at National Archives -- Federal Computer Week

Flickr, YouTube views up, Facebook views down at National Archives -- Federal Computer Week

AIIM Seminar: Content Management Boot Camp - Washington, DC

AIIM Seminar: Content Management Boot Camp - Washington, DC

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives



But Storage is Cheap: Digital Preservation in the Age of Abudanc



Paradoxes of Preservation: A Personal & Strategic Perspective



Friday, July 1, 2011

Records Lifecycle Requirements

Records Lifecycle Requirements


These four requirements are essential to the existence of recordkeeping systems. Many of the below requirements will occur without awareness by the end user, however some of the requirements will be performed manually by the eRecords team as administrators of the electronic records management application.


1. Creation Requirements:

• Indicate when an electronic document is a Federal record

• Link supporting and related records, allow users to retrieve them so they can be used together

• Store and view files in their native formats

• Define records identification/filing codes, provide a thesaurus for keyword searches, and enable assignment of file classification codes

• Prevent subsequent changes to documents that have been designated as records (very important for trustworthiness)



2. Metadata Requirements:

• Assign or capture required metadata for each record

• Allow it to be viewed with the record it pertains to

• Include metadata attributes such as office of origin, file code, keywords (for retrieval), addressee, signatory, author, date and time transmitted and received, authorized disposition, security classification, and information on related records filed elsewhere in paper or on the computer\

• Combine e-mail messages with their metadata (to, from, transmission and receipt, date/time, etc) and save as a single record

• Incorporate automatic date-stamping so dates cannot be changed

• Allow a record to be assigned to more than one file category when appropriate



3. Maintenance and Use Requirements:

• Enable the agency to determine and control the level of access to the recordkeeping system for authorized users

• Maintain electronic records so as to ensure their integrity, so that records cannot be changed or destroyed without authorization; designate changed or revised documents as new records with different identification data (version control)

• Distinguish between the final version of a record and a working version, both when viewing a document and on the list of documents produced in response to a query

• Support multiple-use access, when desired by the agency

• Provide an index of all records, including those online and those in near-line or offline storage

• Provide the ability, as determined by the agency, to automatically create (or delete if necessary) backup or redundant copies of the records as well as their metadata

• Maintain system documentation and audits to ensure the integrity, authenticity, and legal acceptability of the records for their entire lifespan



4. Disposition Requirements:

• Enable the agency to implement authorized disposition schedules and maintain and transfer permanent electronic records in compliance with specifications identified by NARA 36 CFR 1228.188

• Require an authorized individual to validate record destruction and transfer; the system will identify records that have reached the end of their scheduled life; however, it will not automatically destroy material

• Enable the records manager to review and correct disposition determinations

• Enable authorized individuals to assign and change record disposition and reschedule records already in the system when disposition instructions change from the original designations

• Allow the identification of unscheduled records

• Provide an audit trail of disposition actions


Newegg TV: Seagate GoFlex Family



Got your hands on a Google+ invite? How to Create Circles in Google+

Got your hands on a Google+ invite? How to Create Circles in Google+: "
Google+ is Google's new social networking tool, currently accessible by invite only. One of its unique features is its easy way to create groups of friends via circles. Once you have a circle of friends, you can easily chat, hang out, share articles, and more with all of them.

Edit Steps


  1. Go to the Google+ toolbar near the top of your webpage browser and click on your name. In the box that pops up, click 'Circles.'

    Go to the Google+ toolbar near the top of your webpage browser and click on your name.
    Go to the Google+ toolbar near the top of your webpage browser and click on your name.

  2. This will open your Circles page in a new window. Drag a friend into the 'Drop here to create a new circle' space.

    This will open your Circles page in a new window.
    This will open your Circles page in a new window.

  3. Drag other friends in your group to the same circle. When you're finished, click 'Create Circle.'

    Drag other friends in your group to the same circle.
    Drag other friends in your group to the same circle.

  4. Type in a name for your circle and click 'Create circle with # people.'

    Type in a name for your circle and click "Create circle with # people.
    Type in a name for your circle and click 'Create circle with # people.

  5. Your circle now pops up as an actual circle in your profile. Feel free to drag more friends into the circle to expand it!

    Your circle now pops up as an actual circle in your profile.
    Your circle now pops up as an actual circle in your profile.


Understanding How Circles Work


  1. Understand how Google+ Circles work:
    • You can add anyone to a circle even if they are or are not your friend and choose not to add you to their own circles. For example you can put people in a circle you have never met like Google CEO Larry Page or even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. While you will see their updates in your main stream, your updates won't appear in their main stream, but instead in a section called 'incoming'.
    • When updating, you can select which specific circle you want to update to. Alternatively you can update to 'Your Circles' which is all the people in all the circles you have created (similar to how a Facebook status update works) or 'Public' which is anyone on the web (similar to how Twitter works).
    • The names of your circles and who is in which circle is not shared. So you can create a circle called 'People who I pretend to like' and never actually post to them or listen to their updates if you wish.
    • You can view the stream of any specific circle by clicking the name of that circle in your stream view.





Edit Tips


  • You can always add more people to a circle once it's been created. Simply drag more people into that particular circle.
  • You can also add more people to a circle on the screen in which you name the circle. Just click on the 'Add a new person' button right underneath the title. You can then type in a name or email address to find the person you want.
  • You can add people to your circle who are not in your recommended friends list by clicking on the circle, selecting 'Add a new person,' and then typing in their email addresses.
  • Once you have more than 6 circles (typically that's how many fit in one row), you may need to scroll to see all of your circles.


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