Following last month’s blog post, this month’s post will discuss the current work that is being done by the Digital Initiatives & Standards Committee (DISC) and what the next steps are for creating a digital preservation guide for the State of Ohio.
DISC has partnered with state records organizations, including the Ohio Electronic Records Committee, the Ohio History Connection, and the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board. In conjunction with these partnerships, DISC has established three subcommittees to determine standards and best practices for electronic records. The Microfilm committee has been tasked to determine the cost-effectiveness and long-term reliability of microfilm. Initial findings include: a significant price increase in microfilm supplies, a lack of product options, the impracticality of microfilm accessibility, and the obsolescence of microfilm equipment and repair.
If local governments decide to forego microfilm as a document preservation option and go the route of digital preservation, the Microfilm Subcommittee recommends the following to be considered:
- Update retention schedules to reflect retaining electronic media and removing microfilm;
- Plan to digitize microfilm (priorities, cost, staff, and time);
- Research and invest in a digital preservation system.
The Minimum Standards Subcommittee has been meeting and working on coming up with digital standards, which include the following objectives:
- Preferred digital file types (including DPI (dots per inch) and compression standards);
- Standard and uniform naming conventions of records;
- Implementing quality control standards when scanning records;
- Applying sufficient metadata for searchability purposes.
The Security Subcommittee has discussed best practices for the security of electronic records. The following recommendations have been proposed:
- Access/Restriction to certain records;
- Understanding the difference between an access copy and a preservation copy, and what electronic document format they should be in;
- Establishing the security controls for staff and internal/external users
- Understanding explicitly the contract when dealing with a third-party system;
- Having a disaster recovery plan in place.
Each of the three subcommittees will be compiling a report to address/review with the entire Digital Initiatives and Standards Committee this year. DISC hopes to have an Archives & Records Administration Permanent Electronic Records Guideline released in 2027.