Providing grounds for trust: Developing conceptual requirements for the long- term preservation of authentic electronic records

Archivaria

Volumn 50, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 52-78

  Macneil, Heather ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

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EID: 3042611589     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Merriam-WebsterOnlineDictionary,,s.v. "authentic."
2. David Levy, "Where's Waldo? Reflections on Copies and Authenticity in a Digital Environment," Authenticity in a Digital Environment (Washington, D.C., 2000), p. 30.
3. Ken Thibodeau, "Certifying Authenticity of Electronic Records: Interim Report of the Chair of the Preservation Task Force to the InterPARES International Team," unpublished report (19 April 2000), p. 1.
4. The InterPARES project (the acronym stands for "International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems") began in January 1999 and will conclude in January 2002. The researchers in InterPARES are an international and multi-disciplinary group consisting of archival scholars and practitioners as well as scholars and other specialists drawn from the humanities and social sciences, and from the computer, mathematical, and chemical sciences. A number of national archival institutions are also participants in the project. A detailed description of the project, including its origins, goals, objectives, and methodology, may be found on the project's Web site at .
5. For the purpose of the project an electronic record is defined as a record created in electronic form. A record is defined as any document created - meaning made or received and set aside either for action or reference - by a physical or juridical person in the course of practical activity as an instrument and by-product of it.
6. InterPARES Project, "Project Background," available on the project Web site.
7. The members of the Authenticity Task Force are: Heather MacNeil (Chair), Luciana Duranti, Anne Gilliland-Swetland, Maria Guercio, Babak Hamidzadeh, Sue McKemmish, John Roeder, Seamus Ross, and Wai-kwok Wan.
8. Contemporary archival diplomatics is an adaptation of traditional diplomatic concepts and methods to contemporary record-keeping environments and an integration of these concepts and methods with those of archival science. It provided the conceptual foundation for a threeyear project carried out between 1994 and 1997 at the University of British Columbia entitled "The Preservation of the Integrity of Electronic Records." The goal of the UBC project was to identify and define conceptually the nature of an electronic record and the conditions necessary to ensure its reliability and authenticity based on the concepts and methods of diplomatics and archival science. This work resulted in the identification of the elements of a record, a reliable record, and an authentic record in both paper and electronic recordkeeping environments.
9. Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, "The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records: An Overview of the UBC-MAS Research Project," Archivaria 42 (Fall 1996), pp. 46-67. The elements of an electronic record included in the template for analysis draw specifically on those identified in the UBC project. At the same time, the elements have been substantially revised and extended by the InterPARES researchers based on their combined knowledge and experience with various kinds of electronic records and electronic systems.
10. These characteristics are identified as selection criteria in the Authenticity Task Force, "[Draft] Research Methodology Statement," 7 November 2000. The statement is available on the project Web site.
11. According to the research methodology statement, a fixed form "means that (1) the binary content of the record, including indicators of its documentary form, are stored in a manner that ensures it remains complete and unaltered; and (2) technology has been maintained and procedures defined and enforced to ensure that the content is presented or rendered with the same documentary form it had when it was set aside."
12. The Template for Analysis is available for viewing on the InterPARES Web site. See Authenticity Task Force, "[Draft] Template for Analysis," 7 November 2000. Unless otherwise indicated, definitions of the elements of an electronic record included in the template are drawn from the "Template for Analysis." The following student researchers at the University of British Columbia have assisted the Authenticity Task Force in the development and Lara Wilson, and Joleen Wright.
13. The author is the physical or juridical person having the authority and capacity to issue the record or in whose name or by whose command the record has been issued.
14. The originator is the physical or juridical person assigned the electronic address in which the record has been generated and/or sent.
15. The Chronological date is the day, month, year, and, possibly, the time of the record included in the record by the author or the electronic system on the author's behalf in the course of its compilation.
16. The name of the place of origin of the record is the name of the geographic place where the record was generated, included in the content of the record by the author or the electronic system on the author's behalf.
17. The addressee is the physical or juridical person(s) to whom the record is directed or for whom the record is intended.
18. The receiver is the person to whom the record is copied for information purposes.
19. Text is defined as words, numbers, or symbols.
20. Graphic is defined as a representation of an object or outline of a figure, plan, or sketch by means of lines; a representation of an object formed by drawing.
21. Image is defined as an artificial imitation or representation of the external form of any object, or an optical appearance or counterpart of an object, such as is produced by rays of light, refracted as through a lens, or falling on a surface after passing through a small aperture.
22. Moving images, which are a subset of image, are defined as visual images, with or without sound that, when viewed, present the illusion of motion.
23. Sound is defined as an aural representation of words, music, or any other manifestation of sound.
24. The writer is the person having the authority and capacity to articulate the content of the record. It may be the same name as the author and/or originator of the record.
25. United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, Draft Guide to Enactment of the UNCITRAL Uniform Rules on Electronic Signatures A/CN.9/WG.IV/WP.86 (New York, 2000), p. 16, para. 31.
26. United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, Draft Guide to Enactment of the UNCITRAL Uniform Rules on Electronic Signatures A/CN.9/WG.IV/WP.86 (New York, 2000), Ibid., pp. 17-18.
27. United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, Draft Guide to Enactment of the UNCITRAL Uniform Rules on Electronic Signatures A/CN.9/WG.IV/WP.86 (New York, 2000), Ibid., p. 15, para. 20.
28. Brigitte Bedos Rezak, "Seals and Sigillography, Western European," in Joseph R. Strayer, ed., Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Vol. 11 (New York, 1989), p. 124.
29. John Henry Wigmore, Evidence in Trials at Common Law, Vol. 9, ed. and rev. by James H. Chadbourn (Boston, 1978), para. 2426. Hereafter cited as Wigmore on Evidence.
30. Brigitte Bedos Rezak, "Seals and Sigillography," p. 127.
31. Clifford Lynch, "Authenticity and Integrity in the Digital Environment: An Exploratory Analysis of the Central Role of Trust," Authenticity in a Digital Environment, pp. 44-45.
32. For a detailed discussion of PKI, see UNCITRAL, Draft Guide to Enactment of the UNCITRAL Uniform Rules on Electronic Signatures, pp. 19-22.
33. A digital watermark is a copyright claim that is attached to a digital object. Digital watermarks raise a number of authenticity-related issues. For a discussion of some of these issues see Ibid., pp. 42-44.
34. Hardware refers to the storage, microprocessor, network, peripheral devices, and architecture. Software refers to the operating system, system software, network software, and application software. Data refer to the file structure and file format. System models refer to the abstract representations of the entities, activities, and/or concepts in the system as well as their attributes, characteristics, and the functional relationship between them. System administration refers to the set of procedures that ensure correct, secure, reliable, and persistent operation of the system.
35. For example, a royal diploma of Childebert I (King of Francs, sixth century) that is written on parchment instead of papyrus is considered false. The medium also provides evidence of the manner in which medieval documents were prepared. The documents from the German chancery have many erasures and corrections in comparison to the documents of the papal chancery, indicating a lesser degree of care and accuracy in the preparation of the final documents.
36. Maria Guercio, "Principi, metodi e strumenti per la formazione, conservazione e utilizzo dei
37. Thibodeau, "Certifying Authenticty of Elecronic Records"XII, nos. 1-2 (1999), p. 26.
38. The authenticity-related issues raised by digital music records are explored by Brent Lee in an article that appears in this issue of Archivaria.
39. [Authenticity Task Force], InterPARES Project, "Draft Requirements for Authenticity," version 1.1 (21 November 2000). The requirements will be issued in final form once all four rounds of case studies are completed.
40. Clifford Lynch explores the issues associated with the development and management of what he calls "identity and trust management systems" in the general context of digital objects and the specific context of digital signatures.
41. Lynch, "Authenticity and Integrity," pp. 32-50.
42. Margaret Hedstrom, "Building Record-Keeping Systems: Archivists Are Not Alone on the Wild Frontier," Archivaria 44 (Fall 1997), pp. 44-71.
43. In that article, Hedstrom examines trusted systems that are associated with electronic record-keeping. She characterizes a trusted record-keeping system as "a type of trusted system where rules govern which documents are eligible for inclusion in the record-keeping system, who may place records in the system and retrieve records from it, what may be done to and with a record, how long records remain in the system, and how records are removed from it."
44. Ibid., p. 57.
45. [Authenticity Task Force], "Draft Requirements for Authenticity," p. 3.
46. Although the creator and preserver of electronic records are treated as two conceptually distinct juridical persons, it is understood that the context in which they fulfil their separate roles will differ depending on whether the creator maintains its own historical records, as is usually the case with private corporate bodies or whether the creator's records are routinely transferred to a central archival depository, as is usually the case with public bodies.
47. The question of what constitutes the essence of a digital document is explored by Clifford Lynch in "Canonicalization: A Fundamental Tool to Facilitate Preservation and Management of Digital Information," D-Lib Magazine 5 (September 1999), at . In that article, Lynch examines the problem of determining the effect of reformatting on the integrity of digital objects and the need for a more precise articulation of what constitutes the essence of a digital object in a given situation. He proposes canonicalization as a means of making precise what is important about a class of digital objects and for verifying that the integrity of these objects has been preserved in the reformatting process.
48. David Levy, "Where's Waldo? Reflections on Copies and Authenticity in a Digital Environment," Authenticity in a Digital Environment," p. 26.
49. For a full list of these requirements see [Authenticity Task Force], "Draft Requirements for Authenticity," pp. 5-8.
50. Charles T. Cullen, "Authentication of Digital Objects: Lessons from a Historian's Research," Authenticity in a Digital Environment, pp. 3-4.
51. Clifford Lynch, "Authenticity and Integrity," p. 35.
52. For a full list of these requirements see [Authenticity Task Force], "Draft Requirements for Authenticity," pp. 11-12.
53. Wigmore on Evidence vol. 1, para. 12.
54. Lynch, "Authenticity and Integrity in the Digital Environment," pp. 35-36.
55. Wigmore on Evidence vol. 1A, para. 37.4.
56. Wigmore on Evidence (Chadbourn rev., 1972), vol. 4, para. 1171.
57. Seamus Ross, "Dress-pins from Anglo-Saxon England: their production and typochronological development," (D.Phil. dissertation, University of Oxford, 1992), p. 68.
58. For the work accomplished to date in establishing the conceptual and methodological basis for typological analysis the task force is indebted to Ross's exploration of typological analysis as it is used in archaeological research and to Ian McAndrew's summary of Ross's work, "Typologies and Typological Analysis: Definitions and Characteristics," unpublished report to the Authenticity Task Force, October 2000. The discussion of typologies and typological analysis that follows is based on Chapter 3 of Ross's dissertation, "Re-thinking Typology: Designing Material Culture Models."
59. Ibid., p. 9.
60. Ibid., p. 86.
61. Ibid., pp. 72+88.
62. The discussion of the preliminary categorization of records and its implications that follows is based on "Draft Requirements for Authenticity," pp. 8-12
63. As the findings of the Appraisal and Preservation Task Forces develop, they will be posted on the InterPARES Web site.