Download - City of Seattle Office of the City Clerk Open Government = Access Challenges and Opportunities
City of Seattle Office of the City Clerk
Open Government = AccessChallenges and Opportunities with Digital Records
Why do we keep records?
Accountability to the Citizens of Seattle
Institutional value: rights and obligations of the City
Specific legal requirements Historical value: policy, culture,
environment, infrastructure, personnel...
Ways of SeeingPreservation
Looking back: Curation of historical records
Looking forward: Documenting the present for the future
The Long Tail Concept new to the business world,not to Clerks and Archivists
The 80/20 Rule A traditional business model
The Long Tail
The Long Tail
The Long Tail
The Long Tail
Who Uses the Records We Keep?
City DepartmentsPrivate CitizensNeighborhood and community
groupsThe MediaEnvironmental researchersStudents and FacultyLegal Firms and Title CompaniesAuthorsLabor UnionsBusinesses
And What are People Looking for?Engineering Records and Photographs
Records of Elected Officials
Utility records
Legal records
Parks records
And more….
And more…
Opportunities with Digital Records Increased and enhanced access Open Data uses Sharing catalogs regionally/nationally Can help with preservation
Challenges with Digital Records Volume of records Management (indexing, description,
creation/maintenance of databases and repositories, migration of formats)
Preservation (obsolete formats, deterioration)
Data integrity Same or more work as with paper/analog:
identification, description, preservation, access
Growing expectations for use and access
Planning for Change
A change model that won’t work
Planning for technological change Anticipating format and software
changes Being poised to take advantage of
innovations to improve access Responding to changing user needs
and expectations Prioritizing work consistent with our
mission, our long-term goals, and within our resources
How we ensure and increase access over time: Open Formats
Online Databases and Exhibits Open Data Digitization of paper/analog records Digital Assets Preservation Team Capture of archival electronic records
How we ensure and increase access over time:
Open Formats Open standards Sustainable data (software
independent) Non-proprietary Widest accessibility, usable by PDA’s ADA compliant Easily migrated to other formats
How we ensure and increase access over time:
Online Databases and Exhibits >650,000 database records online Links to >200,000 electronic
documents Over 1,400,000 database hits in 2009
(excluding automatic crawlers/robots) Online Archives exhibits on popular
topics ~260,000 hits to Archives Web
exhibits in 2009
How we ensure and increase access over time:
Open Data Share Archives Records with Library
of Congress national union catalog Share Archives Records with
Northwest Digital Archives Will be providing legislative data in
XML format for City’s new Open Data site
SMA Flickr site (>340,000 hits on photos and videos)
How we ensure and increase access over time:
Digitization of paper/analog records Increasing access to high-use records
Converting records that are in obsolete, proprietary, and/or deteriorating format
Creating a digital copy as a security backup
Ease of access (example: film, negatives, audio)
Protecting analog original
How we ensure and increase access over time:
Digitization of paper/analog records Film
Video Audio Legislation Significant City publications Historical photographs (75,000
scanned negatives and prints online) Historical maps
Most popular film of 2009! Norway Day
“How will you Rate in ‘58 on the ‘Live Better Electrically’ Selling
scale?”
Video
Still Images
How we ensure and increase access over time: Digital Assets Preservation Team Clerk, Archives, Records Management, and
IT Identification, capture, management,
preservation, disaster recovery, and access
Adhering to professional guidelines and best practices (Library of Congress, San Diego Supercomputing Center, Cornell, etc.)
Based on week-long Digital Preservation Training
How we ensure and increase access over time:
Capture of electronic archival records
Starting with Legislative Department records and select record series from other departments
Importing records into a digital repository
Searchable by staff for reference and Public Disclosure
Using Photo Archives as model for ingest
DAPT Progress: Set up Digital Repository Server
“Legend,” 6 TB Defined scope of records, structure Migrated records Policies for access, capturing
checksums for files, backup Using DRRS for backup in addition to
incremental Setting up second stand-alone server
for access copies Test use of Dspace for access
Technical goals: Continue with digitization of select
analog records for preservation and access
Retrospective scanning of legislation currently on fiche
Develop XML-based database system to replace legacy system
Expand scope of Digital Repository (WWW pages, database snapshots, open data sets, additional departments—ultimately Citywide)
Provide online access to records in Digital Repository
Policy goals (in the works!): Social Media Policy for Elected
Officials and their staff Texting Policy for Legislative
Department Ongoing Email Management and
other Electronic Records Management Training
Agreement with IT on policy for City Web sites to capture and convert for preservation
Agreement with Seattle Channel on accessioning video into SMA
City of Seattle Office of the City Clerk
Open Government = Access to Records