Structured workflow for implementing digital archiving standards in an organisation

Abstract

There are many standards available for archiving digital and analogue (paper) data and documents, but these come from various sources and it can be difficult to understand what standards should be used, and where. Researchers have executed a project to improve the information standards in a government department, including those for data archiving. Researchers have developed a structured workflow to guide the department on archiving their data and documents, which was report on here. The workflow draws on the guidelines for archiving of electronic data, as developed by the National Archives and Records Services (NARS) of South Africa; various international standards (also adopted as South African National Standards); and the existing standards and guidelines in the department. Archiving activities in all government departments have to comply with the NARS guidelines. The guide starts with the generation of a file plan and ends with the backup or destruction of archived digital data (as appropriate) and the auditing thereof. To facilitate using the workflow, researchers have prepared a detailed example for planning and conducting one of the department’s key annual surveys. It shows where and when the various archiving steps should be taken. The survey plan consists of various milestones that need to be achieved when conducting the survey. The various archiving steps are then included in the appropriate milestones. While the structured workflow was developed specifically for a government department, researchers feel that it is sufficiently general to have application for digital curation in other environments