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Strategies for the preservation of electronic records in South Africa:

implications on access to information

Article in Innovation · October 2009

DOI: 10.4314/innovation.v38i1.46971

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 Strategies for the preservation of electronic
records in South Africa: implications on
access to information

Mpho Ngoepe and Thomas van der Walt

Mpho Ngoepe
Manager: Records and Document Management Auditor-General
[email protected]

Thomas van der Walt

Associate Professor: Department of Information Science
University of South Africa
[email protected]

Abstract

The preservation of electronic records for continued access is a major

challenge of national archives around the globe. These records are fragile due
to the high pace of technological changes resulting in obsolescence. Therefore,
the preservation of electronic records is a challenging exercise that requires
appropriate preparation and strategies. In South Africa, the national and
provincial archives have a mandate to preserve and make records accessible,
including those which are generated electronically. This paper investigates the
strategies adopted by national and provincial archival institutions in South
Africa for the preservation of electronic records. A qualitative survey was
conducted on existing national and provincial archival institutions in South
Africa. The key findings of the study revealed a lack of infrastructure to ingest
electronic records into archival custody in both national and provincial
archives. The paper concludes by arguing that insufficient attention to the
preservation of electronic records could lead to a future situation where access
to an enormous quantity of important government records could be denied.

Open Rubric
2 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

Introduction

Most people are familiar with the old adage “prevention is better than cure”.
This adage implies that it is better to stop something bad from happening rather
than to remove the problem once it has happened. The intent to avoid a crisis,
expense, damage or fatality is evident in the adage. The above adage is also
relevant to the preservation of records. The preservation of records also aims to
mitigate the undesirable consequences of neglect, accidents and the passage of
time, so that the records can remain accessible all the time (Verdegem 2006: 8).
If records are not preserved, it would be difficult to access them in future.

Deegan and Tanner (2006: 1) define preservation as “the continuous process of

creating and maintaining the best environment possible for the storage and/or
use of an artefact to prevent damage and to enable it to live as long a lifetime as
possible”. The Longman dictionary of contemporary English (2004: 1292)
defines preservation as “keeping something in its original state or in good
condition”. In the context of the above definitions, the purpose of preserving
anything, whether it is a record or artefacts, is to enable access to it at some
unspecified time in the future, a purposes not necessarily anticipated by the
creators (Holdsworth 2006: 32-33). In addition, that future access has to provide
meaningful access to the content of the original record (Ngulube 2007: 46). In
other words, preservation is usually understood as an effort to prolong the
useful life of something and avoid its deterioration for as long as possible for
future access.

An electronic record is defined by the National Archives and Records Service of

South Africa (NARS) (2006: 9) as “information generated electronically and
stored by means of computer technology”. Although this term can refer to
analogue materials (for example videotapes), it generally refers to records held
in digital form on magnetic or optical computer storage media. Like paper-
based records, these electronic records need to be preserved and made
accessible to the public.

Without access to records it would be difficult for people to learn from past
successes and failures. Ngulube (2007: 46) stresses that “preserving and
providing access to records are some of the major reasons for the existence of
archival institutions”. Nevertheless, the preservation of records has never before
been as challenging to national archives around the globe as it is today. Where
as the proliferation of electronic records presents national archives around the
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 3

globe with a unique opportunity for growth and development. This proliferation
has also introduced a number of challenges for national archives. Records were
once preserved on media that could last for years, for example, it is estimated
that microfilm can last up to 500 years (Mullon 2004: 7). The same thing cannot
be said about electronic records as the cycle of hardware and software ranges
from two to five years. The more records are created using modern media, the
more evanescent they become, in constant danger of being lost, for example, as
a result of technological obsolescence, software and hardware dependency, and
so forth (Cloonan and Sanett 2002: 70; Lin, Ramaiah and Wal 2003: 117).

It is against the above background that this article seeks to investigate the
strategies adopted by national and provincial archival institutions in South
Africa for the preservation of electronic records and the impact of the strategies
on access to information. In order to reach a conclusion and make
recommendations, a survey was conducted on existing national and provincial
archival institutions in South Africa. The article concludes by arguing that
unless provincial and national archival institutions in South Africa develop
infrastructure for the preservation of electronic records, these records will not be
accessible in the long run. This point is also stressed by Ngulube (2007: 45)
who argues that continued access to records created electronically in South
Africa will depend on how these records are preserved by the national and
provincial archives which have a mandate to do so. It is hoped that the study
will help inform archivists as they formulate policies, strategies and standards
for the preservation of electronic records.

Problem statement

The preservation of electronic records for continued access is a concern of

national archives around the globe. It would seem that the major problem for the
preservation of electronic records is due to the high pace of technological
change resulting in obsolescence, paucity of standards, hardware and software
dependency, lack of technical skills and training from archivists, and so forth
(Cloonan and Sanett 2002: 70; Lin, Ramaiah and Wal 2003: 117; Ngulube
2004: 7; Verdegem 2006: 6). Due to the challenges posed by electronic records
special guidelines are required for their preservation. Therefore, national
archives must adopt long term strategies to preserve electronic records and
make them accessible in future, as there are many uncertainties regarding these
records.
4 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

Most of the challenges cited above apply to the South African situation.
Ngulube (2003: 160) argues that in South Africa, the NARS experienced
problems in preserving electronic records and making them retrievable. This is
despite the existence of a legislative framework empowering the NARS to
facilitate the preservation of electronic records. Insufficient attention to the
preservation of electronic records could lead to a future situation where access
to an enormous quantity of important government records in South Africa
would be denied.

Objectives of the study

In view of the above, the general purpose of the study was to investigate the
strategies adopted by national and provincial archives services in South Africa
to preserve electronic records. The specific objectives were to:
• Investigate the methods used by the national and provincial archives to
ingest electronic records into archival custody;
• Establish the level of skills in electronic records preservation in South
Africa; and
• Investigate the methods used to ensure the authenticity of preserved
electronic records in South Africa.

Research questions

The study was guided by the following research questions:

• What are the strategies for digital preservation in South Africa?
• How do national and provincial archives in South Africa ingest electronic
records from governmental bodies?
• What is the level of skills for managing and preserving electronic records
in South Africa?
• How do national and provincial archives in South Africa ensure the
authenticity of electronic records in their custody?

Literature review

Literature for this study was reviewed under three sub-topics, that is, challenges
for preservation of electronic records; possible strategies for preservation of
electronic records and an overview of the global picture in terms of initiatives
by other national archival institutions to preserve electronic records.
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 5

The challenges of preserving electronic records

Much has been written about the challenges of preserving electronic records
since the 1950s. Research and development initiatives during the 1990s and
2000s have contributed partial solutions to these challenges and much more
remains to be done. Most archivists, academics and records managers
acknowledged that digital preservation is a global information management
problem (Blouin 1996: 1). As a result, various research projects have been
undertaken to address the challenges presented by electronic records, for
example, the InterPARES project1, Digital Preservation Test bed2, the Cedars
project3, and so forth. The following are some of the challenges cited by
researchers, academics and archivist to the preservation of electronic records:

The challenge most often cited by national archives with regard to the
preservation of electronic records is the continuing progress and rapid
obsolescence of information technology (Cloonan and Sanett 2002: 70; Ngulube
2004: 6). According to Bearman (1994: 194) the rapid rate of technological
development has resulted in a hardware and software generation being less than
five years in duration. This point is also stressed by Lin, Ramaiah and Wal
(2003: 117) who argue that information technologies become obsolete within 18
months. This is true because very often records created and maintained by one
generation of software and hardware cannot be accessed by later generations, or,
if they can, the records’ original structure and the associated contextual
metadata cannot be read; for example, nowadays almost no computers can read
floppy disks. Since 1995 until 2008, for example, Microsoft has changed its
operating systems more than five times (from Windows 95 to Vista). As a
result, records created in these systems are affected because they need to be
migrated in order to remain accessible.

A further challenge is the fact that e-records are not readable by humans without
access to a computer. In other words, when software for retrieval and
appropriate hardware are lacking, electronic records cannot be accessed and
retrieved even if the medium on which they are recorded is preserved (that is.
CDs, DVDs, and so forth). However, with paper-based records the information
is captured on media that are durable and can be read by sight or with relatively
simple viewing devices (Lin, Ramaiah and Wal 2003: 118). Further challenges,
according to Abbott (2003: 5), are presented by the fact that the content and
original medium of electronic records can be easily separated, with the content
being transferred to other mediums, for examples, transferring photographs
from a camera or cell phone to a computer. Thus the issue of securing the
6 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

reliability and integrity of electronic records is raised, just as in the popular case
of the South African State versus Judge Motata. In this case the defence
objected to the use of the audio evidence, as well as the images of the judge’s
car accident which served as evidence in his drunken driving charges, arguing
that it was not the primary source of evidence, as the pictures were downloaded
from the cell phone to the laptop and then to the camera. The recordings were
made with a cell phone that broke; they were then transferred to a digital
camera, which was later stolen; and then ended up on the memory card used in
court (Busane 2008: 5). The recordings’ authenticity was questioned in that it
might have been manipulated. It is therefore extremely difficult to monitor the
completeness and reliability of computerised information, since at every stage
of work the information can be modified without leaving a trace (Israel State
Archives 2006: 16).

The other challenge to preserving electronic records is the issue of skills and
training of archivists. Ngulube (2004: 7) argues that most trainers, especially in
Africa, lack expertise and are ill-equipped for the task of training people in the
art of electronic records preservation as compared to their counterparts in
Northern America and Europe. According to the Israel State Archives (2006:
16) “the administrators of records and archivists in government must be
knowledgeable in electronic records management and information technology,
in addition to their professional training”. This point is also stressed by
Bearman (1994: 192) who argues that it is crucial for archivists to be able to
communicate with the designers of electronic record-keeping systems in order
to ensure that archival requirements are understood and implemented.
Therefore, archivists must acquire the new skills necessary to impart knowledge
to records creators, users and system designers of electronic record keeping
(Bearman 1994: 192; Israel State Archives 2006: 16). The skills required are not
just related to technical specifications, but also include an understanding of an
organisation’s record-keeping requirements, business process engineering,
corporate accountability and risk assessment decisions (Israel State Archives
2006: 16).

Approaches to the preservation of electronic records

The debates regarding the best methods of digital preservation have been
underway for many years (Verdegem 2006: 8). Various theoretical solutions
have been proposed but each has serious flaws, such as:
• Setting of standards;
• Preserving the original technology used to create or store the records;
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 7

• Migrating the software necessary to retrieve, deliver and use the records;
• Preserving records in governmental bodies;
• Conversion; and
• Emulating the original technology on new platforms.

The setting of standards

According to Cook (1995: 90) one of the options of digital preservation is

imposing a single hardware and software standard on all records creators, even
within one archival or business jurisdiction, for example, by making a policy
that everyone in a government department must use WordPerfect with Windows
only. In this way the continuing software functionality could be ensured,
provided that all old data is migrated to new versions of the same software as
these are adopted (Library and Archives Canada 2004). However, such policy
fiats are undesirable as they undermine end-user creativity, curtail the level of
comfort with other technology and create an unhealthy monopoly situation.

Creating a museum of technology

Another approach to digital preservation is to preserve the environment in

which the records were created. This means maintaining a “computer museum”
for obsolete technology (Cook 1995: 90; Feeney 1999: 41; NARS 2006: 60). It
is the maintenance of the hardware and software platforms which support a
digital resource in order to access records (Deegan and Tanner 2006: 16).
However, this option seems generally to be regarded as impractical and
expensive. The biggest problem with this option is that it does not address the
issue of maintaining the equipment and training people how to use obsolete
systems in future. Therefore, this strategy can only be regarded as viable for the
short to medium term. Any organisation that relies solely on this strategy would
very soon end up with a museum of ageing and incompatible computer
hardware with no one to fix the technology. If this strategy is adopted it would
need to be accompanied by a regular cycle of media refreshing.

Migration

Migration is the process of moving records from one system to another, while
maintaining the record’s authenticity, integrity, reliability and usability (Findlay
2002: 91). It involves change in the configuration of the underlying data,
without change in their intellectual content. This is necessary when hardware
8 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

and software become obsolete. Computer-operating environments change and

develop very quickly, making migration both an essential and an ongoing
process. Nevertheless, migration is also fraught with danger of losing or
corrupting information (Cook 1995: 90; NARS 2006: 20). Some content,
functionality or structure may be lost during migration. Moreover, migration of
the information to a new standard or application programme is time-consuming,
costly and much more complex than simple refreshing.

Non-custodial approach

The other prospect for preserving access to archival electronic records will be to
retain those records within a technological environment:
• Which can maintain accessibility to the records in question; and
• Maintaining authenticity, in conformity with the changes and developments
in technology as they occur over time.

In most cases, this environment will not be found in the custody of the archives
repository, but in the custody of the governmental bodies which have generated
the records (Feeney 1999: 41). However, the idea of governmental bodies
maintaining custody of their own records for preservation, with archival value
and records management direction, may not be a beneficial solution to the
problem of preserving electronic records. The problem with this approach is that
records would not really be managed unless additional staff are hired and
trained for the purpose of dealing with the new responsibility. The
governmental bodies may view the responsibility negatively as something that
takes away valuable time and funds needed to perform the organisation’s
primary mission. If the creating agencies preserve their electronic records
permanently, archival institutions would not be able to provide long-term access
to the hardware needed to view the information. Moreover, records may be
altered to benefit the organisation or an individual if the records are kept in the
custody of the creating body. This is only a relocation of the problem, instead of
a solution. Focus and training, as well as security and integrity issues, must be
considered before organisations consider a non-custodial approach to electronic
records management. The national archives that choose a non-custodial
approach must possess sufficient authority to be able to require creating
agencies to maintain their electronic records for future use and must be able to
enforce compliance.
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 9

Conversion

This is the oldest method and has been used effectively for textual documents
that may be retrieved and read, but will not be altered and re-used (NARS 2006:
83). Conversion is defined as the process of changing records from one medium
to another or from one format to another (Findlay 2002: 91). This happens when
a record’s format or medium has become obsolete, for example, in cases where
a particular software developer discontinues a product or goes out of business
leaving the application unsupported. Transfer to film or paper eliminates the
problems of software obsolescence. The authenticity of surrogates and their
acceptability to readers are of major concern, as well as the preservation of
surrogates themselves. One advantage of surrogates is the possibility of
preservation through multiplication of numbers of copies (Mullon 2004: 7).
Organisations can also opt for blending the electronic and physical storage
worlds by using digital information storage for short-term access and the
subsequent writing thereof to microfilm-based archive media to satisfy retention
requirements (Lavoie 2007: 120; Mullon 2004: 7). The latest generation of
microfilms is designed to last for over 500 years and produce a faithful replica
of the original document at the time that it was generated electronically (Mullon
2004: 7). Alterations to records in paper or microfilm format are relatively easy
to detect.

Emulation

If a digital object is complex, it is highly likely that some information might be

lost during migration to new formats. This has led to some researchers
suggesting that for such cases emulation might be a better technique. Emulation
is the process of recreation of the hardware and software environment required
to access a resource (Findlay 2002: 91). It involves creating programmes that
are compatible with contemporary technology, yet mimic the hardware
components of older, obsolete technologies (Lavoie 2007: 120). This includes
the programming of future, powerful computer systems to emulate the older,
obsolete computer platforms and operating systems that are required (Cook
1995: 90; Feeney 1999: 41). It does not require access to the same hardware
and/or software used originally for the initial application. The theory behind
emulation is that the only way to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the
digital records in the long term is to continue to provide access to it in its
original environment (Verdegem 2006: 9). According to Verdegem (2006: 9-10)
emulation can be done on three levels, that is, application software level, system
10 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

software (operating system) level and hardware level. Anyone relying solely on
this strategy could be taking a significant risk. They would be depending on the
technical ability of the software engineers to emulate a specific environment
and sustain it, and on the commercial viability of anyone providing such a
service. Emulation requires people to have detailed knowledge of every aspect
of the original systems and people with those skills are rare.

Global status of initiatives in digital preservation

A quick scan of literature reveals that a series of initiatives designed to address

the challenge raised by preservation of electronic records have been developed
by archives and records institutions around the world. In Netherlands, for
example, the National Library and the National Archives have jointly
undertaken emulation as a long term preservation strategy (Verdegem 2006: 6).
The same cannot be said about the countries in Southern African Development
Countries (SADAC) region. In a comparative study by Keakopa (2008: 74) it
was found that only South Africa had policies and guidelines on the
preservation of electronic records as compared to Namibia and Botswana.
However, this section looks at developments in two countries, that is, Canada
and Australia as they are considered to be two of the leaders in terms of
preservation of electronic records (Keakopa 2008: 75).

Canada

In Canada, the preservation of archival heritage is the responsibility of Library

and Archives Canada (LAC), which was established in May 2004 as a result of
a merger between the National Archives and National Library (LAC 2004). The
LAC’s digital preservation is committed to long term preservation architecture
complying with the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) standard. It is
an ISO reference model #14721: 2003 (LAC 2008). This reference model
addresses a full range of archival information preservation functions including
ingest, archival storage, data management and access.

The LAC has a unique building dedicated to preservation and storage of

electronic records. It includes a village of conservation laboratories made of
servers, tape library, as well as 48 climate-controlled vaults that house all types
of public and private archival records. It is built from three basic materials, that
is, concrete, stainless steel and fibre glass to control humidity and temperature.
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 11

There are electronic records on-line, some are near-line and many are off-line
(LAC 2008).

The LAC, however, does not take electronic records with encryption and digital
signature into archival custody. The LAC considers encryption to serve the
function of a traditional paper envelope: because this “envelope” is not an
integral part of the document, and because envelopes have not traditionally been
appraised as having archival value, the LAC does not preserve the encrypted
version of records in electronic form. For digital signatures, the LAC have
chosen not to maintain the capacity to re-verify a digital signature after the
records are transferred to LAC’s control, or to preserve the traces of a digital
signature generated under the Government of Canada Public Key Infrastructure
system. The LAC consider that the integrity and authenticity of electronic
records will continue to be inferred from their placement within an
organisation’s recordkeeping system during the normal course of business, and
from proof of that organisation’s reliance on records kept within their
recordkeeping system (LAC 2008).

Australia

Initiatives in Australia include the development and implementation of the

Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) (Quenault 2004: 2). The VERS
started in 1995 with the commissioning of a research project to investigate ways
that Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) could meet its statutory obligation
to preserve the records of the state in perpetuity (Quenault 2004: 2).

The current National Archives of Australia’s (NAA) approach to digital

preservation is through operating a prototype digital preservation strategy that
has been recognised globally as a sustainable, scalable and innovative answer to
the complexities of digital preservation and access (NAA 2008a). The NAA’s
approach is to convert digital records into openly-specified preservation file
formats to guarantee access to their contents in the future. The open formats are
based on public standards, have full specifications that are publicly documented,
and are interoperable with a range of software applications (NAA 2008b). The
NAA has avoided using proprietary (closed format) software so that the
intellectual property constraints on such software are respected but do not limit
continuing access to government records over time (NAA 2008b).

The NAA’s digital preservation facilities comprise a secure and stable

environment that houses processing networks, a digital archive and a separate
12 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

laboratory for staff. When selecting the hardware and systems for its digital
preservation prototype, the NAA avoided relying on any single vendor or
technology (NAA 2008c). In doing so, the NAA enhanced its ability to deal
with hardware obsolescence. By operating with a redundancy, the NAA is
trying to future-proof its system. In the event of an operational flaw in any one
operating system or vendor, an alternative is available, so risk to data is low.

Mandate for the preservation of electronic records in

South Africa

In South Africa the National Archives and Records Service is charged with the
primary statutory responsibility to provide effective management of public
records to support evidence-based governance and service delivery (NARS
2006: 5). In terms of section 13 of the National Archives and Records Service
Act, 1996 (No 43 of 1996) the National Archivist shall be charged with proper
management and care of all records in the custody of governmental bodies.

The basis for establishing a new archives and records management system for
South Africa was provided by the 1996 Constitution, which provided in
schedule 5 that archives other than national archives are a functional area of
exclusive provincial competence. Therefore records management in South
Africa is the responsibility of both the national and provincial archives services
(Abbot 2007: 7; NARS 2006: 5). However, provincial archival services rely on
the NARS in terms of policy and direction regarding the management and
preservation of records as most of them do not even have infrastructure for
paper-based records (Abbot 2007: 7).

In 2000, the NARS published guidelines for the management and preservation
of electronic records (Abbot 2003). These guidelines were updated in 2003,
2004 and 2006 (Keakopa 2007: 74). They explain the mandatory requirements
and procedures for managing electronic records. According to the guidelines
electronic records should be managed with electronic records management
applications as part of Integrated Document and Records Management System
that manage records in all formats in an integrated manner (NARS 2006: 7).
The major shortcoming according to Ngulube (2006: 122) is that the guidelines
are not simple or modular enough. Therefore they cannot be easily applied as
procedures. Ngulube (2006: 122) maintains that processes in these guidelines
are not clearly articulated. Policies and procedures are important in guiding the
proper management of electronic records. However, it is of no use to have a
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 13

well-developed policy and fail to implement it, as it is the case with the NARS.
As this article will demonstrate in the findings, the NARS has developed good
guidelines on the management of electronic records but failed to implement it
due to lack of infrastructure.

Research methodology

To establish the strategies adopted by national and provincial archive services in

South Africa this study used both secondary and primary data. An extensive
literature review was undertaken which helped in framing questions for the
primary data collection. For the primary data collection the researchers used
questionnaires directed to the head of records management units of national
archives and all nine provincial archives repositories in South Africa as a source
of data collection. The survey was carried out during June and July 2008.
Participants were drawn from the website address of the National Archives and
Records Service of South Africa www.national.archives.gov.za which lists a
directory of archives repositories in South Africa. Ten heads of records
management units responsible for management and preservation of electronic
records in both the national and provincial archives were each sent an electronic
copy of the questionnaire. The study was limited to the preservation of
electronic records, that is, records created electronically and managed by means
of computer technology. Paper-based records and microfilms were not covered
in this study.

Response rate

Of the 10 questionnaires distributed to the heads of records management of

national and provincial archives repositories, only five were returned after many
follow-ups and persuasion, thus representing a 50% return rate. The analysis of
questionnaires was conducted based on the statement of Babbie and Mouton
(1998: 261) and McCall (1980) that the “consensus in survey research is that a
response rate of 50% is considered adequate for analysis, while 60% is good
and 70% is considered very good”. Telephonic interviews were conducted with
five heads of records management units who did not return questionnaires
during July 2008 to supplement data collected via questionnaires.
14 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

Results and findings

The aim of the survey was to investigate the strategies adopted by national and
provincial archives in South Africa for the preservation of electronic records.
Despite the limitations mentioned earlier, the findings mentioned below were
made. The findings are discussed in four broad areas in line with the research
questions:
• Strategies for digital preservation in South Africa;
• Storage and long-term accessibility of electronic records;
• Skills for managing and preserving electronic records; and
• Ensuring the authenticity of electronic records.

Strategies for digital preservation in South Africa

The questionnaire responses and the interviews revealed that all provincial
archives rely on the NARS in terms of strategy for the preservation of electronic
records. While its practical experience is limited, the NARS has adopted a
strategy underpinned by a legal framework explicitly provided for in the
National Archives and Records Service Act. The act specifies in section
13(2)(b)(ii) and 13(2)(b)(iii) that the National Archivist must determine the
conditions subject to which records may be reproduced electronically as well as
the conditions with regard to the way in which electronic records systems must
be managed. Only the NARS has a preservation policy for electronic records
which the provincial archives also encourage their clients to follow. The NARS’
electronic records management programme is aligned with regulatory
requirements of the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and is built
on the following four-pronged strategy:
• Archival involvement in the design and maintenance of electronic records
management systems;
• The earliest possible transfer into archival custody of electronic records
with enduring value. However, this is not practised as the NARS does not
have the necessary infrastructure to take electronic records into archival
custody;
• The identification of archival electronic records which should remain in the
custody of the creating body; and
• The identification of non-archival electronic records that can be disposed
of as part of an office’s normal administrative practice.
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 15

The NARS also requires that electronic records in the custody of governmental
bodies be migrated to new hardware and software platforms constantly to
enable them to remain accessible. The NARS requires that migration strategies
be built into the electronic systems during design. The reason for this is that, if
migration strategies are added at a later stage, it might be that:
• The format in which the records were captured does not lend itself to data
interchange amongst different types of storage media and software
applications;
• Records are lost in the migration process and that there is no proper
recording of what was lost; and
• The necessary metadata could not be attached during the migration process
because the links between the documents and the metadata were lost or
never properly managed in the first place.

The NARS requires that governmental bodies moving away from paper-based
transactions to electronic transactions should implement and maintain the
Integrated Document and Records Management System (IDRMS). The NARS
prefers the IDRMS to be certified against the United States Department of
Defense and/or United Kingdom Public Records Office. If not certified, they
should at least have proven records management capabilities that are compliant
with the standards. According to the NARS these standards contain the
functional requirements against which records management applications can be
tested to ensure that they meet records management requirements.

The NARS has also endeavoured to forge links with governmental offices that
have overarching authority in the field of information technology, such as
SITA, to ensure that archival requirements are built into government-wide
policies. In terms of the State Information Technology Agency Act (Act No. 88
of 1998) SITA is charged with providing information technology and
information systems services for governmental bodies in South Africa. In the
long run the partnership between the two state agencies could prove beneficial
to the preservation of electronic records in South Africa. SITA can provide the
technical knowledge and skills for the preservation of electronic records while
the NARS can provide the records management expertise.

In 2006 SITA, in conjunction with the NARS, evaluated a number of enterprise

content management (ECM) solutions to establish a new panel of products to
replace the now defunct Tender 59 for the management of electronic records.
This panel of products is known as Tender 398: Enterprise Content
Management Solutions. The purpose of the panel is to enable governmental
16 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

bodies to shorten the tender processes by procuring from the panel via a
Request for Quotation (RFQ), which is a much shorter process than other tender
processes. Three classes of solutions were evaluated (see Appendix A for the
products on Tender 398: Enterprise Content Management Solutions. The tender
was due for renewal in August 2008).

Storage and long-term accessibility of electronic records

The National Archives and provincial archives in South Africa do not have a
storage mechanism for electronic records in place. In July 2003, the NARS, via
the Director-General: Arts and Culture, registered the need for a feasibility
study regarding the development of an infrastructure to manage digital archival
records and to investigate the impact of the digital preservation requirements
and infrastructure on a number of related issues with the National Treasury’s
Public Private Partnership (PPP) Unit. According to Kirkwood (2008) the PPP
should investigate building the proper storage infrastructure for electronic
records. In conjunction with the National Treasury’s PPP Unit, in the period
2004-2005, the NARS developed a business case describing the investigation
required during the feasibility study. The business case, in turn, was used to
develop a set of terms of reference for the appointment of transaction advisors
to conduct the feasibility study. The specific purpose of conducting a feasibility
study was to assess the options for:
• Implementing a PPP for the management of archival digital records;
• Implementing a PPP for the operation and maintenance of the National
Archives and Records Service’s Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) systems; and
• Investigating the optimum required capacity for records management
practices in provinces and local authorities with specific reference to the
management and preservation of digital and related records.

However, information obtained though interviews indicates that the PPP has not
moved an inch in the last two years (2006-2007), but according to the NARS it
has not been abandoned. The NARS is finalising a design for a new archiving
building and it is hoped that digital preservation would fit in the design process.
Furthermore, the NARS aimed at sourcing funding to employ consultants to
conduct an in-depth feasibility study.

Given the lack of infrastructure for preservation of electronic records in South

Africa, almost all government departments have not transferred to the NARS or
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 17

any provincial archives any computerised archival materials, but have kept them
in their own possession. The storing of these records in the government
departments cannot be considered preservation for the future, since many do not
have the capability of locating and retrieving a document after a certain period
of time. Furthermore, government employees do not have the skills to manage
those records. In practice, many government departments destroy material when
it is no longer necessary for their current needs.

The results of the survey indicate that most of the provincial archives
repositories do not even have proper archival storage for paper-based records.
Table 1 below lists provinces with and without proper archival storage, as well
as provincial archival legislation.

Table 1: List of provinces without proper archival storage

Provinces with proper Provinces without proper Provinces with

archival storage archival storage archival legislation
Western Cape Mpumalanga Mpumalanga Archives
Act (Act No 14 of
1998)
Free State North West Free State Provincial
Archives Act (Act No
4 of 1999)
KwaZulu-Natal Northern Cape KwaZulu-Natal
Provincial Archives
Act (Act No 5 of
2000)
Limpopo (busy erecting Northern Province
archival building) Archives Act (Act No
5 of 2001)
Eastern Cape Eastern Cape
Provincial Archives
and Records Service
Act (Act No 7 of
2003)
Gauteng

The skills for managing and preserving electronic records

Yusof and Chell (1998: 26) point out that the most obvious way for archivists to
enhance their resourcefulness is through education. The training and upgrading
of skills can be achieved through workshops, vendor-sponsored programmes,
professional seminars and college or university-level courses. Skills on
18 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

preservation techniques are fundamental to implementing a preservation

programme (Ngulube 2007: 60). The results of the survey indicate that the
NARS has limited skills as far as the preservation of electronic records is
concerned. There was only one self-trained person with the skills for the
preservation of electronic records and she has since left the service of the NARS
for the private sector at the beginning of 2008. One person could not cope with
the continuous research that is necessary to keep up to date with electronic
records management developments. This lack of skills in electronic records
preservation could lead to future access to pubic records being denied.

Towards the end of 2008, when the survey was conducted, of all public archives
repositories in South Africa, only one has a single staff member on a lower level
(principal archivist) dedicated only to the preservation of electronic records.
This implies that electronic records in South Africa are not given the necessary
attention, but are only managed on an ad hoc basis.

Ensuring the authenticity of electronic records

Data obtained via questionnaires indicates that part of ensuring the authenticity
of electronic records is regulated by records management requirements during
the creation of the records, for example, by observing the minimum required
metadata and audit trails. However, as public archival repositories in South
Africa do not have infrastructure in place for preservation of electronic records,
issues of authenticity once records have been taken into archival custody have
not yet been addressed. As discussed earlier the NARS and provincial archives
require client offices to use IDRMS that are able to capture records in read only
format and a non-editable audit trail of all actions to be placed on record. To
protect the authenticity and reliability of electronic records as evidence in courts
of law the records must be protected against alterations by users and systems
administrators. All events that affect the reliability of records must be tracked
and that audit trail must be kept as an unalterable record (NARS 2004: 14). The
NARS requires that the system logs a history of all changes that were made on a
record including the date of the change and the identification of the person who
has made the change (NARS 2004: 13). It should log changes to the records and
to the metadata to ensure that the records remain reliable.
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 19

Summary of results

Based on the above findings, the results of the survey study are interpreted as
follows:
• No provincial archives have established methods for preservation of digital
records. They all rely on the guidelines for managing electronic records
issued by the NARS in April 2006.

• Even though the NARS propagate migration as a preservation strategy,

there is a lack of infrastructure to ingest electronic records into archival
custody in both national and provincial archives. As a result, the
responsibility for preserving electronic records is shifted to the
governmental bodies. Therefore, it can be argued that the NARS is
following a non-custodial approach as far as preservation of electronic
records is concerned. In this regard, the NARS requires governmental
bodies to migrate e-records through hardware and software changes to
ensure that they remain accessible.

• There is a critical lack of skills to preserve electronic records in both

national and provincial archives. The NARS operated with only one person
who was responsible for the management of electronic records. The
official has since left the service of the NARS at the beginning of 2008.
Thus, only one provincial archives repository had one staff member
dedicated to preservation of electronic records.

• As indicated in Table 1 above, some provincial archives did not have

proper archival storage for paper-based records and legislation that
mandate them to preserve electronic records.

• Issues of authenticity once records have been taken into archival custody
have not yet been addressed.

Conclusion and recommendations

On the whole, it is difficult at this stage to assess which of the strategies

presented above as results of the study will prove to be the most effective means
of dealing with electronic records in the long run. There are a number of
advantages and disadvantages associated with each of the above options as
already explained and it is up to individual institutions to decide what the best
20 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

option will be in their given environment. National archives must choose an

approach to electronic records that fits the mission of the archives, as well as the
environment in which the archives operate, for example, currently the NARS
does not have infrastructure to take electronic records in custody and therefore
the best strategy here will be the conversion or non-custodial approach.

The achievement of a good preservation strategy that will provide a heritage of

business activities within government is a daunting task. The preservation of,
and access to, electronic records produced by the South African government are
a difficult challenge that requires appropriate preparation and organisation.
While the NARS has digital records management policies and strategies in
place that are benchmarked against international standards and best practice, it
does not have a digital preservation infrastructure, nor does its staff have the
technical skills required to manage a trusted digital repository in which
sustainable, authentic digital archival records can be preserved in the long term.
To meet its legislative mandate, the NARS needs to establish a digital
preservation solution that would address the preservation of records created in
disparate systems and that would contribute to the formulation of best practice
requirements regarding the preservation of records created in the digital
environment. As regulators of the digital records management practices of
governmental bodies, the NARS and provincial archives need to modernise
their own service delivery to meet increased service delivery demands and to
enable it to skill their staff to ingest digital records into custody and to manage
them properly. Furthermore, NARS and provincial archives need strong
leadership and an improvement agenda endorsed at a high level (political level).

The structure under which the NARS falls should acknowledge that failure to
resource the National Archives to develop the necessary infrastructure for the
preservation of electronic records has already resulted in the government’s
accountability being compromised, and the heritage of governance in the
democratic South Africa being jeopardised. These consequences apply to all
spheres of government as the NARS would be positioned to be the lead agency
for the preservation of electronic records of national, provincial and local
government given the complexity of infrastructure which would not be
duplicated.

Based on the above discussion and conclusion, it is recommended that:

• The NARS should be considered by Parliament as a Chapter nine
institution4;
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 21

• The NARS and provincial archives should develop partnerships with

Chapter nine institutions such as the Auditor-General of South Africa,
South African Human Rights Commission, and so forth;
• The NARS and provincial archives should create the necessary
infrastructure for ingest of electronic records into archival custody;
• The NARS and provincial archives should outsource some of their services
to qualified professionals, for example, training, inspection, and so forth;
• The NARS and provincial archives should establish committees to deal
with various aspects of preservation of electronic records;
• The NARS and provincial archives should establish a section dedicated
only to the preservation of electronic records;
• The administrators of records in government and archivists must be
knowledgeable in electronic records management and information
technology, in addition to their professional training. Archivists need to be
trained in the preservation of electronic records to ensure future access to
public records; and
• The NARS and provincial archives should engage in exchange
programmes with archival institutions in other countries.

This study has brought forward several issues that require further research. The
study seems to suggest that there is lack of infrastructure to ingest electronic
records in archival custody. As well, there is lack of skills amongst archivists to
preserve electronic records. Therefore, the following issues should be areas of
interest for archival and records management professionals:
• An investigation of the development and implementation of infrastructure
to ingest electronic records into archival custody for the preservation of
electronic records;
• Investigation of the development of modules to train archivists and records
management professionals on the management and preservation of
electronic records; and
• Assessment of the preservation strategies for electronic records in South
Africa.

Lastly, this paper calls for the NARS and provincial archives to take the lead in
research in electronic records management and preservation. This can be done
in partnership with academic institutions. Unless provincial and national
archival institutions in South Africa develop infrastructure for preservation of
electronic records, these records will not be accessible in the long run. In
centuries or even decades to come, the future generations would see these
22 Innovation, No.38, June 2009

archival repositories as great vandals of archival heritage of South Africa

because of the information gap they would experience.

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Appendix A: Tender 398: Enterprise Content Management Solutions

• Class A Solutions consist of the following fully integrated
modules: imaging and scanning; document management, digital asset
management; web-content management and collaboration; records
management; search and retrieval; e-mail management and forms
management. Table 1 below outlines the ECM Core Class A solutions
and the suppliers that sell it.

Table 1: ECM Core Class A Solutions

Product Supplier
Documentum Waymark / Accenture
FileNet P8 Arivia.kom / Lechabile / Ovations
Hummingbird IA Systems
Livelink Business Connexion / ECW
Datacentrix
Microsoft SSP/Merido Business Connexion
Vignette Valor IT
• Class B Solutions consist of a core solution with following fully
integrated modules: business process management; imaging and
scanning; document management, digital asset management; web-content
management and collaboration; records management. These solutions are
suitable for governmental bodies that do not have a need for all inclusive
functionality. Table 2 below outlines the ECM Core Class B solutions
and suppliers.

Table 2: ECM Core Class B Solutions

Product Supplier
Collaborator Business Engineering
Documentum Waymark / Accenture
IBM Content Manager Faritec / Hlobane
Microsoft SSP/Meridio Gijima AST / Intervate
Papertrail.web Comsel Eighteen
Vignette Valor IT
• Class C solutions consist of the following modules that can be
implemented as standalone solutions: biometrics and digital signatures,
search and retrieval, e-mail archiving; forms management; portal
management; business process management. These products can be
procured in the instances where a governmental body already has a core
 Ngoepe and van der Walt : Strategies for the preservation of …. 27

solution implemented and wish to extend its functionality. Table 3 below

outlines the ECM Core Class C products and suppliers.

Table 3: ECM Core Class C Solutions

Product Supplier
Adobe Workflow Comsel Eighteen
AWD Gijima AST
Metastorm e-work Bytes Technologies / IA Systems
IBM MQ Workflow Faritec / Hlobane
K2.net Intervate / SBI
Tibco Choice Technologies / Graviton /
IOCore

Endnotes

A copy of the questionnaire is obtainable from the authors.

1
InterPARES is the International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in
Electronic Systems; Inter pares is also Latin for “amongst peers” (Katuu 2007: 19).
InterPARES aims at developing the theoretical and methodological knowledge
essential to the long-term preservation of authentic records created and/or maintained
in digital form. More information on InterPARES can be accessed at web address
http://www.interpares.org
2
http://www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl
3
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/guideto/dpstrategies/dpstrategies.html
4
Institutions established in terms of Chapter nine of the Constitution of the Republic
of South Africa to strengthen democracy and accountability, for example, the Auditor-
General of South Africa, the South African Human Rights Commission, the
Independent Electoral Commission, and so forth.

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