DPC is delighted to offer members a preview of our latest Technology Watch Report ‘Preserving Email’, written by Chris Prom of the University of Illinois.
 
DPC Technology Watch Reports identify, delineate, monitor and address topics that have major bearing on ensuring our collected digital memory will be available tomorrow.  They provide an advanced introduction in order to support those charged with ensuring a robust digital memory and they are of general interest to a wide and international audience with interests in computing, information management, collections management and technology.  The reports are commissioned after consultation with members; they are written by experts; and they are thoroughly scrutinised by peers before being released.  The reports are informed, current, concise and balanced and they lower the barriers to participation in digital preservation. The reports are a distinctive and lasting contribution to the dissemination of good practice in digital preservation. ‘Preserving Email’ is the first Technology Watch Report to be published by the DPC in association with Charles Beagrie Ltd. Neil Beagrie, Director of Consultancy at Charles Beagrie Ltd, was commissioned to act as principal investigator and managing editor of the series in 2011.  The managing editor has been further supported by an Editorial Board drawn from DPC members and peer reviewers who have commented on the text prior to release.  The Editorial Board comprises William Kilbride (Chair), Neil Beagrie (Series Editor), Janet Delve (University of Portsmouth), Tim Keefe (Trinity College Dublin), Andrew McHugh (University of Glasgow), Dave Thompson (Wellcome Library).
 

This report is authored by Chris Prom, Assistant University Archivist at the University of Illinois. During 2009-10, as part of the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award, Chris directed a research project at the Centre for Archive and Information Studies at the University of Dundee concerning “Practical Approaches to Identifying, Preserving, and Providing Access to Electronic Records”. This included a major focus on preservation of email.
 
In spite of email’s potential historical, legal and administrative value, few organizations have developed sustainable programmes that are dedicated to preserving it. Several factors, including perceived technological barriers and legal mandates favouring destruction, have led many organisations pursue policies that amount to little more than benign neglect.  As a result, the end users of email systems frequently shoulder the ultimate responsibility for managing and preserving their own email, exposing important documentary records to needless and counterproductive risk of loss.
 
By understanding the technical standards that underlie email systems, by undertaking appropriate preservation strategies and by implementing new technologies, individuals and organisations can lay the foundation for effective email preservation programmes.  The following activities will be essential elements of such efforts:
 
•         Analysing current email systems vis-à-vis end user needs and behaviours.
•         Prioritising long-term access over minimum legal retention periods.
•         Developing short and easy-to-follow email management guidelines.
•         Building procedures and tools that make email preservation an integral, transparent, and effortless part of email users’ communication practices.
•         Capturing email in a standards-based, system-neutral format that preserves its significant properties.

The full text of the report is available to DPC members as a preview at:

Preserving Email [PDF 1079KB] by Chris Prom 2011 - available as a preview for DPC members

It will be published in the first quarter of 2012.