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Web Content Managers Forum Conference Call

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Over 100 Forum members in attendance

Topic: Web Records

A. Agenda

11:00 – 11:05 News & Updates

11:05 – 11:50 Special guests from NARA to discuss Web Records

11:50 – 12:00 Wrap-up and final Q&A

B. News

We will have the new phone system for our next call. The new system will give us the option to mute all lines, saving us from listening to background noise or "hold" music. We apologize for the initial technical difficulties on this call.

C. Overview

Nancy Allard, Kate Flaherty, Thomas Cotter, and Arian Ravanbakhsh from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) joined us to answer questions about managing web records. This is a timely topic given that a new Administration may ask us to archive a lot of previous content and quickly put up new content (no matter which party takes over). Although NARA will not be doing an End–of–the–Administration "snapshot" like they did during previous end–of–administrations, agencies will need to be prepared and have clear web records policies and procedures in place.

End of Administration harvest – why isn't NARA doing one this time?

NARA has only done this at the end of the last two administrations, so it's not a long-standing process. The 2000 harvest was a push from agencies to NARA, and the 2004 harvest "pulled" data from agencies.

NARA did this in the past because there wasn't really any good guidance yet for agencies on how to manage these web records. This time around, however, they decided not to do this because:

  • It's expensive
  • They didn't want to set a precedent, because agencies should manage their own records
  • There IS guidance now for agencies to manage their own records
  • The harvest was not always a comprehensive snapshot, especially of "deep" content, or of any internal (intranet) content

What are NARA's expectations now?

Agencies should evaluate their agency's business processes to see if a "snapshot" is appropriate, and if so, agencies should do their own. Otherwise, just work with your agency records officer to identify the records you need to retain, identify how long to maintain those records, etc. Typically only about three percent of all agency records are considered "permanent."

NARA now offers some examples on their new toolkit http://toolkit.archives.gov of how to do this archiving. Our responsibilities are not limited to a one–time harvest; it must become an ongoing process.

What does it mean to schedule web records, what's the process?

Refer to Part 3 of the guidance on managing web records http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/policy/managing-web-records-index.html . Work with your agency Records Officer to determine the type of record, and whether it's permanent or temporary. Much web content is just a "copy" of the "official" record (like Departmental Strategic Plans), so the information is already scheduled.

You need to do a content inventory, figure out what kinds of content you have, where it's coming from, and whether information is unique or a "copy" of another document that's already scheduled for retention.

Your Records Officer can help you figure out how to do this.

What about versioning?

Do revised versions of web pages need to be archived and retained? When can pages be deleted without any further retention? What about broken links or versioning? Does the “current” version supersede older versions?

It depends on your agency business practices. The disposition for a particular record (web page) might say to keep the last version for one week (until you determine that the current posted version is working, etc.) NARA hasn't yet received enough web records schedules to determine trends yet. Again, ask your Records Officer.

Much web content is basically a "copy" of the "permanent" record. For example, a program office issues a handbook, and makes it available online. The program office, as the "office of record," is responsible for scheduling the disposition of that handbook.

Records Officers

Who are they, and how often should we meet with them?

Every agency has a Records Officer. Here's a list of Federal Records officers: http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/agency/officers-lists.html

Agencies are required to have a content inventory – a high–level list of the types of content on the site – with priorities & schedules for posting content. See Webcontent.gov for guidance on how to do a content inventory: http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/reqs_bestpractices/laws_regs/priorities_reqs.shtml

D. Questions & Answers

If the web version is not the "official record," do we still need to archive the information, e.g. are web records viewed as independent sources of information? What types of pages or documents does NARA consider essential for archiving? How and who determines the retention period for Web pages? Is it the agency or NARA ?

  • It's a collaboration between the agency and NARA. The length of retention time is determined by how long the agency needs it for business purposes, and NARA may also have additional guidelines (statutory requirements, etc.).
  • John Paul, Records Officer from the Energy Information Administration, emphasized the importance of collaboration between web managers and Records Officers. Web staff, General Counsel, and Records Officers must work together to establish clear lines of responsibility for each record. Records Officers help you to figure out if there is some legal or statutory reason for keeping a record, even when business needs have been met.

When Web pages undergo major changes or are removed from the site, how are these pages archived?

  • If your records are already scheduled, you would already have this covered.

Many agencies are trying to consolidate or reduce content and clean up the clutter. How can we easily do this while keeping in compliance with records retention policies?

  • There are four models in the NARA Guidance on Managing Web Records to help you manage your content. Those should help you find the way that's most effective for you to manage your records.
  • http://toolkit.archives.gov is a one–stop shop to help you in this process. This toolkit contains advice on web archiving products, best practices, and guidance from NARA.

What about web 2.0?

  • NARA has issued guidance that basically says these new technologies should be treated no differently than any other content. Some content (e.g., a limited–time blog) is easy to manage, since it has a clear turn–off date.

What about public expectations?

  • NARA guidance covers both internal and external websites. There might actually be more web records retention requirements for internal documents than those on your public website, because many external web documents are often copies of records that are managed by another office.
  • When people file FOIA requests, they expect those records to be available. Records retention schedules can help you with that, to make sure we're keeping the records that we need to keep for posterity.

Dynamic content (e.g., from databases) should be managed accordingly, but content stored in a database doesn't present in the same way as the end–user actually sees on the web. Does this matter whether content is stored in a database vs. a traditional web page?

  • This does have an impact. NARA doesn't want your website code, but just shipping them the database might not work either. What is important to retain is the underlying content, not necessarily the presentation... though the presentation may have an effect. Talk to your Records Officer.

E. Next steps

The four models or approaches for scheduling web records can be found in appendix C of NARA's web guidance. They are suggestions; remember, your records officer can help.

If your agency has a web records schedule to share as an example, please let us know! We would like to link to these from webcontent.gov, to share with our peers and help other agencies through this process.

http://toolkit.archives.gov has a place to recommend a tool – if you find something that helps you through this process, please share.

We will pursue a meeting with web managers and records officers later this summer, so stay tuned.

This may seem hard to do, especially if you feel you're down in the "food chain" within a large agency. But even "little cogs" need to pay attention to web records – it's not just for departmental-level web managers.

Key Takeaway: Set up a meeting with your agency Records Officer. Get started now on this process. They can help you figure out what needs to be archived, and how to do it.

F. Learn more

G. Wrap–up

No call in May because of the annual conference.

Next call: June 19, 2008 11 eastern, 8 pacific.

For future calls:

  • Let us know if you have a topic on which you'd like to speak. We have lots of smart folks in our community, doing lots of innovative things, so this is your chance to share what you are doing, get feedback from your peers, and help your colleagues across government to deliver better online service to the public.
  • If you don't want to speak, but have an idea for a topic that you want to learn more about, send your suggestions to Sheila and Rachel.

 

 

Page Updated or Reviewed: April 29, 2008

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