2. Purpose and objectives of this policy
Western Cape Archives and Records Service
Our reference: WCA12/2/4/P e-mail: Lunette.Lourens@westerncape.gov.za
tel: +27 21 483-0400 fax: +27 21 483-0444
Enquiries: L Lourens
Digitisation Policy for the Western Cape Government and Municipalities in the Western Cape Province
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
72 Roeland Street,
Cape Town, 8001
Private Bag X9025, Cape Town 8000 web: www.westerncape.gov.za
Cultural Affairs and Sport : ImiCimbiyeNkcubekonezembiDlalo : Kultuursake en Sport
DIGITISATION POLICY FOR THE WESTERN CAPE GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE, DECEMBER 2013
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Contents
Introduction, background, context and scope .................................................... 3
Policy 2: Maintenance of sound curatorial practice ........................................... 8
Policy 3: Metadata to include rights information ................................................. 9
Policy 5: Negotiation of digital rights with creators, donors or lenders ........... 12
Policy 10: Development and implementation of a Common Repository
Policy 12 : Implications for governmental bodies ............................................... 18
Policy 13: Creation of a Provincial Digital Repository ......................................... 18
Policy 15: Protection and preservation of digital heritage ................................ 20
Policy 19: Handling of confidential and secret records in accordance with
Policy 20: Development and implementation of national metadata and 4.20
Policy 21: Use of standard technologies, formats and media .......................... 23
Policy 22: Creating a Community of Practice ................................................... 245
Policy 23: Developing and implementing a skills framework for digitisation .. 25
Policy 24: Developing and measuring institutional capacity............................ 25
Policy 25: Capacity development for electronic records management ....... 26
Policy 26: Promoting Research and Development ............................................ 26
Policy 27: Creating a Digital Heritage Body of Knowledge .............................. 27
ADDENDUM 1 - ATTRIBUTES OF A RECORD ………………………………………………………...28
ADDENDUM 2 - LIST OF TERMS AND DEFINITIONS …………………………………………………30
DIGITISATION POLICY FOR THE WESTERN CAPE GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE, DECEMBER 2013 2
1.
Introduction, background, context and scope
1.1
The advent of digital technology has brought about new challenges that the
Western Cape Archives and Records Service needs to deal with. There are two broad areas of challenges, they are:
the management of “digitally born” electronic records; and,
the management of the digitisation process of the largely paper-based historical records to digital formats.
1.2
The evident- and increasing need for governmental bodies to embark on digitisation projects has necessitated the compilation of a policy document to control and guide the standards, processes and storage of the resulting digital images and accompanying data. The Western Cape Archives and Records
Service is mandated with the task of ensuring that reliable records are maintained, over time, as evidence of official business for the purposes of accountability, operational continuity, disaster recovery and institutional and social memory.
1.3 Policies and structures are in place to guide the archiving of paper-based records, to ensure that the records are physically cared for, and that the evidence they contain remains accessible over time. The relatively recent arrival of digital technology and its rapid adoption for everyday business and governmental affairs has resulted in a rapidly-changing technological environment with relatively few guides and standards for the long term preservation of electronic and digital records crafted for South African conditions.
1.4 It is essential that governmental bodies give specific consideration to the preservation of electronic records as part of the management of records. The
Provincial Archives and Records Service of the Western Cape Act, 2005 (Act No. 3 of 2005) does contain some provisions specifically regarding electronic records.
1
However, for the main part current legislation has not managed to keep pace with the rapidly evolving developments in digital technology and their subsequent adoption by a variety of institutions (including governmental bodies). It is therefore, incumbent on the Western Cape Archives and Records Service to introduce guidelines to best manage the rapidly evolving digital landscape that governmental bodies find themselves operating within, with due regard for South
Africa’s unique and particular circumstances.
1.5 The responsible care and management of digital records is thus vital to the
1 The provisions are: that the Head of the Service must determine the conditions subject to which public records may be electronically reproduced, section 9(2)(b)(ii). As with other public records, the legislation provides that electronic records may not be disposed of without the written authorisation of the Head of the Service (section 9(2)
(a)). The legislative provisions regarding archival custody take the special needs of electronic records into account, in that while public records that have been appraised as having archival value are to be transferred to archival custody after 20 years, the
Head of the Service may in consultation with the head of a governmental body identify records which should remain in its custody or should be transferred to archival custody at an earlier time (section 6(2)(b)).
DIGITISATION POLICY FOR THE WESTERN CAPE GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE, DECEMBER 2013 3
functioning of government, the provision of accountable and transparent governance and of service delivery.
1.6 Without the responsible care and management of digital records, there will be no long-term institutional and social memory of the present age in the custody of the
Western Cape Archives and Records Service.
1.7 Public records are the output of the business and administrative processes of a governmental body. Records serve as essential proof of the business that was conducted and should remain unaltered over time for as long as they are needed. As evidence of official business, records have on-going use as a means of management, accountability, operational continuity, legal evidence and disaster recovery. They also form the memory of the institution that created them, and they are part of society’s memory and the broader cultural heritage. In some cases records also have a bearing on the rights of citizens.
1.8 Records, thus, are a vital aspect of a country’s history, memory and heritage – it is important that they are managed in such a way as to preserve their integrity and content for future generations. The management of records within the digital environment is thus a vital extension of the functions that the Western Cape
Archives and Records Service, as well as associated governmental bodies, have performed with regard to paper-based records.
1.9 The policies, principles and requirements in this policy document are applicable to all governmental bodies, that is: any legislative, executive, judicial or administrative organ of state (including a statutory body) within the Western Cape
Province.
2. Purpose and objectives of this policy
2.1 The purpose of this document is to provide a uniform policy to governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province to assist them to comply with legislative requirements regarding digital records as an integral part of the strategic management of their records resources.
2.2 The main aims and objectives of this document are:
2.2.1 To provide a guiding framework for governmental bodies within the Western Cape to compile digital strategy documents that are aligned with international standards and best practices, as well as with an eye to the unique circumstances within South Africa and the Western Cape.
2.2.2 To provide guidance on digital rights management issues that must be addressed in digitisation strategies compiled by governmental bodies. This policy document takes cognisance of the lack of guidance or legislation pertaining digital rights issues, This policy document will attempt to chart a course that will ensure that the
Western Cape Archives and Records Service is able to safeguard the records in its care for future benefit of all South Africans.
2.2.3 To provide guidance on the compilation of accurate and comprehensive metadata records, as a vital means for managing electronic records and digital surrogates in the future.
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2.2.4 To discuss and describe the requirements for the creation of authentic digital records that are useable and reliable for as long as they are required for functional, legal and historical purposes. This will include addressing issues such as digital rights management and metadata.
2.2.5 To give consideration to the role of digital technology in the management of records, digital technology with regard to the digitisation of original historical records, for example paper-based documents and photographs, as well as the storage of digital records.
2.2.6 To promote a preservation-appropriate approach to the digitisation of paperbased collections. In the urge to scan historical paper based records, many records are damaged and exposed to further harm. It espouses a “scan right” approach to the digitisation of historical paper based records; and a preservationsensitive approach to the management of digitally born records.
3. Legislative Framework
3.1 International treaties and conventions
Berne Convention
3.2 International standards and protocols
ISO standards on metadata: o ISO 19115:2003 o ISO 23950: Information retrieval (Z39.50) o ISO 21127:2006
OAI-PMH protocol (Acronym for the Open Archives Initiative – Protocol for
Metadata Harvesting)
US DoD 5015.2 Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records
Management Software Applications
3.3 National legislation and policy
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.
National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act, 1996 (Act No. 43 of 1996) as amended.
National policy on the digitisation of heritage resources: final draft policy
(for public review) August 2010.
The Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No. 1 of 1999).
Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003 (Act No. 56 of 2003).
The Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No. 2 of 2000).
The Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000 (Act No. 3 of 2000).
The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (Act No. 25 of
2002).
Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act No. 4 of 2013).
Public Service Act, 1994 (as amended by, inter alia, the Public Service
Amendment Act, 2007 (PN 103 of 2007).
Cultural Institutions Act, 1998 (Act No. 119 of 1998).
Cultural Promotion Act, 1983 (Act No. 35 van 1983).
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National Arts Council Act, 1997 (Act No. 56 of 1997).
National Heritage Council Act, 1999 (Act No. 11 of 1999).
National Heritage Resources Act, 1999 (Act No. 25 of 1999).
South African Geographical Names Council Act, 1998 (Act No. 118 of 1998).
World Heritage Convention Act, 1999 (Act No. 49 of 1999).
Revised White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage, 2013.
National Policy on South African Living Heritage, 2009.
National Archives and Records Service of South Africa. Records
Management Policy Manual, 2007.
Managing Electronic Records in Governmental Bodies: Metadata requirements, 2006.
National Archives and Records Service of South Africa. Managing
Electronic Records in Governmental Bodies: Policy, principles and requirements, 2006.
National Archives and Records Service of South Africa. Electronic records and the law: What governmental bodies need to know. Advisory pamphlet
No. 2, April 2012.
3.4 Regional legislation, policy and guidelines
Constitution of the Western Cape, 1997
Provincial Archives and Records Service of the Western Cape Act, 2005
(Act No. 3 of 2005) and Regulations (PN. 122/2006).
Western Cape Cultural Commissions and Cultural Councils Act, 1998 (Act
No. 14 of 1998).
Western Cape Heritage Resource Management Regulations, 2002 (PN 336 of 25 Oct 2002).
Western Cape Heritage Resource Management Regulations, 2003 (PN 298 of 29 Aug 2003).
Museums Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance No. 8 of 1975).
Draft Western Cape Museum Policy, 2012.
Draft Policy for the Naming and Re-naming of Geographical Features, 2007.
3.5 National and regional standards and protocols
SANS 15081. Electronic imaging: information stored electronically, recommendations for trustworthiness and reliability. South African Bureau of
Standards, Pretoria.
SANS 23081. Information and documentation: records management processes, metadata for records. Part 1, principles. South African Bureau of
Standards, Pretoria.
SANS 17799. Information technology: security techniques, code of practice for information security management. South African Bureau of Standards,
Pretoria.
4. Policy principles and statements
4.1 POLICY 1: Managing digitisation in governmental bodies
4.1.1 All governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province must put mechanisms in place for creating and managing their own digitisation programmes.
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4.1.2 All governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province are required to develop a digitisation strategy under this provincial policy that will reflect the unique characteristics of the institution, its collection(s), legislative mandate and the nature of its collections. The digitisation strategy must remain mindful of the institution’s particular circumstances regarding funding, management processes, technological support, etc.
4.1.3 The institutional digitisation strategy must include the following minimum information: o A description of the collections within the institution and their significance and digitisation status. o The nature of the threats to the collections. o The frequency of usage and handling of the collections. o The guiding principles for selection of collections for digitisation and the principles for selection of items within collections. o The rights associated with each collection. o The metadata to be used and applied for describing the digital resources. o The management of the digital resource in terms of location and backup and the disaster management plans. o Access methods to the digital resources. o The digital preservation strategy, including the preferred media and formats, and how migration is used to ensure long term preservation. o The digitisation approach concerning usage of external agencies (or, vendors), or internal expertise. o The skills needed to digitise and maintain the digital resources and how these skills are to be developed through capacity development programs. o The equipment used - if it is to be purchased, rented or outsourced to other specialists. o The specific digitisation programs underway, including stakeholders and beneficiaries, and the specific projects that have been structures under these programmes. o The specific policies on collection management that impact on digitisation. o Institutional policies relating to digitisation, including: local and foreign funding, rights identification and management, handling during
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digitisation, storage after digitisation, access to the digital resources, digital preservation an prioritisation rules for digitisation. o Digitisation programs and projects will be designed, structured and documented in accordance with the institution’s digitisation strategy. o Digitisation must be addressed within the institutional strategic planning of the governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province and will be reflected within the quarterly and annual reporting mechanisms. o Governmental bodies that hold any part of a dispersed collection of provincial, national and international significance have to negotiate with other custodians who hold other parts of the same dispersed collection in order to maintain consistency in their digitisation strategy regarding this collection. Such custodians have to work with other custodians toward creation of virtual collections to facilitate access to these collections.
4.2 POLICY 2: Maintenance of sound curatorial practice for analogue and paperbased records
4.2.1 Digitisation is not a replacement for sound curatorial management and conservation practice, but is universally acknowledged to be a value adding activity that enhances preservation of, and access to heritage collections.
Further, digitisation complements and extends existing collection management functions.
4.2.2 Digital copies are not replacements for original heritage resources, but are considered to be surrogate images. Surrogate digital copies form part of the management and preservation of the original heritage resources within the institution. o The digitisation of an original archival record/public record must, therefore, provide a surrogate copy of the record. o This surrogate record, in digital form, may have a number of additional uses, including: identification of the item in case of theft or loss; the provision of commercial and other opportunities in the use of the image of the record.
4.2.3
Digitisation must take place for the purposes of preserving information, particularly where collections are under physical threat.
4.2.4
Digitisation is a vital preservation tool for the institution that must help to reduce the frequent physical handling of objects; particularly, where access or handling of a record increases the risk of loss or damage to the record.
4.2.5
Digitisation must take place in order to provide a wider and easier access to information; in part this enhanced access will take place via the internet and various forms of electronic communication.
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4.2.6
The surrogate digital copy created in the course of digitisation projects must be created as a digital master. This digital master must include all necessary metadata in terms of this policy.
4.3
POLICY 3: Metadata to include rights information
4.3.1 Ownership and rights information must be maintained in the metadata associated with a digital record.
Accurate and comprehensive metadata must accompany a digital record or surrogate image.
Every digital master created as part of a digitisation program or project must be accompanied by, and be associated with a metadata record.
The compilation of metadata records must be in agreement with internationally accepted standards for archival record metadata.
Metadata information must be able to migrate with each record, during future migration of electronic records and information.
The information to be included in the metadata must include the following categories:
Descriptive Metadata
Metadata describing the item (Cataloguing description to enable search). Metadata describing the nature of the original record’s format, dimensions, material and physical composition, and condition.
Metadata about rights management such as
Administrative Metadata
Structural Metadata information about ownership and internal administrative requirements such as file plan, source code and indexing information.
Metadata describing relationships to other files, i.e. cross referencing. Thus, describing the image’s digital file’s relationships to other files, that is, the cross referencing of files.
Technical Metadata
Rights Metadata
Metadata describing features of the digital file (the nature of the digital image file), i.e. resolution, dimensions, bit mapping, compression, colour contrast, greyscale, file format, etc.
Metadata on the ownership of the original record, describing the nature of copyright, intellectual property, and other associated rights (User rights, access rights, etc.) as they apply to the record, as well as to the collection as a whole.
Every digital master created as part of a digitisation program or project must include rights metadata. This metadata must include information on the owner of the original archival record, as well as the rights owner of the digital record. This must include the moral rights of the original creator.
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Rights metadata must include a description of the right for each of the possible types of use, including licensing for commercial purposes.
Rights metadata should indicate who is authorised to give permission for access and reproduction.
Access to digital master records must respect the rights as identified within the rights metadata, and, this access should be automated within the access systems of the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR).
Standards of digital image scanning are to be stipulated in the digitisation strategy and agreements. Foreign funded projects must adhere to the current internationally accepted archival standard of image scanning for preservation purposes for any projects. Metadata standards are to be stipulated in the contract.
Metadata standards must also comply with the current internationally accepted archival standard for the description of records. Information that must be included in the metadata include: o Acknowledgement of the governmental body’s assertion of ownership over the original. o Orphaned works must be acknowledged as such. Any relevant information regarding the search for owners or heirs; as well as, an indication of how any legal rights are affected by the item’s orphan status must be included. o The governmental body’s file numbering system, relevant to the document in the particular image or file must be included. o Copyright and associated rights information. Including: payment for access and use of image(s) for commercial broadcast or publication purposes; depending on the institution’s access and usage policy. o Comprehensive and correct description of the original record format. o Comprehensive and correct description of the software and processes used to generate the digital image, and any changes created in order to promote legibility and/or view ability.
4.4
POLICY 4: Establish a clear copyright management policy and contract mechanisms
4.4.1 All governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province will establish, and maintain, a clear policy with respect to copyright matters pertaining to the records held in their custody; it will also do so regarding a contract format that allows for the licensing of images of archival records for use or distribution.
The policy pertaining to matters of copyright will distinguish between the rights of copyright holders, the rights of owners and the rights of custodians. It will also provide mechanisms for the regulation of these rights. The provisions of
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current copyright legislation will be applied to the context of digital records and content.
Asking for the transfer of copyright, or a license granting the right to represent and sub-license the work, should be considered as a fair request considering that institutions well be taking the responsibility for the ongoing preservation of the work, its digitisation and dissemination.
If authors or owners want to retain their copyright and elect to grant the right to represent the works to the institution through a licensing agreement; then, a
Creative Commons licensing agreement will be considered as an option in terms of any agreements or contracts.
If institutions intend supplying digital publications to editorial publishing and broadcast markets, they will clearly state this in the contract.
Unless institutions intend to digitise for preservation purposes, the institution must obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to investing time and resources in the digitisation process. This process includes orphan works where the name and address of the maker or rights holder is not known.
Obtaining such permission may involve research that should be well documented.
Digitisation for the pure purpose of preservation can be undertaken without necessarily obtaining prior permission from the rights owners, as long as such digitised materials are not provided for access until this permission is obtained or reasonable efforts have been made to identify the rights owner and to obtain such permission. This may be done to fulfil institutional mandates and in which a change of medium from analogue to digital does not impact on the nature of these mandates.
South African copyright law, currently, does not distinguish whether a digital copy or an original work can be considered as an original work in itself.
Therefore, institutions must ensure that they have clear contracts with contracted staff and digitisation providers that state that they are being commissioned to do the digitisation work and in no way are able to claim copyright under any circumstances. Established service providers to the heritage sector are likely to already have this as part of their standard contracts.
Funding organisations may introduce terms and conditions that require the transfer of rights in the digital funder. It is essential that the ownership of digital objects should be held in trust for the people of South Africa and remain in the hand of South Africa’s heritage public sector.
Accordingly, sufficient access and usage rights for funders can be granted.
However, the granting of these rights must in no way compromise ownership by heritage institutions or governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province, by the granting of exclusive licenses to funding organisations.
Preferably, non-exclusive license to use the digital masters should be granted.
Rights to sublicense the digital master may be granted, under certain
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circumstances and judged on the merits of the license application for sublicensing rights. Sublicensing agreements with funders should ideally require the payment of a fifty percent (50 %) royalties from sublicensing activity to the institution. Any licensing contracts or agreements put into place must clearly state that the presiding law is South African Law.
Governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province must use the law of contract to ensure certain requirements are adhered to, including: acknowledgement of the institution, use of the correct reference coding; payment for access and use of image(s) for commercial broadcast or publication purposes; depending on the institution’s access and usage policy.
Access must only be given to those who agree to the terms under which institutions grant access.
However, the granting of these rights must in no way compromise ownership by heritage institutions or governmental bodies in the
Western Cape Province, by the granting of exclusive licenses to funding organisations.
As the basis for contracts for usage with rights, users may not include transfer of rights to the user. No automatic transfer of copyright or associated rights will be allowed with regard to South African records. No such agreements demanding the automatic transfer of copyright may be entered into by a
South African cultural or heritage institution.
Unless institutions intend to digitise for preservation purposes, the institution must obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to investing time and resources in the digitisation process. This process includes orphan works where the name and address of the maker or rights holder is not known.
Obtaining such permission may involve research that should be well documented.
4.5
POLICY 5: Negotiation of digital rights with creators, donors or lenders
4.5.1 Digital rights must be negotiated with the creator, donor or lender at the time of accession.
The Western Cape Archives and Records Service will cooperate with any national copyright clearing house or reproduction rights organisation established for digital masters, under the auspices of the Department of Arts and Culture.
Digital rights must be negotiated at the time of accession of the records.
Digital rights must be negotiated with authors and owners at the time of digitisation and loading into the digital repository.
Agreements must be concluded with each individual author and/or owner to ensure that all digital rights are explicit. This must include digitisation service providers commissioned to undertake digitisation projects.
4.5.2 See also Policy 6 for agreements regarding ownership.
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4.6
POLICY 6: Agreements for digitisation projects (foreign-funded, international or national funding agencies)
4.6.1 All governmental bodies which make use of international funding for digitisation projects must develop agreements governing terms and ownership of the digital copies concerning the records in their care.
Any request for the digitisation of South Africa’s heritage of any form, from a foreign agency or funder, must be treated as an international arrangement and must be conducted in terms of bilateral agreements or other government-to-government structures in cases when such bilateral agreements exist.
When no bilateral agreement exists between South Africa and another country these requests should be treated as a government-to-government initiative when this is appropriate in terms of the significance of the collection and other parameters. A set of guidelines on such appropriateness should be produced and made accessible and which are linked to existing declaration of significance of objects and collections as are identified within the National
Heritage Resource Agency and its regulations.
All foreign funded projects must be regulated by a contract that specifies the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved.
All contracts involving foreign funding must include a set of minimum elements applicable to such agreements and will guide the process for the acceptance of agreements of this nature.
Contracted vendor companies, contracted to supply scanning and associated services must also be governed by a contract that will specify, amongst other things: the nature of the equipment to be used, the responsibilities of technicians with regard to handling fragile historical materials, the reporting structure with regard to disputes and disagreements, etc. A clear line of reporting and communication to the institution, entrusted with the care of the historical records utilised must be established to deal with any concerns regarding the project, as they may arise. Contracted vendors may not form an unaccountable third entity within any given institution.
Digitisation agreements and contracts with foreign funding agencies must include the following minimum provisions: o The custodial organisation or institution’s details. o List of collections to be digitised, details of the selection criteria identifying why these are selected and why others are excluded. An indication as to how this complies with the institution’s digitisation strategy must also be included. o Total number of items in the collections, and the nature of the originals. o Procedures for handling of originals, and the mitigations in place against loss or damage during digitisation.
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o The media and format of the completed digital products. o The metadata to be used for description and the extent to which this complies with this digitisation policy (with specific reference to provenance and rights metadata). o Nature of preparations to be performed on the originals prior to digitisation, for example, cutting of paper originals to support scanning. o The rights owners of the collections and the authorisations obtained to allow digitisation. o The manner in which the digital masters will be created and maintained. o The location where the digital masters will be stored, and in particular the high-resolution photographs and scans. o The intended beneficiaries and the kinds of access that they are to be provided with. o The access available by the general public for fair and private use. o The charges that will be levied for access to the digital resources. o The restrictions that will be placed on access to the digital resources. o The digital preservation strategy for these collections. o The backup strategy for these digital collections. o The Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) that will hold the digital masters. o The specific rights that the funding organisation and its associate organisations will retain concerning the digitised materials.
It is a concern that digital rights to South African heritage may, either, be lost or that access curtailed, as a result of foreign funded projects. Therefore, digital rights ownership must be clearly stated within contracts pertaining to foreign funded digitisation projects. In each instance the governmental bodies in the Western Cape must retain the ownership of the digital rights.
The rights of any funding agency to access digital records must be limited to non-commercial “fair dealing” usage. Any additional rights can only be conferred under special license.
Access to archival records for the purposes of digitisation must only be given to those who agree to abide by the terms under which governmental bodies grant access.
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Governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province must use the law of contract to ensure certain requirements are adhered to, including: acknowledgement of the institution and use of the correct reference coding.
The digital masters produced by funded digitisation projects must be lodged with the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) in a manner analogous to the legal deposit libraries. The specific formats and media used are required to comply with this policy.
Requests for the exporting of digital rights must be treated in the same way as the export of the tangible or analogue objects and be administered by the appropriate body. The National Archives and Records Service of South Africa, the National Library, and South African Heritage Resources Agency must introduce procedures that control this and that protect the digital heritage from uncontrolled export. The necessary changes to legislation must be introduced to enable this level of control.
4.7
POLICY 7: Accelerate the development of an inclusive Information Society and provide Free Basic Information
4.7.1 All citizens must have easy access to the required Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure and be granted free access to digitised records.
For any policy on digitisation of heritage to achieve the objective of universal access, it is essential that a suitable ICT infrastructure is facilitated or provided by the government that enables all citizens and other interested parties to access digital heritage.
4.8
POLICY 8: Open Access
4.8.1 Access to digital records must be open and free where records are not used for
commercial gain or governed by access restrictions.
This policy recognises the intellectual rights within all digital heritage and that such rights are protected by national and provincial legislation and international treaties, including those digital resources in the public domain.
Access to the digital heritage and the subsequent use of the digital resources constitutes a relationship between the rights owner and rights user. Any restrictions regarding access are applied with the intention to prevent the misuse of the intellectual property of the rights owner; however, it is recognised that any restrictions may contribute to the denial of fair and reasonable access to the digital heritage.
As long as there are no restrictions governing the information held in a given record, open and free access to digital records must be provided to any person requiring access for research or personal use.
Open access to archival records is, however, mediated by a number of considerations, these include:
DIGITISATION POLICY FOR THE WESTERN CAPE GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE, DECEMBER 2013 15
o South African legislation that impacts on the provision of access to certain types of records, for example certain records of the Department of Home
Affairs. o The principle of “fair dealing” as defined by copyright legislation, as well as various other legislation and principles associated with copyright and associated digital rights. o The respect for an individual’s privacy in respect of personal information that the careless dissemination of, may cause distress or harm.
The ability to provide free and open access may be enhanced through the provision of images at a lower resolution format, rendering the image inappropriate for commercial reproduction.
Free and open access must be provided through the web where possible with no requirement for proprietary software for viewing or playback.
All access to records in digital form must recognise the moral rights of the creators.
Cooperative projects and agreements are encouraged between repositories, the state and state-supported bodies promoting the shared use of digital records for public benefit.
Access to information held within the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) of the
Western Cape Archives and Records Service will be managed by the institution, including content which is private and content that is provided under specific license conditions and which may require payment of royalties for usage.
License agreements between the repositories and users of digital records must be used as a means of managing usage.
Blanket agreements within repositories must be developed to support ranges
4.9
POLICY 9: Use of official languages of common uses and to avoid the problems of creating individual license agreements for each specific retrieval and usage.
4.9.1 English is to be used for metadata in order to provide for national and international interoperability. It is encouraged that where appropriate, other languages be used in addition to English to provide for wider access.
It is encouraged that web and search interfaces be provided to suit the language-specific requirements of user groups.
Metadata must in the first instance be in English, in order to provide for interoperability and compatibility between collections.
Metadata in additional South African languages is encouraged to provide wider access to searching and retrieval.
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The use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to enhance a searchable version of the digitised record is encouraged. The OCT version of the record will be in the language of origin, unless translated to enable improved access.
The use of audio narration and screen magnification to widen accessibility to users with disabilities is encouraged.
4.10
POLICY 10: Development and implementation of a Common Repository Interface
(CORI)
4.10.1 Due to the wide variety of systems, software and database technologies that are in use, as well as those that may yet be developed, it is essential to have a common method for access to digital content residing in the various digital repositories, both within South Africa and internationally.
A Common Repository Interface needs to be developed as a standard protocol to access any information across any repository.
All digital repositories are required to implement the common repository interface and provide CORI as the primary form of access.
The CORI protocol must enable multiple simultaneous connections to multiple repositories on a technology independent basis; must make optimal use of metadata based semantic information discovery and retrieval through national vocabularies, authority files and metadata schema of well managed content; must accommodate the seamless sharing of information within and between communities; and must provide retrieval that automatically complies with digital rights management requirements and which provides automated citation information for back referencing to the authentic source.
The CORI protocol should provide a user experience of a single national digital memory structure, rather than the experience of accessing multiple separate repositories and collections, spanning all of the digital repositories and also providing access to virtual collections, as opposed to physical collections. The benefit of CORI is expected to provide opportunities to restructure the historical record in innovative ways by creating new stories that integrate the collections of libraries, archives, museums, heritage sites and the living heritage.
4.11
POLICY 11: Financing of digitisation
4.11.1
Government financial support to move heritage management into the digital age and provide for the digitisation of heritage resources has been a serious challenge, and adequate resources have to be made available to ensure success.
4.11.2
The digitisation of records and the move towards e-filing and record keeping brings with it a host of additional challenges with regard to the management of digital information for archival purposes. All of the changes associated with the archival storage of digital information have a profound implication for the
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functioning of any given governmental body, particularly in the use of funds. For the most part, few governmental bodies have the capacity to self-finance digitisation projects, despite the increasing demand from the public for records in digital form. Adequate resources have yet to be made universally available to governmental bodies in order to ensure successful digitisation projects.
All spheres of the Western Cape Government and municipalities in the
Western Cape Province are required to urgently plan for the digitisation of their heritage resources.
All provincial memory institutions must use existing budgets for digitisation purposes since digitisation is inherently a part of their mandate to protect and preserve heritage and this mandate remains unchanged in the shift from physical collections to the digital heritage.
4.12
POLICY 12: Implications for governmental bodies
4.12.1 All spheres of the Western Cape Government and municipalities in the Western
Cape Province are required to urgently plan for the digitisation of their heritage resources.
The Department of Arts and Culture is the lead department in terms of heritage legislation and digitisation, both on its own and through its statutory bodies including the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa,
National Library, National Heritage Council and South African Heritage
Resource Agency.
All governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province must prepare a register of their own digital heritage collections, including archives, manuscripts, publications, objects, and should develop digitisation strategies and project plans for approval.
These digitisation strategies must be submitted to the Western Cape Archives and Records Service for approval before the digitisation process commenced. The governmental bodies who already embarked on digitisation projects must also submit their strategies to the Western Cape
Archives and Records Service for approval.
The ultimate goal will be that all governmental bodies and public entities will implement approved digitisation strategies that will be registered. This will facilitate the maintenance of these digital records and the transfer of the digital masters to the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) after conclusion of projects or in phases as agreed upon between the relevant institutions.
4.13
POLICY 13: Creation of a Provincial Digital Repository
4.13.1 It is recommended that a centralised repository be created rather than a multitude of small-scale repositories that will be difficult to monitor for compliance with this policy.
A Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) will be established, which will be managed by the Western Cape Archives and Records Service. This digital
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repository must contain the digital content of all digitised holdings as well as born-digital content that they have accessioned from the Western Cape
Government and the municipalities in the Western Cape Province.
The digital repository will be seen as an extension of the services that the
Western Cape Archives and Records Service currently provides. The digital repository will merely change the nature of the storage and access to records.
It will not change the functional mandates of the Western Cape Archives and
Records Service.
This Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) will be the nominated legal depository for digital masters.
This Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) must comply with a basic set of standards and good practices based upon an accepted reference model such as the OASIS Reference Model 66 and this policy.
This Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) must be sufficiently capacitated to house the digital masters of digitisation activities within the provincial memory institutions.
Other institutions in the Western Cape Province that have collections and repositories that are not seen as governmental bodies are encouraged to comply with the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) requirements and to be included into the Provincial List of Digital Repositories held by the Provincial
Digital Repository (PDR).
This structure is motivated by the need to ensure consistency in the preservation of the provincial memory in digital form while providing sufficient autonomy in the management of these repositories, as is a declared necessity for university and private-sector archives.
The Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) must maintain a register of its digital heritage holdings, and this register is itself regarded as digital heritage.
4.14
POLICY 14: Digital masters maintained in accordance with accepted standards
4.14.1 The digital medium is universally acknowledged to be a relatively more fragile and easily corrupted medium, compared to traditional archival materials. It is thus vital that measures are taken to ensure the security, authenticity and integrity of digital records. The technical standards that will be used to create archival digital records will be of the utmost importance in this regard. All governmental bodies within the Western Cape Province must ensure that digital records adhere to
4.14.2 Digital masters must be managed in terms of the highest international and national standards. standards of security, authenticity and integrity.
The digital master is the digital reproduction of the best quality and the highest resolution to be maintained as the single main record. Digital masters may also include lower resolution forms of the digital content or partial selections of the digital content that may be used for open access purposes.
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Digital masters must be lodged with or transferred to the Provincial Digital
Repository (PDR). Any digital record existing outside of the Provincial Digital
Repository (PDR) is not considered to be an authentic digital master.
All metadata relating to the master copy is retained in the digital master and must be maintained as an integral part of the digital master, this includes: o Digital masters, as the master copy of digital records, must each carry a digital signature to ensure authenticity and to ensure that they cannot be modified without invalidating the integrity of the digital master. This signature should enable linkage back to the original creator, in the case of government records this will be a governmental body. o Descriptive metadata that outlines the content, and which is used to categorise and contextualise the digital object. o Provenance metadata, identifying the source and identifying this as the authentic version of the content. o Version metadata, including the history of any changes and preparations that have been performed on the digital record. o Creation metadata, including basic parameters associated with the content such as the equipment and settings used for digitisation, as well as identification of the original creator. o Preservation metadata, designed to identify the nature of the content and the threats to the sustainability of the content. o Rights metadata, including copyright and moral rights information concerning who is allowed to access, in what form, and under which conditions of license, and which specific types of digital content is included, and what are they allowed to do with this content, such as modification of the content. o Each digital master is required to have a unique address or name that provides reference back to the original record within the Provincial Digital
Repository (PDR). This may take the form of a URI, URL or URN or any other internationally agreed unique naming convention. This unique address is to be used when citing references back to the digital master.
All digital records, other than digital masters, are not considered as authentic
4.15
POLICY 15: Protection and preservation of digital heritage records; this includes exact copies of the digital master from the Provincial
Digital Repository (PDR).
4.15.1 Mitigating the risk of loss of the digital heritage requires that clear action be taken to ensure that a disaster management plan and backups are in place and that centralised backup services are provided.
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Each repository, holding digital heritage records, must develop and maintain a disaster management plan.
The disaster management plan must address how information lost or damage through a disaster may be identified, retrieved and made available as soon as possible following the disaster. Disaster planning must be aimed at ensuring the integrity, authenticity and efficacy of digital records.
An integral part of the disaster management plan, is a register of digital heritage maintained in the repository. This register must be maintained separately from the backup sites and be accessible immediately when required.
A safe and secure backup site for all digital records must be established with sufficient capacity to house the contents of all other provincial digital repositories. The backup site must be maintained under the most secure conditions, both physical and technological.
The Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) must have mutual backup agreements with at least one other Repository.
The backup processes between the digital repositories should be automated
4.16
POLICY 16: Living heritage digital records and should be able to continue without human action. Monitoring systems should be in place to provide an alert in the event of failure.
4.16.1 The living heritage, although unique, will be included in the Provincial Digital
Repository (PDR).
The Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) must integrate and comply with the same metadata standards with regard to the living heritage.
The Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) must be in compliance with the documentation and recording requirements identified in the Living Heritage
Policy.
4.17
POLICY 17: Ensure security, authenticity and integrity of digital records and heritage
4.17.1 All governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province must ensure that digital records adhere to standards of security, authenticity and integrity.
All governmental bodies must take acceptable care of the digital heritage under their care with regard to information security considerations in terms of national and international standards. The security measures must include control over accessibility of the digital records, as well as prevention of unauthorised change or deletion.
All digital masters must include provenance metadata which provides for the authenticity, provenance and integrity of the digital record. Additionally, this metadata must be maintained as an integral part of the digital master.
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The provenance metadata must include the description of any specific preparations or treatments performed on the digital records as well as on the original or analogue record prior to digitisation.
Digital masters, as the master copy of digital records, must each carry a digital signature to ensure authenticity and to ensure that they cannot be modified without invalidating the integrity of the digital master. This signature should enable linkage back to the original creator, in the case of government records this will be a governmental body.
Digital masters must be lodged with the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) and the digital master located within the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) is the only truly authentic version. The term “digital master” should only apply to those records maintained in the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR).
All digital records other than digital masters are not considered as authentic including exact copies of the digital master from the Provincial Digital
Repository (PDR).
Each digital master is required to have a unique address or name that provides reference back to the record within the Provincial Digital Repository
(PDR). This may take the form of a URI, URL or URN or any other internationally agreed unique naming convention. This unique address is to be used when citing references back to the digital master.
4.18
POLICY 18: Privacy policies
4.18.1 Archival records/public records contain information that is of a personal nature, and whose unconsidered dissemination could cause personal and public harm.
Privacy is a constitutional right and must be integrated into the core of the digital repository design and functioning of digitisation processes and programmes.
Until legislation is promulgated to cover this contingency, the ethical treatment of personal information in digital record form must be managed under existing institutional policies.
Governmental bodies must compile a privacy policy to provide guidance as to how private information held in their care is to be appropriately handled and safeguarded.
Personal information that is in digital form must, ideally and where reasonably possible, be identified within the metadata for the digital masters as information concerning the nature of the subject matter.
The digitisation strategy of the Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) must include the manner in which personal information is to be handled and protected during the capturing, describing, loading, storing and accessing processes.
4.19
POLICY 19: Handling of confidential and secret records in accordance with MISS
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4.19.1 Digital records falling under the Minimum Information Security Standards (MISS) as published by the National Intelligence Agency must be managed in accordance with this standard.
Each governmental body is required to handle digital records that fall under the Protection of Personal Information Act , Protection of Information Bill or
MISS on secure servers that are not accessible through standard access methods.
Records falling under these legislation must be managed in a manner so as it is not possible to separate digital content from metadata.
Metadata associated with sensitive digital data must clearly indicate any moratorium periods that are applicable in order to support automated or semi-automated release of such embargoed information.
Sensitive information must be accessible only to those with the required level of access authority. This may require additional forms of information security to be implemented, including the usage of one-time passwords, biometric authentication or device-based security.
4.20
POLICY 20: Development and implementation of national metadata and
vocabulary standards
4.20.1 There is a need for national metadata and vocabulary to ensure semantic interoperability between digital collections, since purely technical interoperability is insufficient.
In order to allow for effective searching across institutions and holdings, the metadata associated with digital records must conform to an agreed national set of metadata elements including schemas, thesauri, ontologies, terminologies, vocabularies and authority files.
All governmental bodies in the Western Cape must adhere to the minimum national standards and metatdata.
Private custodians in the Western Cape are encouraged to adhere to these minimum national standards.
Policy 22 explains the construction and maintenance of vocabularies, authority files and other such elements.
4.20.2 These metadata and vocabulary standards must be built on strong semantic principles, to facilitate improved access to large repositories and to provide for a more natural interface to complex repositories. This must be done in a way that provides for long-term evolution and improvement of the semantic structure.
4.21
POLICY 21: Use of standard technologies, formats and media
4.21.1 The use of standard technologies, standard forms and media types, and plan for changes in formats, technologies and formats (standardisation) is strongly encouraged. Standardised formats allow for interoperability between
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governmental bodies, aiding service delivery and lowering the cost of creating and preserving digital information.
4.21.2
However, it must be noted that the formats and media types currently in use are not likely to remain as fixed standards, for the long term. Governmental bodies and repositories must plan for migration into newer formats and media.
4.21.3
Technology and succession plans for migration to newer formats and media must be in place and budgeted for by repositories.
4.21.4
Only archivally appropriate scanning machines that limit the harm and damage to fragile historical materials may be permitted to be used for digitisation projects.
4.21.5
High speed automated scanning processes are considered to be damaging to archival records, due to the fragile nature of many archival records as well as the variable nature of historical paper formats. High speed automated scanning processes are explicitly not allowed for scanning purposes for historical archival records.
4.21.6
The exact nature and type of scanning machinery and equipment to be used in the digitisation project must be stipulated in the contract. In most instances this will mean, that an overhead camera with support cradle for bound books and loose documents, will have to be used.
4.21.7
Scanning machines for maps must be able to accommodate the size of the map, without causing harm to the item.
4.21.8
The use of high-volume automated scanners, or any scanning device that exerts pressure (for example, drum roll scanners) on a record, is not allowed.
4.21.9
Repositories must preserve older technologies and equipment to access all digital records in that format.
4.21.10The Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) at the Western Cape Archives and Records
Service must use standard technologies, standard forms and media types, and plan for changes in formats, technologies and formats.
The formats and media types currently in use are not likely to remain as fixed standards in the long-term future and repositories must accept and plan for migration into newer formats and media.
Technology and succession plans for migration to newer formats and media must be in place and budgeted for by repositories.
Only approved digital formats and media must be used.
Digital material in alternate formats must be migrated to the approved standard.
Digital and electronic collections and reproductions in obsolete formats and media must be identified for eventual migration of the content in future when technologies will be available.
24 DIGITISATION POLICY FOR THE WESTERN CAPE GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE, DECEMBER 2013
New technologies and media types must be reviewed regularly.
4.22
POLICY 22: Creating a Community of Practice
4.22.1 The digitisation sector is fragmented with most institutions operating in silos. A community of practice will help to unify the sector and provide a common purpose.
A community of practice, in the form of a professional body, must be established to integrate the digitisation sector by building up national capacity through coordination of skills development, and consequently to reduce the dependence upon foreign agencies. This is to be an independent professional body which may over time be constituted as a statutory body. The Department of Arts and Culture will facilitate the establishment of this professional body through workshops and conferences and to provide guidance, support and linkage with key governmental stakeholders. For the purposes of this policy this proposed professional body that embodies the community of practice might referred to as the Institute for Digital Heritage (IDH).
4.23
POLICY 23: Developing and implementing a skills framework for digitisation
4.23.1 There is a need for a skills framework that covers the digitisation discipline, which supports monitoring of skills demand and supply, and which forms the basis for skills development programmes.
A skills framework must be established that will provide a range of skills that
can be developed and used for the development and management of the digital heritage.
Existing skills structured in digitisation and related disciplines must be consulted to ensure coherence in the skills framework. Particular attention must be given to skills that are not transferrable from other disciplines and which are unique to digitisation as a discipline.
Continuous assessment of skills should be undertaken to ensure a balanced supply of local skills and to reduce the need for importing international skills to participate in local projects.
Local training companies should be encouraged to offer skills in accordance with the skills framework.
4.24
POLICY 24: Developing and measuring institutional capacity
4.24.1 Many institutions are competent to undertake digitisation projects without external assistance. It is essential that institutional capacity be developed to ensure that digitisation becomes a core activity.
Each governmental body should develop institutional capacity to enable digitisation to become a core competence. For practical purposes this may be developed as shared services among regional collection of custodians to benefit from economies of scale.
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Regular assessments should be conducted for each governmental body in terms of this scorecard and provincial awards may be implemented to recognise specific achievements and institutional excellence. This should be performed either as self-assessments or through the shared services centres.
4.25
POLICY 25: Capacity development for electronic records management
The Records Management Section of the Western Cape Archives and
Records Service in cooperation with other stakeholdersmust take the lead in developing the necessary capacity for the introduction of electronic management systems throughout the governmental bodies in the Western
Cape.
An institutional scorecard must be developed to enable measurement of the capability and maturity of custodians in terms of this scorecard.
This leading role must take the form of supporting and approval of digital/electronic systems at provincial and local government levels for the long-term preservation of the digital masters at the Provincial Digital
Repository (PDR).
Coupled with this should be the developing of ICT literacy programmes among all stakeholders as a pre-requisite for the introduction of electronic records management systems.
The Western Cape Archives and Records Service must develop internal capacity and competence prior to embarking on capacity development for the other governmental bodies in the Western Cape Province.
4.26
POLICY 26: Promoting Research and Development
A research agenda must be developed that has a focus on understanding the long-term implications of digitisation and the development of long-term solutions.
This agenda must include current and emerging open standards and their applicability to the local conditions; the practical applicability of recommended practices and the continual improvement of these practices; the preservation of the various types of heritage with an emphasis on the living heritage; capture and recording technologies with particular focus on collections under threat, and recovery of content from obsolete technologies; the management of rights information and associated metadata considerations; and, the development and management of national vocabularies as a step towards a semantic information environment for the digital heritage.
To support the research and development as well as to gain provincial level perspective on the status of digitisation, a provincial audit of collections must be conducted within statutory memory institutions for the purpose of building up a register of collections under threat, and to support prioritisation of collections for digitisation. This audit should produce a database that can be
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sustained and managed as a critical resource in planning and management of the digital heritage.
Scholarly publication of research into digitisation should be encouraged.
4.27
POLICY 27: Digital/electronic Best Practices and Standards
4.27.1 The lack of local national guidelines on digitisation is hampering the quality of projects and the digital heritage.
The PDR must develop and maintain digital/electronic best practices and standards based on international archivally accepted standards, including metatdata, semantics, vocabulary, authority files, etc.
All situations both technical and non-technical must be covered.
Formal processes must be established to enhance and update these best practices and standards.
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ADDENDUM 1
ATTRIBUTES OF A RECORD
1. Authenticity
What is the record’s level of authenticity, and on what is this based? For example, dates of creation and the types, quantity and dates of changes to it? In addition, what copies or migrations are there?
Is its authenticity based on other attributes of their interrelationships listed below?
2. Accessibility
Is the record human-readable or technology-dependant?
Is the record in analogue or digital form? And, how does this affect the accessibility (that is, readability or ability to be copied)?
3. Citability
What is the record’s level of citability?
Is this a version, edition, “state” (for example, of an engraving), or other stage of production, or use, that is expected to match reliably a published or unpublished citation to it as an object?
4. Content
Content can be understood on two levels: 1. denotative or informational, that is, what the record says or shows; and 2. connotative, that is, what the record means, what can be inferred, implied, or proved from the record’s content.
5. Context
6.
What is a record’s links to other records or sequences?
Does its serve to authenticate other records, and how?
Functionality
What is the usability of the record?
Does it have multiple uses? For example: a record may have had an original use (e.g., in documenting the sale of slaves circa 1780); a subsequent use
(e.g., by academics in studying the history of slavery, or descendants of slaves in tracing their family history); and a future use, which may not be entirely clear or obvious.
Is the use for which the record was created exhausted, with only residual research or documentary uses being left?
Are there new uses engendered specifically by being in an archive; for example, as an “archival treasure”?
7. Market value
Does it have a current or future market value? On what basis?
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8. Medium
What is the medium or media of manufacture; and, the expected life-span or physical stability under “ordinary” conditions?
9. Metadata
What is the record’s metadata?
Is the record’s metadata considered to be an integral part of the record, even if the record is in a traditional format, rather than in a digital format?
10. Object form
What is the object as a discrete whole?
What are its dimensions, parts?
Does its three-dimensional nature, as well as: any container, frame, binding, base or attachments add crucial information to its definition as an object or record?
Does it have an “extent”, that is: a sequence of interdependent states, such as the negative and positive versions of a photograph?
11. Presentation
What is the record’s presentation or appearance, for example: its format, layout, pagination, “original look”, style, serial sequencing?
12. Provenance
What asserts the origin and chain of custody in the record? For example, book plates, signatures, imprints, letterheads, notes, marginalia, metadata, metadata.
Principles derived from the attributes of records
1.
All attributes and their inter-relationships represent information about the record and engender historical meaning.
2.
Every preservation activity, including copying, will affect some or all of these attributes and may even eliminate, supplement or replace them; and therefore, will affect meaning.
3.
All preservation actions should seek to preserve the maximum number and quality of attributes and their inter-relationships for which the archival record was acquired.
4.
The impact on a record of all preservation actions or changes, including copying must be evident to users, and any effect on meaning must be conveyed to users.
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ADDENDUM 2
LIST OF TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
For the purpose of this policy, the following definitions apply:
Access In this policy the term “access” is primarily used to indicate access through electronic means to digital heritage resources. The UNESCO Charter states that the purpose of preserving the digital heritage is to ensure
Analogue that it remains accessible to the public and thus access should be free of unreasonable restrictions.
In this policy the term “analogue” refers to archival records, heritage objects and resources, not in digital
form, e.g. paper, stone (sculpture), tape recordings (nondigital), video recordings (non-digital), microfiche and models.
Appraisal The process of determining the eventual disposal of records and the decision regarding the preservation requirements of each document or series of documents.
Archival value Are those values, administrative, fiscal, legal, evidential and/or informational, which justify the indefinite of permanent retention of records.
Archives
Archives repository
Records in the custody of an archives repository.
A building in which records with archival value are permanently preserved. This can be supplemented by an electronic repository.
Authentication A process in which a user is required to prove that they are who they say they are before being granted access to information resources and services. This is the basis for most modern security implementations.
Author The person who is responsible for the creation of the material embodiment of a work. The creative activity in regard to the work must involve the application of independent intellectual effort or skill. The author of a literary, musical or artistic work is identified as the person who first made or created a work; the author of a photograph is the person identified as the person responsible for the composition of the photograph; the author of a cinematography film is the person responsible for making the arrangements for the making of the film; the author of a computer program is the person who exercised control over the making of the computer program.
30 DIGITISATION POLICY FOR THE WESTERN CAPE GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPALITIES IN THE WESTERN CAPE, DECEMBER 2013
Authorship
Basic/Applied research
See the entry for author.
Directed at solving a specific practical problem; utilising analytical tools, information and knowledge already available.
Benchmarking An approach to research in which similar institutions or organisations are compared against one another in terms of their inputs, processes and outputs.
Born digital Information content which is produced in digital form and which in many cases is never converted into physical form such as paper. Examples include digitisation of the intangible heritage and most modern electronic records management systems.
Confidentiality Confidentiality and privacy are often thought of as the same and the terms are often used interchangeably.
Confidentiality is a separate legal concept where information is given to a person under an obligation to keep the information confidential (e.g. a trade secret or information confided to someone). Confidential information is usually not available or readily accessible to the public.
Conservation A set of activities that is intended to stabilise the physical or chemical condition of a record to prolong the life of a record and relevant metadata or to improve access to it through interceptive treatment.
All measures and actions aimed at safeguarding cultural heritage to ensure its accessibility to present and future generations. Conservation embraces preventive conservation, remedial conservation and restoration. All measures and actions should respect the significance and the physical properties of the cultural heritage item.
Conservation treatment and repair
A series of interventions intended to improve or maintain a record’s physical and/or chemical stability, appearance or accessibility. These are usually physical actions that are performed on a record once damage has occurred, or in anticipation of damage or obsolescence.
For human-readable records: conservation treatment entails physical or chemical intervention and may be performed as a preventative measure or once damage has occurred. Human-readable records include historical formats and media such as parchment, vellum, paper, drawings, maps, plans.
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For technology-dependent records conservation treatment may entail physical or chemical intervention; it can also entail, or be combined with the manufacture of an archival master, migration or other form of copying. Technology-dependent records include: some forms of photography, film, microform, sound, video electronic or digital media and software
Conservator The person responsible for choosing the most appropriate materials and methods, to the objectives of each specific treatment and consistent with currently accepted practice to halt the deterioration, of a record.
A conservator is a professional, who has the training and the experience to act on cultural heritage with the aim to preserve it for future generations, always according to the guidelines of internationally accepted best practices and ethics.
Copy, facsimile or surrogate A duplicate of an original record in, either, whole or in part. Copies are used as surrogates to preserve original records, while providing access to the information contained in the record. Use of copies as surrogates removes the stress associated with handling of fragile original records, and has been a recognised
preservation strategy for libraries, museums and archives worldwide for over a century.
Copying All methods of manufacturing a reproduction of a record in order to create a second record in the same, or new, medium/media. The subsequent copy will have its own attributes; including history of creation, metadata and requirements for control, preservation and access.
Copyright A legal term describing rights given to creators for their literary and artistic works. It confers protection to a tangible creation, that is, to music composition, plays, screen writings, books, paintings, sculpture, ceramics, etc. Copyright protection is also awarded on an individual basis, to individual creators or heirs.
Government texts are considered to be automatically in the public domain and are excluded from copyright.
The provisions for awarding copyright to tangible objects and on an individual basis, makes it difficult to extend copyright to indigenous knowledge, which is often in oral form and is considered to be collectively owned by a particular community.
CORI Common Repository Interface. This is a recommended implementation arising from this policy.
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Creative Commons A licensing arrangement, voluntarily entered into by the creator of a work; this arrangement specifies how a work may be used. There are a number of licensing categories to choose from: completely unrestricted,
Creative Commons is a non-profit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.
Custody The guardianship and management of archival records based on their physical possession.
Database
Destruction
A structured collection of data.
Digital divide
The process of eliminating or deleting records, beyond any possible reconstruction. ISO 15489, 2001.
The difference in ICT infrastructure, access, content and capacity that occurs between the rich and the poor.
This includes the divide between the rich and the poor nations, as well as the divide between the richer urban areas and the poorer rural areas of all countries of the world.
Digital heritage Digital forms of representing heritage, in three forms:
• Born digital: Heritage resources that are created in digital form, and for which the “original” is digital.
These include electronic documents and records, digital arts, digital images, digital recordings, computer programs, data files and web sites.
Digitised heritage: Heritage resources that are originally not in digital form, but of which a digital reproduction has been made.
• Digital information about heritage, such as descriptions, digital reconstructions of the original, databases.
Digital master A Digital Master is a combination of digital files, metadata and index/manifest files which are structured as a unit which provides the basis for authenticity of digital records, and the means of reliable transfer between the creator and the Provincial Digital
Repository.
Digital migration The act of moving records from one system to another, while maintaining the records’ authenticity, integrity and usability. ISO 15489. 2001.
Digital obsolescence The increasing speed at which newer versions of electronic hard- and software are replaced with successive generations of programs and equipment.
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Resulting in earlier versions of electric files, their supporting software and hardware quickly becoming obsolete. This poses a considerable challenge to cultural institutions, which need to preserve electronic records for the future.
Digital preservation A set of specialised technical processes to ensure that
digital records and documents remain accessible over the long term. Digital preservation consists of the activities that guard against loss of the digital heritage4.
UNESCO (2003). UNESCO Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage. Adopted at the 32 nd session of the
General Conference of UNESCO, 17 October 2003.
Digital repository A repository of digital resources structured into various collections. Also known as an electronic repository.
Digital resources For the purpose of this policy digital resources are specifically digital content representing heritage resources, including all types of digital content on any form of media and in any format.
Digital rights management The formal management of the bundle of rights associated with digital records. All items in historical and/or cultural collections have legal rights, these legal rights affect how these items can be used. These rights are separate from the rights of ownership. Rights management is, currently, seen as forming part of the considerations for the management of historical collections (i.e. collections management). It is imperative for institutions to recognise the necessity for managing the digital rights to their collection.
See associated entries on: intellectual property, fair
dealing or use, copyright.
Digitisation The conversion of information in analogue form (that is, documents on paper, photographs, paintings, objects) into digital form.
.
Dispersed collections Collections that are seen as a whole or unit, but which are physically located and curated by two or more individual custodial institutions.
Disposal The action of either destroying or deleting a record; or, transferring it into archival custody.
Document Any recorded information or object which can be treated as a unit.
E-Culture/E-Heritage The reproduction of cultural and heritage elements to support the dual goals of long-term storage and
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E-Government
E-Learning
Emulators
Electronic record
Ephemeral records
Ethics
preservations, as well as broadening access to such cultural resources and heritage resources.
Electronic government: the usage of information technologies to improve how government operates, and how it communicates and interfaces with its stakeholders.
The effective usage of information technologies to enhance the ability to learn by providing access to materials, information, knowledge books, lessons, tests, and to provide a linkage to teachers on-line.
Special-purpose computer programs that are able to reproduce in software the functionality of obsolete hardware, so that programs available in executable or object form for the obsolete hardware systems are able to be used without access to that hardware.
A record produced, housed or transmitted by electronic means rather than physical means; and that satisfied the definition of a record.
See entry under non-archival records.
Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy. The
Greek word ethos can mean custom, habit, character or disposition. Ethics are the well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.
Ethics covers the following dilemmas: how to live a good life; our rights and responsibilities as members of a larger society; the language of right and wrong; moral decisions - what is good and bad? Although law, personal feelings, religion and prevailing social morals are often cited as examples of ethical standards, or at the least, guiding influences for ethical standards - as these can, in fact, deviate from what is ethical. Ethical principles can provide a guide for action in the absence of any other guidelines or laws.
At the heart of ethics is a concern about something or someone other than oneself, and one’s own desires and self-interest. Ethics is concerned with other people's interests, with the interests of society and the world. So, when a person 'thinks ethically' they are giving at least some thought to something beyond themselves.
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Fair dealing or fair use
Examples of ethical standards include those that impose the reasonable obligation to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud; as well as those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. Ethical standards also include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well-founded reasons.
The limited copying and use of a work for educational purposes or for private study. It allows for the copying/reproduction of a limited portion (usually no more than one third of the total work) for noncommercial purposes. Most libraries and archives allow for the copying of works or records on the assumption that copies are to be used for the purposes of private study, research or for educational purposes. Copyright is not considered to be infringed upon, if the copying or reproduction of a work falls within the limits of fair use.
Within cultural institutions, including archives, fair use also extends to the copying and reproduction of records for in-house uses, for example, creating low resolution thumbnail images to display images of records on the internet. Fair use also extends to the use of copies or reproductions for the purposes of promoting the use of the institution’s collection
Facsimile
File format
See under the definition of copy.
Information and data is stored in binary digits, or bits. The manner in which these bits are combined into larger structures is called a file format.
Governmental body Any legislative, executive, judicial or administrative organ of the state, including a statutory body, commission, board or council, in the provincial or local sphere of government in the province of the Western
Cape. See also entry for public record.
Head of the Service Official appointed in terms of the Public Service Act to head the Western Cape and Archives Service.
Heritage The term “heritage” is defined in the White Paper on Arts and Culture (1996) as “the sum total of wildlife and scenic parks, sites of scientific and historical importance, national monuments, historic buildings, works of art, literature and music, oral traditions and museum collections and their documentation which provides the basis for a shared culture and creativity in the arts.”
(Section 12).
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Heritage resources Section 3(2) of the National Heritage Resources Act (Act
No. 25 of 1999) defines any place or object of cultural significance as a heritage resource, including:
(a) Places, buildings, structures and equipment of cultural significance;
(b) Places to which oral traditions are attached or which are associated with living heritage;
(c) Historical settlements and townscapes;
(d) Landscapes and natural features of cultural significance;
(e) Geological sites of scientific or cultural importance;
(f) Archaeological and paleontological sites;
(g) Graves and burial grounds, including—
(i) Ancestral graves;
(ii) Royal graves and graves of traditional leaders;
(iii) Graves of victims of conflict;
(iv) Graves of individuals designated by the
Minister by notice in the Gazette;
(v) Historical graves and cemeteries; and
(vi) Other human remains, which are not covered in terms of the Human Tissue Act,
1983 (Act No. 65 of 1983);
(h) Sites of significance relating to the history of slavery in
South Africa;
(i) Movable objects, including—
(i) Objects recovered from the soil or waters of
South Africa, including archaeological and paleontological objects and material, meteorites and rare geological specimens;
(ii) Objects to which oral traditions are attached or which are associated with living heritage;
(iii) Ethnographic art and objects;
(iv) Military objects;
(v) Objects of decorative or fine art;
(vi) Objects of scientific or technological interest; and
(vii) Books, records, documents, photographic positives and negatives, graphic, film or video material or sound recordings, excluding those that are public records as defined in section
1(xiv) of the National Archives of South Africa
Act, 1996 (Act No. 43 of 1996).
Human-readable records A record that is intelligible without the assistance or mediation of a machine; for example, a manuscript, a drawing, a print, a hand-written letter, and such like.
Indigenous knowledge (IK) Knowledge that is unique to a given culture or society.
In contrast with the international knowledge system generated by universities, research institutions and
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private firms. It forms the basis for local-level decision making in agriculture, health care, food preparation, education, natural-resource management, and a host of other everyday activities in, largely rural communities. IK is distinguished by the fact that it is orally transmitted and is widely shared.
Information Society A people-centered, inclusive and developmentoriented society where everyone can create, access, utilise and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life.
Infringement (of copyright) Infringement of copyright can lead to the awarding of damages to the injured party, injunctions on further use, loss of trust for institutions/organisations, the destruction or removal of infringing copies.
Integrated pest management (IPM)
IPM uses a range of preventative measures to control pests that threaten archival records; thereby, reducing the traditional reliance on toxic and ecologically damaging chemicals. IPM’s focus is to control rodent and insect infestation by denying them access to a building and making the building (and surrounds) as inhospitable to insects and rodents as possible. One of the components of IPM includes an extensive good
housekeeping program; another component is a comprehensive building maintenance program.
Intellectual property (IP) The concept of intellectual property (IP) is intended to give recognition to- and protection for the creative output of human mind. IP confers a form of ownership interest in human intellectual output, and allows owners of IP to exercise control lover the future use of a work. IP grants owners the opportunity to exploit their creation by passing IP rights onto others. Categories recognised under intellectual property include: inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce. Government texts are considered to be automatically in the public domain and are excluded.
Copyright legislation is considered to be outdated, compared to recent developments with electronic media; IP makes use of more recent development in law and policy associated with copyright issues, such as trademarks and the management of electronic records. IP has the potential to provide considerable protection to cultural heritage, as it protects the rights of the producer. IP can be used in the developing
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world to develop cultural heritage through the protections it affords.
Intellectual property rights Rights associated with intellectual property include the rights to reproduce (e.g. photography and scanning), adapt or create derivatives (e.g. translations), perform in public, distribute (e.g. lend, rent or loan copies to the public), display in public.
Metadata Information about other information. For example, information contained in a library catalogue is considered to be metadata (about the books in the library). Metadata, as a term, is most commonly used to describe electronic data that describes electronic records, e.g. date of creation, program on which the record was created, and such like. Data describing context, content and structure of records, and their management through time. Metadata is used for records management, retrieval and use.
Migration The process of transforming an electronic record from one encoding format to another, most usually by transferring it to a newer version of software and/or hardware. The most usual reason for migration is to transfer records to newer generations of computers, so that the records they contain can continue to be accessed by later generations of digital technology.
The fast development and marketing of newer versions of electronic soft- and hardware, means that the older versions of programs quickly become obsolete. This feature is referred to as digital obsolescence. The average rate of digital obsolesce through technological and programming improvements is increasingly shorter.
Migration techniques are active preservation method which constitute a change to the nature of the record, and entail a risk of information loss that must be clearly identified and managed.
Moral rights The ability of an author (or creator) of a work to control the eventual fate of their work(s). Moral rights serve to protect the personal and reputational rights of its creator. Moral rights are a bundle of rights that include: the creator’s right to receive or decline credit for his/her work (paternity), to prevent her/his work from being altered, displayed or utilised without the author’s permission (integrity).
Moral rights are separate from, but complimentary to copyright; as misuse of a work can give rise to a claim
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of copyright infringement. Moral rights cannot extend beyond the term of copyright (author’s lifetime plus 50 years) and may terminate earlier. Moral rights die with the person Moral rights are distinct and separate from copyright. Moral rights are essentially personal rights and not economic rights. Moral rights are analogous and closely allied to personality rights under common law. Personality rights are only enforceable by the person concerned, and are not transferrable (e.g. to heirs as copyright is). Personality rights concern the honor or reputation of an individual, as well as the right to control the use of his or her identity.
National Digital Repository (NDR) A digital repository which contains digital heritage in the national interest and which is managed in accordance with strict standards and practices to ensure authenticity and integrity of the digital content.
Non-archival records Records of a short-lived interest or usefulness; also known as ephemeral records.
Non-Public Record Recorded information, regardless of the form or medium thereof, created or received by a private individual or a body other than a body defined as a governmental body. Records donated to the archives by members of the public and non-governmental organisations or institutions.
Obsolescence The increasing rate of technological advancement in the computing field results in hard- and software increasingly becoming out of date (or “obsolete”) within an increasingly shorter time span. It means that certain file types and images cannot be opened or accessed by later generations of hard- and software.
This is a concern, as it means that much information in digital or electronic form may be rendered useless as it cannot be read by later technology. This issue had been a concern for cultural institutions since the start of digital record keeping. Cultural institutions have to plan for obsolescence by ensuring that electronic records are migratable across successive generations of software.
See associated entries: digital obsolescence, migration.
Ontology A structure of knowledge as used for the construction of common category systems and vocabularies such as thesauri and authority files.
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Open Access Access to information resources free of limitations or in which some communities of users may have preferred access over others.
Open Content
Open Source
A form of publishing of works that is published under a license that allows anyone to copy, modify or use the information.
A means of producing and maintaining software programs in which the source code is provided and which is provided free of proprietary licenses.
Optical character recognition (OCR)
Software programs that enable the searching of a scanned image of a printed or typewritten document.
The software has the ability to recognise certain keywords appearing in the text. Scanned images of printed or typewritten documents are then able to be searched, greatly enhancing the value of the information and the scanned image. Currently, no commercially successful program exists to read manuscript or handwritten records, in the same way as printed or typewritten text.
Original record An accessioned record, which may be in a physical or electronic format, from which a copy or surrogate can be made. In certain instances, an accessioned record is itself a surrogate; e.g. a microfilm. In this case the accessioned record is considered to be the original.
Orphaned works Works of art, journals, letters, photographs, and other records, found in collections, for which no owner can be identified. Orphaned items present a problem with regard to the management of digital rights within cultural heritage institutions worldwide. Orphaned works need to be catered for when devising digital rights management strategies, exhibition and loan policies, etc.
Preservation Measures aim to prevent, retard or halt deterioration of archival records and other cultural property.
Preservation is considered to be integral to the functioning of any given archives or heritage institution.
Preservation measures touch on a variety of actions and functions within any given archives or heritage institution. Preservation measures include: maintaining clean and safe storage conditions for records; ensuring that pests and other threats to the collections are mitigated for; that correct handling of records is adhered to by staff and clients; that the building fabric is kept in a sound state of repair; that the use of
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appropriate protective enclosures for fragile records occurs, etc.
Privacy Privacy and confidentiality are often thought of as the same and the terms are often used interchangeably.
However, confidentiality is a separate legal concept where information is given to a person under an obligation to keep the information confidential (for example, a trade secret, or information confided to someone). Confidential information is usually not available or readily accessible to the public, and may be information which is not recorded in some form.
Provincial Digital Repository (PDR) The division in the Western Cape Archives and Records
Public record
Service who is responsible for the safe and secure preservation of the digital masters created or received by a governmental body in pursuance of its activities.
All digital masters that are appraised as having archival value must be transferred to this repository.
These digital masters must be managed in accordance with strict standards and practices to ensure authenticity and integrity of the digital content.
Recorded information, regardless of the form or medium thereof, created or received by a governmental body in pursuance of its activities.
Record Recorded information, regardless of the form or medium thereof or evidence of a transaction preserved for the evidential information it contains.
Recording Anything on which sounds or images (or both) are fixed; or, from which sound or images (or both) are capable of being reproduced, regardless of form. See entry on technology-dependent record.
Refreshment The process of exactly copying the content of an electronic storage media to another medium of the same or different type. This may be undertaken as a result of physical damage to the medium, or in advance of technological obsolescence. It does not constitute a change to the electronic record itself.
Repository See entry for archives repository. A repository is typically used in the context of archives repositories.
Within the context of this policy this term is primarily concerned with digital repositories.
Restoration An older word used to describe conservation;
“restoration” is often used interchangeably with conservation. However, restoration is a deliberate attempt to return a damaged object or item to its
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original (or, “perfect”) state; many of the assumptions regarding how an original painting, book or document may have looked like have subsequently been found to be incorrect. This has meant that “restoration” has often led to damaging and incorrect repairs.
The concept of restoration also lies uncomfortably close to fakery; world-wide, unscrupulous persons have been known to attempt to pass of restored objects as un-restored originals, greatly enhancing their potential market-place value. As both a term and concept restoration is heavily out of favour within the heritage preservation sector worldwide. Rather, conservation is now the preferred approach to the repair of historic and heritage objects. Conservation seeks to halt deterioration, by repairing only what is damaged and not entering into any restorative practises.
Rights management Items in cultural and historical collections have legal rights, which affect how they can be used. These rights are separate from the rights of ownership. Institutions have a professional obligation to manage the rights associated with their collections.
The management of rights within any given institution should include a rights management policy that will specify how the institution is to go about managing these rights. For example with regard to copyright, intellectual property (IP), rights pertinent to digitised and digitally-born records. A survey to determine the nature of these rights will need to be conducted within the institution to determine the rights applicable.
Metadata accompanying the digital record will also have to include information on rights (e.g. ownership and licensing information).
Scan right A preservation-orientated approach for the scanning of paper-based records. Paper records are to be scanned at the highest possible quality image. This will ensure that fragile paper-based records do not have to be repeatedly scanned in order to ensure high quality images. The once-off scanning process minimises the damage that would otherwise occur to documents repeatedly subjected to the scanning process.
Scanning The process of converting analogue artifacts into digital form using optical scanning equipment or similar equipment. This can be done in two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) format. For the purposes of
intellectual property rights, the scanning process is not considered a skilled enough process, to warrant a
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scanned image to be considered as being a new or unique creation. Thus, scanned images are considered to be derivative.
.
Sensitive information Information that is regarded as restricted, confidential, secret or top secret by an organisation in terms of the
MISS. Minimum Information Security Standards.
Surrogate A copy or reproduction used in the place of the original record. See under definition of copy.
Technology-dependent record A record that is dependent on the mediation of a machine and/or other technology such as software in order to be experienced or rendered intelligible; for example, audio-visual records and electronic records.
Thesaurus A structured taxonomy of terms that are used for categorisation and classification.
Vital/Essential records Records that protect the enduring civil, legal, financial, property and other rights of the citizens of a country.
Additionally, they are the records needed to continue operational responsibilities under disaster conditions. As well as, being records that protect the legal and financial rights of the government.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
International treaties and conventions that South Africa is a signatory of
Berne Convention - international agreement governing copyright, 1886
2.
Additional sources used / consulted in the compilation of this policy document
Moral rights basics. Available on: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property/library/ moralprimer.html.
Accessed 3
October 2011.
UNESCO Charter
3.
4.
Directory of Open Access Journals. www.doaj.org
.
Minimum Information Security Standards, NIA.
CDL Digital File Format Recommendations: Master Production Files (CDL DFFR)
Maintained by the California Digital Library, August 2011, Reviewed and
Updated Semi-Annually http://www.cdlib.org/gateways/docs/cdl_dffr.pdf
Accessed 3 August 2012.
National Archives and Records Service of South Africa
National policy on the digitisation of heritage resources: final draft policy
(for public review) August 2010.
Records Management Policy Manual, 2007.
Managing Electronic Records in Governmental Bodies: Metadata requirements, 2006.
Managing Electronic Records in Governmental Bodies: Policy, principles and requirements, 2006.
Electronic records and the law: What governmental bodies need to know.
Advisory pamphlet No. 2, April 2012.
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