Managing the Digital
University Desktop
ECURE 2004
Tempe, Arizona
http://www.ils.unc.edu/digitaldesktop
Thought for the day….
“The end-user manages e-mail.”
-ARMA Guideline for Managing E-mail
2
Thank You to
The National Historical Publications and
Records Commission
for funding this project
3
The team!
Tim Pyatt, co-PI, Duke University UA
 Kim Chang, Co-Project Manager
 Megan Winget, Co-Project Manager
 Paul Conway, Duke Library IT Director
 Janis Holder, UNC UA
 Frank Holt, UNC RM
 David Mitchell, Duke RM
 Russell Koonts, Duke Medical Archvist

4
Today’s Presentation
Overview and goals of the Managing the
Digital University Desktop Project.
 Context and background of study.
 Brief discussion of the survey results.
 Selected results from interview data
regarding appraisal, retention, & deletion.
 Next steps.

5
Project Overview
Understand how faculty & staff at a public
& private universities manage their email &
other electronic files.
 Create guidelines based on records
requirements & observed behaviors.
 Create learning tools based on guidelines.
 Disseminate findings & training.

6
1st Year Methodology

In order to learn how faculty, staff, and
administrators manage their electronic
materials we
 Conducted
campus-wide surveys at UNCChapel Hill and Duke University.
 Interviewed 100 individuals.
 Interviewed approximately 25 IT staff.
7
2nd Year Work
We are in the midst of coding the data
from the interviews using NVIVO software.
 Starting to analyze filing arrangements we
captured from interviewees’ computers.
 Matching capabilities of software used with
responses to interview questions.

8
How This All Began…
Collaboration between myself and UNC
Records Management Program, starting in
1999.
 Records Management Program but no real
work in electronic records.
 Recognition that UNC employees might be
mishandling electronic records.

9
Original Vision
Application submitted in May 2001.
 Original work plan called for collecting
data at UNC-CH and some of the other
15 UNC campuses.

10
Addition of Duke University




11
In October 2001, the UNC-CH Records
Management Program was dismantled due to
the budget crisis.
November 2001, NHPRC indicated they
would fund grant if UNC-CH maintained a
records manager.
Records manager’s position moved to the
Library, February 1, 2002.
Duke University brought in to maintain cost
share.
Benefits of Duke Involvement

Duke’s addition has provided:
 Extensive
and diverse expertise;
 Records practice at a private institution to
compare with the 16-campus UNC System;
 Digital information management behaviors at
an institution without any RM program and a
highly decentralized structure;
 An institution developing a campus records
management program as well as a digital
archives initiative.
12
Information Context
Digital Landscape
From How Much Information? 2003:
 Print, film, magnetic, and optical storage
media produced about 5 exabytes of new
information in 2002. Ninety-two percent of
the new information was stored on magnetic
media, mostly in hard disks.
 http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-
much-info-2003/execsum.htm
14
Storage Media

15
Hard disks store most new information.
Ninety-two percent of new information is
stored on magnetic media, primarily hard
disks. Film represents 7% of the total,
paper 0.01%, and optical media 0.002%.
Information Explosion


16
HMI estimates that new stored information grew
about 30% a year between 1999 and 2002.
The amount of information printed on paper is
still increasing, but the vast majority of original
information on paper is produced by individuals
in office documents and postal mail, not in
formally published titles such as books,
newspapers and journals.
Email
Email generates about 400,000 terabytes
of new information each year worldwide.
 Email ranks second behind the telephone
as the largest information flow. Email
users include 35% of the total U.S.
population (source: eMarketer), and
accounts for over 35% of time spent on
the Internet (source: Forrester Research).

17
Primacy of the Individual
“Tip” O’Neill: “All politics is local.”
 Desktop e-mail management and
subsequent archiving of material from the
university environment presently depends
on the individual, his or her specific
information management behaviors, and
the software being used.

18
The Situation
Most staff, faculty, and administrators,
especially the latter two groups, have little
or no training in information management.
 Electronic records are inherently fragile. If
they are not “preserved” early in their lives,
they will not endure.

19
Starting Assumption

20
Successful electronic information
management guidelines must take into
account how people are presently
managing their digital information.
Project Goals - 1

21
Document how faculty, administrators, and
staff use and manage files and records
from electronic mail and other desktop
applications at UNC-CH, Duke University,
throughout the 16-campus UNC system,
and by extension, across academia.
Project Goals - 2

22
Based on the analysis of user needs and
practices, as well as the North Carolina
Public Records Act, develop optimized email and desktop management "best
practice" guidelines to serve both public
and private higher education in North
Carolina and provide an adaptable model
of practice for other states.
Project Goals - 3

23
Develop educational opportunities
(workshops, handbook, exercises, webbased courses, etc.) to optimize faculty,
administrator, and staff use and
management of desktop electronic
documents.
Project Goals - 4

24
Develop user profiles necessary for a
strategic consideration of electronic
records management systems.
And…Dissemination

25
Disseminate information about the best
practices guidelines and instructional units
at UNC, Duke, and across the 16-campus
UNC system via a statewide conference
and to other universities via the records
management/ archival literatures and
conferences and the project website.
Best Answer?
Helping people become information
management literate.
 Moving people toward better practice.
 Realizing that telling people to manage
electronic files as “paper” has not been
effective.

26
Selected Survey
Findings
Who We Surveyed
 8,334
addresses at UNC.
 17,327 addresses at Duke.
 About 212 emails bounced at
UNC.
 About 1,115 bounced at Duke.
28
Duke Respondents
1899 Valid Duke
Survey
Respondents
Faculty
27%
507
1392
Staf f /Employee
73%
29
1076 Valid UNC Responses
UNC Respondents
Faculty
40%
644
Staff/Employee
60%
30
Survey Questions
Email application most often used
 Volume/time spent on email
 Attachments
 Storage practices
 Importance to job
 Specific Concerns
 Willingness to do further interview

31
Top Department Responders
Duke




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32
DCRI
Library
Pediatrics
Psychiatry &
Behavioral Sci
Anesthesiology
UNC – CH





Library
Medicine
School of Business
School of Social
Work
FPG Child Development Center
Number of Email Messages
Received/Day
53%
38.0%
36.8%
29%
UNC
Duke
14.8%
10%
5.5%
4%
0%
0
33
1-20
21-40
41-60
61-80
2.5% 2%
81-100
2.1%
2%
100+
0.3%
0%
Blank
Number of Email Messages
Received Daily According to HMI
60% of workers with email access receive
10 or fewer messages on an average day,
 23% receive more than 20,
 6% more than 50.
 73% of workers spend an hour or less per
day on their email.

34
Average Minutes/Day Spent on
amount of time spent on email
Email
120
100
80
60
111.50
92.69
40
81.93
80.41
20
0
Duke
Employees
35
Duke Faculty
UNC Employees UNC Faculty
Most Used Email Applications at
UNC
51%
27%
3%
S
ire
n
3%
in
e
P
pe
ts
ca
N
e
36
4%
O
ut
lo
ok
M
ul
be
rr
y
E
ud
or
a
5%
Most Used Email Applications at
Duke
38%
15%
11% 11%
4%
P
in
e
4%
M
ul
be
rr
y
E
xc
ha
ng
e
or
a
E
ud
et
sc
ap
e
O
ut
lo
ok
N
37
Lo
tu
s
N
ot
es
4%
Top 10 Concerns Regarding
Email at UNC
% of Respondents:





38
23% Unsolicited email
21% Confidentiality
16% Time
15% Usage
14% Software
limitations





14%
13%
11%
10%
10%
Retention
Security
Management
Deletion
Viruses
Top Concerns Regarding Email
at Duke
% of Respondents:





39
21%
19%
18%
17%
14%
Unsolicited email
Software limitations
Confidentiality
Security
Volume





13%
12%
10%
8%
7%
Time
Usage
Viruses
Retention
Lotus Notes
Selected Interview
Findings
Concerning Appraisal,
Retention, & Deletion
Did Anyone Ever Tell You What
to Save?
Other
13%
No
68%
41
Yes
19%
Did Anyone Ever Tell You What
to Save?
50
45
40
All
35
Duke
30
UNC
25
Faculty
20
Staff
15
10
5
0
42
Yes
No
Other
Did Anyone Ever Tell You What
to Save?
Auto-Archive
3%
Told to save everything
6%
Told to save all emails
6%
Not formally
28%
Supervisor
6%
Showed structure for
saving
6%
Intuitive
6%
Grant Materials
6%
Student Records
6%
43
Record Retention
Schedule
9%
Confidential information
9%
Public Records Law
9%
What Were You Told?
Auto-archive, 1
Retention
period, 1
Showed
structure for
saving, 2
Told to save
everything, 2
Told to save all
emails, 2
44
Who Told You?
Supervisor, 2
Record
Retention
Schedule, 3
Risk
Management
Dept, 1
Public Records
Law, 3
45
Are There Records You Know You
Have to Keep?
Other
5%
No
14%
Yes
81%
46
How Do You Decide What These
Records Are?
Retention
period, 2
Federal
regulation, 1
,
Intuitive, 4
Supervisor, 1
Use personal
judgment, 3
47
Not formally, 4
What Types of Documents Do You
Have to Keep?
Policies,
procedures,
initiatives, 1
Projects, 1
Presentations, 1 Syllabi, 1
Final draft, 1
Departmental
Email, 1
memos, 1
Research papers, 2
Teaching
materials, 1
Financial
materials, 12
Patient records, 3
Legal materials, 4
Administrative
records, 11
Grant materials, 4
Correspondence, 5
Student records, 8
48
Criteria Used to Keep Email
60
40
20
0
49
Anticipated Use
Save everything
Evidence
File
Reminders
Other
Reference
Paper
Finding aids
Auto-Archive
Early digital proj or tech decisions
Immediate relevance
Criteria Used to Delete Email
Not main recipient
1%
Not consistent
1%
Other copies available
2%
Lack of space
2%
Trash
1%
Time
1%
Filters
1%
File
2%
Immediate relevance
3%
Print then delete
3%
No Use Anticipated
38%
Personal Email
3%
Documents
5%
Time Sensitive
6%
50
No critical impact
14%
Spam
17%
Do Your Email Messages Undergo
Automatic Destruction?
No
77%
I don't know
10%
Other
5%
51
Yes
8%
What Do You Do When You Get An
Imminent Destruction Message?
Save everything,
1
Delete, 2
Quota, 1
Lack of space, 1
Re-organize
documents, 2
Network storage,
1
52
Empty trash, 1
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53
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Criteria Used to Keep Electronic
Documents
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Criteria Used to Delete Electronic
Documents
Reference
2%
No critical impact
2%
Quota
2%
Reminders
2%
File
2%
Time Sensitive
2%
Anticipated Use
2%
Not consistent
4%
Network storage
4%
No Use Anticipated
45%
Other copies
available
7%
Print then delete
12%
Lack of space
14%
54
Do you keep copies of all the
messages that you send?
No
14%
Yes
86%
55
Where Do You Store Messages
You Send?
Archive
2%
File in
folders
28%
56
Hard
drive
1%
Sent
folder
69%
How Do You Store Messages You
Send?
By size
11%
Not automatic
4%
Pick and
choose
18%
Automatic
45%
Chronologically
22%
57
Next Steps
Finish analyzing data.
 Create “guidelines.”
 Get feedback for guidelines.
 Create learning materials.
 Test guidelines and materials.
 Spring 2005 dissemination conference.

58
Managing the Digital
University Desktop
ECURE 2004
Tempe, Arizona
http://www.ils.unc.edu/digitaldesktop