Von Hans Hofmann, Leiter der Historical Archives und Koordinator des DLM-Forums der Europäischen Kommission, Brüssel.
Intro
To provide European citizens with easy access to electronic information, the DLM-Forum invites the public sector and the ICT industry to collaborate on producing cost-effective electronic document and records management tools.
Electronic document and records management has become a huge market, ranging from managing digital documents to capturing Web sites. This was underlined by the quality and variety of presentations in the two European DLM-Forums that were held in December 1996 and October 1999. The latter DLM-Forum [DLM is a French abbreviation for ‘Données Lisibles par Machine’ or ‘machine-readable data’ in English] was held in Brussels (Belgium) for the second time on 18 and 19 October 1999. It attracted over 400 specialists in electronic documents and records management, as well as users from Europe, North America and China. (For a brief report on the conference, see the January/February issue of Document World.)
A Little History
The DLM-Forum was created as ‘a multidisciplinary forum … in the framework of the Community on the problems of the management, storage, conservation and retrieval of machine-readable data, inviting public administrations and national archives services, as well as representatives of industry and of research, to take part in the forum’ (source: Official Journal of the European Communities, No. C 235 , 23/08/1994 p 3). The European Commission established the forum, acting on the conclusions of a report entitled Archives in the European Union (the so-called ‘Black Book’), compiled by a group of high level European experts. The archives were the starting point and the driving force behind this European DLM-initiative, which from the very first moment brought together people from different disciplines involved in electronic information handling.
While the main goals of the first DLM-Forum in 1996 were to find out what was going on in Europe and the rest of the world in terms of electronic document and records management and to seek wider co-operation in this area between the member states of the European Union (EU) and the European Commission in Brussels, the second DLM-Forum ’99 was clearly targeted at the ICT industry. The interdisciplinary DLM Monitoring Committee, which was established as part of the 10-points DLM Action Plan (for details, go to www.dlmforum.eu.org), stressed that hardware and software suppliers should be made aware of the fact that their products and what is created by their products need to include facilities for short-term and long-term storage and accessibility of electronic documents and records. The Word is Out to the Industry
The DLM Forum ’99 ‘European Citizens and electronic information: the memory of the Information society’ issued the following conclusions:
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| | 1. | Develop a reference model for managing electronic documents and records in public administrations |
The progress that has been achieved in developing the reference model is a major result of the DLM-Forum ’99. This advancement is a direct consequence of the initiative taken at the first DLM-Forum which requested the establishment of functional requirements for electronic document and records management in the public and private sectors.
The reference model takes account of the entire life cycle continuum of electronic documents and records – i.e. from their reception or creation to long-term preservation and archiving. The model benefits from relevant activities and projects in the EU member states, such as
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| | · | The project ‘Long-term preservation of electronic documents and records’ in The Netherlands, designed to find the right procedures (emulation or migration; cost factor, etc.) |
| | · | The project ‘Digital Depot 2000’, which looks at methods for storing digital documents and records in the short term; a prototype system has been tested from December 1999 to March 2000 |
| | · | In the UK the Public Record Office (PRO) in London/Kew deals with a major project on functional requirements. |
| | · | The Moreq (Model requirements) project which is financed by the Information Interchange between Administrations (IDA 2) programme of the European Commission. |
| | · | International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic systems (INTERPARES), a project initiated by Canadian experts. |
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| | 2. | Send out a special DLM-message to the ICT industry. |
A special ‘DLM-message’ to the ICT industry was formulated to promote best practices in public administration and provide easily applicable and cost-effective document and records management tools. The European Commission, together with the EU member states, have been asked to update and forward this message to the ICT industry. To this end a consultative document was drafted and distributed to DLM correspondents and other experts for their comments. (For more details, go to www.dlmforum.eu.org) This message will take into account all presentations and comments issued at the DLM-Forum ’99 as well as best practices in public administration. Therefore, the entire industry across Europe should be encouraged to exploit the field of electronic documents, records management and digital archiving as a new and viable market. The importance of this ‘DLM-message to industry’ was underscored in the respective inauguration and closing speeches at DLM-Forum ’99 by the Secretary General of the European Commission, Carlo Trojan, and the new Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society, Erkki Liikanen. This clearly shows the increasing awareness of political decision makers with respect to electronic document and records management. It is now up to the ICT industry to follow up on this message and give a timely reply.
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| | 3. | Realise a modular European training programme for administrators and archivists on electronic document and records management, as well as improving the skills and recruitment opportunities in Europe. |
The DLM-Forum ’99 gave a big boost to the realisation of a first module of the European training programme called European Training Programme in Electronic Records Management for administrators and archivists (E-TERM). The programme draws on the experience of different archives schools and other specialist bodies available today in Europe. E-TERM aims at improving the training of public administrators, modern archivists and other information specialists. The initiative for this activity lies with the member states – in particular, with The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Italy and Portugal.
One of the objectives of E-TERM is the continued enhancement of skills and recruitment opportunities for these professionals throughout Europe. What we really need is a better definition of the role and profile of the modern archivist in the information society.
In its turn, the ICT industry will gain business opportunities, both in contributing to the development of training modules for E-TERM and in leveraging and sharing their expertise. The idea is to make E-TERM publicly available in Europe in the second half of 2000.
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| | 4. | Implement a reinforced DLM Action Plan, 1999-2004 |
The European Commission and the interdisciplinary DLM-Monitoring Committee have now been asked to reinforce the DLM-Action Plan for the period 1999-2004 and to continue looking after the priorities to be set and their timely implementation. To achieve these goals, the Committee will be restructured and tasked with prioritising ongoing and future DLM-activities. A key focus will be to closely co-operate with the ICT industry.
Many of these activities need to be co-funded by EU member states and from EU action programmes. Clearly, more persistence and lobbying from the member states would be of great help in order to promote the timely implementation of the reinforced DLM-Action Plan 1999-2004 and thus improve access to electronic information by European citizens.
What Has Been Achieved So far?
Among the first achievements of both DLM-Forums in view of a closer and European-wide co-operation in the field of electronic document and records management are:
A DLM Web site (www.dlmforum.eu.org) was set up as well as a network of European DLM correspondents to support and foster the information interchange on electronic document and records management in Europe. (For details on how to sign up as a correspondent, see sidebar ‘Further Information’.) The DLM proceedings of the first Forum in 1996 (published on line: www.dlmforum.eu.org-/dlm96/index.html and in the periodical INSAR European Archives News, Supplement II, 1997) have stimulated a European-wide and continuing interest in the interdisciplinary approach to electronic document and records management. The proceedings are used as a reference publication for nationwide training activities. The proceedings of the second DLM-Forum in 1999 are available on www.dlmforum.eu.org/program/index_en.html and can also be obtained as INSAR Supplement IV, 2000 from the EU office for publications. The multidisciplinary DLM guidelines on best practices for using electronic information became very popular and were out of print (INSAR Supplement III, 1997) within a short time. However, they can still be downloaded from the Web – www.dlmforum.eu.org/documents/guidelines.html. Besides the official translations into English, French and German (working languages of the DLM-Forum), the guidelines were also translated into Dutch, Spanish and even Serbocroate. A first draft of a report on the situation of electronic document and records management in the EU member states, in private and public archives and administrations was presented during the first DLM-Forum. A revised, enlarged and updated version has recently been completed and will soon be distributed via the DLM Web site.
A major study into the legal implications of electronic document and records management has been completed and will be distributed shortly on www. dlmforum.eu.org. This report considers the implications of the EU Data Protection Directive, the ‘Green Paper on access to public sector information’ and the Digital Signature Directive. The DLM-Forum co-operates with other European institutions, such as the Legal Advisory Board for the Information market (LAB - www.echo.lu-/legal/en/labhome.html) of the European Commission’s Directorate General for the Information Society and keeps in touch with e-commerce related activities of the European Commission’s Internal Market Directorate General (www.europa.eu.int/business/en/index.html). Since standards and specifications for hardware and software products are the most basic requirements for the preservation and accessibility of electronic documents and records, the DLM-Forum is working closely with the Open Information Interchange (OII) initiative of the European Commission. As part of an effort to collect relevant information on standards and norms, it published a guide to archiving (www.echo.lu/oii/en/ archive_guide.html) and a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of archiving standards (www.echo.lu/oii/en/archives.html). Networking between experts in Europe has led to the establishment of working groups on electronic document and records management in EU member states. Furthermore, since 1997 the different Member States have organised special European DLM conferences in the framework of their respective EU Presidencies - notably, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Austria, Germany and Finland. Each of them chose one of the major topics of the DLM-Forum and elaborated them in more detail. These were important steps from the first to the second DLM-Forum. The Finnish conference which was held in Tampere in November 1999, dwelled on the important topic of appraisal and disposal of electronic documents and records.
Funding is one of the major problems for electronic document and records management projects. One of the aims of the DLM-Forum is therefore to improve the distribution and application of information on funding these projects. A number of projects have already been co-funded by the respective EU action programmes, such as INFO2000, IDA2, LEONARDO and ISPO. Successful projects that were initiated by institutions from EU member states include:
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| | · | The E-TERM project on a European Training Module (see point 3 of this article) |
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Where to Go from Here?
The European-wide and interdisciplinary co-operation in the field of electronic document and records mangement is to be fostered and enhanced. The important requirement for standardisation concerning the short-term and long-term preservation and accessibility of electronic information can only be met by using the expertise of all related professional groups, including industry and the public sector. The ICT industry initiative of the DLM-Forum ’99 encourages this approach. What is now needed is a constructive response from the ICT industry. This way the industry and the public sector could be brought closer together and jointly develop practical solutions. The European DLM-Forum ’99 calls upon all players involved to continue combining their efforts and to focus on concrete actions in order to provide European citizens with improved and smooth access to electronic information.
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