Ensuring the Preservation of Reliable Evidence: A Research Project Funded by the NHPRC

  • Wendy Duff

Abstract

The University of Pittsburgh Electronic Records Project, a three year project funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, identified a set of nineteen functional requirements for electronic evidence. This paper describes the Project's products, including the functional requirements for record-keeping, the production rules, literary warrant, and a metadata model for business acceptable communications. The paper also reports on the results of research that investigated the effect of corporate culture on the choice of tactics to implement the functional requirements and the influence of literary warrant on the acceptance of functional requirements by lawyers, auditors, and information technologists.

RÉSUMÉ

Le Projet de documents informatiques de l'Université de Pittsburgh, un projet d'une durée de trois ans, financé par la National Historical Publications and Records Commission, a identifié une série de dix-neuf conditions fonctionnelles afin d'établir la valeur testimoniale des documents électroniques. Cet article décrit les résultats du projet, ainsi que les exigences fonctionnelles requises pour la garde des documents, les règlements de production, les droits d'auteur, ainsi qu'un modèle méta-informationnel pour des communications et transactions courantes. Cet article fait également état des résultats d'une recherche sur les conséquences de la culture corporative sur les choix des tactiques d'implantation de ces conditions fonctionnelles ainsi que l'influence du droit d'auteur sur l'acceptation de ces conditions par les avocats, les vérificateurs et de les techniciens de l'information.

Author Biography

Wendy Duff
Wendy M. Duff is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, where she teaches courses in archives, records management, and electronic records. Previously, she has been Project Coordinator for the Pittsburgh Project, Coordinator of Technical Services at the Nova Scotia Provincial Library, a teacher in the Nova Scotia Community College Library Technicians Programme, and a librarian at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Her main research areas include both descriptive standards and electronic records. She presently serves as chair of the Canadian Committee for Archival Description.
Published
1996-10-24
How to Cite
Duff, Wendy. 1996. “Ensuring the Preservation of Reliable Evidence: A Research Project Funded by the NHPRC”. Archivaria 42 (October), 28-45. https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12152.

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