A National Standard for Digital Records - a Danish Perspective Jan Dalsten Sørensen

1. A National Standard for
Digital Records
- a Danish Perspective
Jan Dalsten Sørensen
The Danish National Archives
Future Perfect Conference 2012
www.sa.dk/ra

2. Set-up for Digital Records
• Notification on new records management systems and business
systems
• Transfers to the National Archives as system independent SIP’s,
at times determined by the National Archives
• Only a few document formats allowed for transfer
• Conversion to archive format performed by (and at the expense of)
the records creator
www.sa.dk/ra

3. A few facts
• First transfer of digital (electronic) records 1973
• Fully digital ERMS with no paper allowed since 1996
• 250-400 SIP’s approved of every year
• About 30 TB born-digita records, half of this received in the past 2
years
www.sa.dk/ra

4. Notification – what and when?
•The National Archives must be notified on all types of electronic record
systems (bussiness systems and records management systems).
•Only records management systems need approval – for now
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5. Records Management Systems
Purpose of notification:
•to take an appraisal decision at an early stage
•to make sure that it will be possible to make and archival version of
the system
•to make sure that “archival considerations” are taken into account,
and documented in the instructions
This process includes approval of the technical structure of the database
involved
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6. Migration to archival formats at time of transfer
Executive Order on Submission Information Packages:
•relational databases
•XML (modified SIARD)
•TIFF, JPEG-2000, MP3, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, GML
•standardized documentation
•standardized structure
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7. Structure and Content

8. Indices

9. Questions?
E-mail: jds@sa.dk
Twitter: jdalsten
www.sa.dk/ra