Nina
Records Management Applications are pretty dumb beasts. In general, they are just databases, albeit with a fair bit of 'user interface' thrown in.
It can NOT tell if the string of bits you are storing is an email, a wordprocessing or spreadsheet document, an image file from a scanner, a sound file, movie, a database or any other type of document. To the 'system' it is just a string of bits, which it stores somewhere. Naturally, there is other information which is stored which gives the strings of bits meaning (metadata).
My own organisation uses a fairly old version of software (which I beleive is DoD certified) (upgrade coming real soon now, hopefully). It stores any type of document we care to throw at it - including everything from the Microsoft Office suite (yes, we have access databases in there - dont ask about migration, etc), image files (TIFF/PDF/jpeg/png/etc). Personally, I haven't had any reason to stick a sound or movie file into the system and I don't know if any exist.
Advice from anyone who says that you cannot do this should be taken with a liberal grain of salt.
John Lovejoy
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My own views, not my employers.
-----Original Message-----
From: Osier, Nina [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 2:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] A DoD certified product question
I'm getting ready to attend a local demo provided by a computer consulting
company (name omitted deliberately). One of the presenters informed me,
during a conference call last week, that "no product on the market today"
can serve as an RMA for e-mail messages, born-digital documents, and scanned
documents. When I pressed this issue, the consultant insisted that DoD
certification is an "architecture only" exercise. That none of the products
on the approved list can do what it's supposed to do in real life, so we
should be prepared to purchase separate solutions for e-mail and other
digital records.
So, colleagues. Do any of you have personal experience with a DoD certified
RMA that's been fully implemented, and is successfully managing (for
storage, retrieval and retention purposes) e-mail messages, born-digital
documents, and scanned documents? I find the consultant's words hard to
believe, but so far I can't - despite lots of Googling and other research -
find such an installation that's got all the pieces up and running.
BTW, for anyone who notices from my sig line that I'm still at the Maine
State Archives: I had to withdraw my acceptance of the new position at Maine
Dept. of Transportation due to a health problem that surfaced with
spectacularly inconvenient timing. I'll be fine, but taking on new
challenges right now just isn't in the cards. It's a good thing one ever
promised me that life was going to be fair!
Best,
Nina
Nina M. Osier, Director
Division of Records Management Services
Maine State Archives
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