>How confident am I that the people who sit at my desk in 10, 20, 30 years will have the interest, expertise, resources, governance, staff time, and budget to accomplish renewal of electronic records? >In general, I am not willing to oblige successive generations to records maintenance if a minimum-maintenance storage option is currently available. >> >>There are two separate issues: >>Managing/Policy - How long to keep specific content - this is an RM issue >>Procedural/Practical - How to keep the content accessible. (Here is were it is easy to conflate the two because at some point this is also "managing" the media.) Be it paper or on cd, or fax, or ZIP drive, 5.25, SD, thumb drive, whatever....this is an RM and IT issue >> >>We'll need to roll the content forward onto new media or new technologies... >> >>The firm decides on the policy, it is my responsibility to see that the records are viable for as long as that policy states. >> Actually it's correct to state the firm/organization/owner of the information makes the decision based on the value or necessity of ensuring the information remains persistently accessible for as long as it is required to be retained to meet obligations, whether these are legally mandated, of a business need, or for some intrinsic enduring value of their content. The organization assigns responsibility for implementing the practices to meet the policy to someone in a position on their staff- that might be the Records Manager (if there is one) or some cadre of Administrative Staff, the IT Department, who knows? Some organizations assign these responsibilities to a contractor or consultant- but it's still policies and practices that establish the course of actions that need to be taken. Conversion and migration is inevitable for information that has to be retained for extensive periods of time, and plans need to be made to ensure this happens proactively (including quality control and validating content following conversion/migration) in advance of any degradation or obsolescence occurring. And as much as some people hate to hear it... in some cases this may include a hard copy option for a minimal group of records. I guess what I'm getting at is it doesn't matter what the individual in the role wants or thinks is appropriate, it's what the organization needs to meet their requirements and objectives for managing their information assets. The decision isn't up to an individual to 'oblige others' to do certain things, or to select the easiest option available now- it's to make plans for the future to remain in compliance with the policy and obligations. Larry [log in to unmask] [Yes, it's really me =) ] List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message. mailto:[log in to unmask]