recordswords

Been playing with word generators recently for 25 Things.

Would we think differently about records and recordkeepers if some of these words were real?  What do some of these words say about records, recordkeeping and recordkeepers?

And now for the people (and their wardrobes):

Images created with Wordle.

Freedom of Information: open access, empty archives?

As mentioned in a previous post, I recently read “Freedom of Information: open access, empty archives?” (ed. Flinn & Jones, Routledge 2009 – volume details; British Library inter-library loan more cost-effective!!).  Well worth a read.

Perhaps the key chapter for the UK experience is that contributed by the editors, examining FoI from the historian’s perspective.  The authors make the case for a generally high level of trust among contemporary historians in the integrity and operation of the 30 year rule (originally 50 years in the first Public Records Act 1958, reduced to 30 in 1967) before the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in 2005.

Email tips – part 2

Following on from last week’s post,  here are a few more ideas for getting on top of email.

Tips for dealing with email – part 1

By popular demand…

I’ve been working with a few people recently and the following are some of the things that have helped them get on top of their mailboxes.  I have permission to say that the worst inbox I’ve helped deal with contained 6,478 items – 5,893 were unread (!).  If this sounds like you, why not try some of these ideas -  let me know if any work for you!

IPR risk management calculator

I’ve been involved with several digitisation projects, including one of the round of New Opportunities Fund (now BIG Lottery fund) digitisation projects back in 2001-3 – Church Plans Online.   At the start of that particular project we were in a much stronger position than many other NOF projects in that all 13,000 of the items (church plans, believe it or not) being digitised had already been catalogued, and an extensive amount of research had been also undertaken on the firms and individual architects responsible.    The plans dated between 1818 and 1982 so the range of rights research and clearance required was variable across the archive.

Nonetheless, researching the then rights-holders and securing permissions – where possible – to digitise and make the plans available online took much longer than anticipated, even allowing for the use of the fantastic resources at the RIBA British Architectural Library and the numerous directories based on extensive research into the profession of architect.

Since the days of the NOF projects, a lot of lessons have been learned about handling IPR and much good practice and useful tools developed.  I recently came across an extremely useful IPR risk management calculator intended for use at the project planning stage.  The tool (first iteration) gives a very quick indication of indicative risk level and links to further information about steps to mitigate risks such as templates for Notice and Take Down Policies.

The calculator has been designed to provide a guide to the types of criteria which might reduce or raise levels of risks associated with material for which permission has not been sought, and then help understand the types of decisions which could potentially reduce their risk. Typical examples of this might include materials which are still in copyright, but for which the rights holders cannot be traced or are unknown (so called “Orphan Works”)…

[The] Risk Management Calculator provides an INDICATIVE risk level only, but demonstrates that for example, the more open the end use licence you select to make these types of materials accessible and reusable, the greater the potential risk if you have not sought the appropriate permissions.

The Twelve Days of Email

The 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas Day and end today – this evening being Twelfth Night.

If your workplace New Year’s resolution for 2011 was to get on top of your mailbox, then perhaps the following may be helpful…

On the 12th Day of Christmas I hit the delete key

(on)

Twelve Colleagues Copied

Eleven Listserv Pedants

Ten Reminders Nagging

Nine Writers Rambling

Eight ‘Me Too’ Missives

Seven Subject Secrets

Six Big Attachments

Five Old Meetings

Four ‘Calls Missed’

Three Nigerian Spams

Two Ranting Folk

and I made lots of time for me.

More on my favourite topic – Inbox Zero – another time.  Happy 2011!

For those who don’t know The 12 Days of Christmas song – see wikipedia

25 Things II

…and this time I’m helping to facilitate it. We’ve had a quick planning meeting this morning, and I’m looking forward to it. I had such a positive experience myself (see previous blog posts ad nauseam) that it’s good to have a chance to help encourage other people to explore what’s out there.

Free information

Been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently – my new job (encompassing my old job plus that of the retired University Archivist) is keeping me extremely busy…

However in the last week I’ve come across some really useful commentary on Freedom of Information from different perspectives, and have also recently finished “Freedom of Information: open access, empty archives?” (ed. Flinn & Jones, Routledge 2009 – volume details; British Library inter-library loan much more cost-effective!!) – more on that volume later.

FoI  Man – an FoI officer based in London; I guess working in local government.  His blog blurb says

Why am I writing anonymously?  Well, apart from rather enjoying the image of myself in lycra tights, cape and mask, I think I can write, to use an FOI phrase, in a “free and frank” manner. I don’t intend to use this blog to publicly criticise my own employer. Neither do I want to ‘leak’ information. This is about challenging attitudes more generally, and using examples to illustrate broader principles about openness, confidentiality and so on. I can do that much more easily if my views aren’t associated with any single person or organisation.

He’s also on twitter – @FoIManUK.

The next one is not anonymous – the journalist David Higgerson.  Although it’s a blog about journalism, David also blogs about FoI because “I believe [the act] is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal as journalists, and one which should be used more frequently.”

Obviously the Campaign for Freedom of Information has long been a great source of information and opinion.

“If we can’t access these stories, are they lost to us?”

Although focussing on film archives, this short video from JISC’s Film and Sound Think Tank (who knew?!) articulates issues for archives in all formats.

Open Culture‘s blog says

The issues are situated, of course, within the larger context of building a free and informed society. For universities, museums, archives, and others, bringing video online from our cultural heritage (and equipping students to use it) has become a new cultural imperative. Open video on Wikipedia is not simply a call for free media fragments to be stored online. It augurs a new vision of teaching and learning, and a new creative and political discourse. Everyone is invited to participate in this conversation just getting underway…

Are we up to the challenge in the current climate?

The dangers of mis-sorting

Substitute little girl for user who can’t access records…

From the #archives: Internal #PostOffice #poster on the dange… on Twitpic.