Archives New Zealand released the first version of its Digital Transfer Readiness Characteristics guidance in October 2016. This blog focuses on the characteristic of ‘integrity’ in the context of your content management system (CMS).
From the guidance, integrity is demonstrated when, “A file manifest that includes file paths and checksums for each file can be produced.”
What does this mean in practicality?
If you’re using a shared drive -
then the records are already pretty much open for you to access. Our recommendation is to try to run the utility DROID from The National Archives UK to create metadata about your files. This will include the two key pieces of information - file paths and checksums.
DROID is also mentioned in our The Importance of Checksums blog from June this year where we discuss how checksums are generated and used. A file path is the unique location of the file within the original system, such as -
C:\Blogs\2017\WhoholdsthekeystoyourCMS.doc
If you’re using a CMS -
then you need to ask the following questions:
Can you extract records and metadata from your CMS?
Does the metadata contain checksum information?
If not, can you run a utility from the list in the checksum blog on the files before or soon after extract?
Can you observe other aspects important to integrity? e.g.
- Do file modification dates accurately show when the files were placed in the CMS?
- Are the filenames consistent with the record in the CMS?
These questions will be asked as part of Archives New Zealand’s initial discussions with any organisation looking to transfer - it might be worth thinking about them up front.
If, as an information and records manager/practitioner, you’re not quite sure how this will work, get in touch with your technology solutions provider now to see how they can help.
If you have any comments or questions please use rkadvice@dia.govt.nz
