Death in the archives

Distressing news from Thailand where eight people died at a bank as the result of a accidental release of fire extinguishing chemicals. Where did this tragedy occur? In the basement archive room of the Siam Commercial Bank's headquarters in Bangkok. Contractors were working on the system and tripped it. The chemical is called Pyrogen.
Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/thailand-8-dead-after-lethal-pyrogen-spray-mistakenly-released-bangkok-bank-1549457

British Columbia Government Information Act begins second reading in Legislative Assembly

Update for March 3, 02015: The second reading of Bill, the Government Information Act, began on March 2, 02015 in the British Columbia Legislative Assembly. The Hansard transcript is here: http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/40th4th/20150302pm-House-Blues.htm

In speaking about the bill, opposition member Doug Routley gave a lengthy critique and highlighted the 33,000 boxes of records in government warehouses awaiting transfer to the BC Archives, part of the Royal BC Museum.

 Original post: British Columbia government introduces legislation to create government digital archives

The British Columbia government introduced Bill 5, the Government Information Act, on February 12, 02015. The main purpose of the act is to repeal the 1936 Document Disposal Act. The new act will also establish a "digital archives for government information" and mandate a new position, the chief records officer, who will be "responsible for managing, securing and preserving the digital archives." The digitization of government information will become mandatory under this legislation unless the information is exempt from being digitized. Information in a non-digital form "must be digitized before it is archived."

Although it is open for interpretation and clarification, section 20(2)(e) appears to lay the groundwork for the government to begin paying fees to the Royal BC Museum for archival services. Except in a few very special circumstances, the Royal BC Museum has not taken in government records for over a decade. The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner highlighted this situation in its July 02014 special report A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Information Management. Could this bill be a response to the OIPCBC's report?

I wonder too whether with this new legislation the door may be opening for the payment of a one-time fee and transfer of thousands of boxes to the "museum archives of government" as the bill styles the Royal BC Museum.

The first reading version of the bill is at
http://www.leg.bc.ca/40th4th/1st_read/gov05-1.htm

A news release offers some additional information: the "digital archives will be open to the public and searchable online" and "The transition to digital information management will begin in the spring of 2015 and is expected to take three years."

The Victoria newspaper Times-Colonist's article about Bill 5 is here.

Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC releases special report, "A Failure to Archive"

Elizabeth Denham, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC, released a special report on July 22, 2014 titled "A Failure to Archive: Recommendations to Modernize Government Records Management". The report deals with three issues:

1. the decade-old backlog of 30,000+ boxes of records awaiting transfer from government to the BC Archives, which is part of the Royal BC Museum, a Crown corporation. The RBCM established a fee of $454 for the transfer of a box, so government offices decided to warehouse the records which was less expensive. 
2. "the lack of a practical method for archiving government’s electronic records", especially on the part of the BC Archives, which "does not have the capability to accept or archive those records. This challenge has been addressed in other jurisdictions, but B.C. [the province] has yet to make any significant progress in managing the archiving of electronic records."
3. modernization of the legislative framework for records management.

You can download the PDF report at https://www.oipc.bc.ca/special-reports/ and a press release is available for downloading at https://www.oipc.bc.ca/news-releases/

Changes and challenges at the United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

According to this Information Today Newsbreak story on March 10, 02011 by Barbie E. Keiser, there's been "Upheaval at the National Archives" due to

Suspended development of the Electronic Records Archive (ERA) and closure of the Archives Library and Information Center (ALIC). What happened to set off this furor was the release of two documents: Memorandum 2011-113 issued by the Archivist of the United States (AOTUS), David S. Ferriero, on Feb. 14 and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report to Congressional Committees, Electronic Government: National Archives and Records Administration’s Fiscal Year 2011 Expenditure Plan (GAO-11-299) published on March 4.

Digital lessons never learned for FEMA?

In the category of don't put all your digital eggs in one basket comes this digital lesson not learned for FEMA, the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to this Information Week article published on February 9, 02011, FEMA lost historical data pertaining to its "lessons learned" database due to a server breakdown and "a poor archiving plan."

JISC infoNet, UK-centric e-learning and records management tools

JISC infoNet is a UK-centric resource filled with all kinds of practical case studies, toolkits, integrating Web technology into education and publications around information and records management, e-learning and curriculum development. Hosted and maintained by Northumbria University, it's a service of JISC Advance.

I-CHORA 5: Fifth International Conference on the History of Records and Archives, London, UK, July 02010

The Fifth International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (I-CHORA 5) will be held in London, UK, between July 1 and 3, 02010. The title of the conference is "Records, archives and technology: interdependence over time." According to the conference Web site, "The conference will explore this subject from a historical perspective, but will interpret it as broadly as possible. It will consider the evolving interrelationships between records, archives and any technology, not just the digital technology of our own time; and will embrace any kind of interdependence, including the role, challenges or opportunities of technology in creating, maintaining or using records. It will provide an opportunity to examine these topics from the standpoint of different disciplines, including philosophy, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, archival science, computer science, law and literary and cultural studies." A call for papers is available.