Simplify records management and improve access with Preservica for Local Government
Government Records Education Series
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Records preservation is vital for the smooth operation and transparency of local government activities. Recognizing this need, Preservica recently introduced a new, purpose-built solution specifically designed for local government organizations.
This innovative system addresses the unique challenges faced by municipal clerks, records managers and archivists, while streamlining workflows and enhancing the management of digital records in one centralized location. More notably, it significantly reduces record request times, providing fast online access for agencies, departments and citizens alike.
The best part? It's free to get started!
Read on to explore how local governments can turn existing digital archives into a comprehensive electronic records management system, tackle common challenges in records management and ensure secure access for departments, agencies and the public.
Expanding your digital archive to an electronic records management system
Managing digital records can be challenging, but with the right system in place, you can safeguard your valuable data and ensure readability, trustworthiness and rapid discoverability for years to come.
Unlocking the potential of electronic records management systems offers significant advantages for local governments:
Improved Accessibility: Intuitive indexing and descriptions make public records easily accessible.
Streamlined Metadata Management: Tedious metadata tasks are simplified for more efficiency.
Simplified Record Transfer: The process of transferring records into the archive is made straightforward.
Enhanced Responsiveness: Reduced time for records requests ensures quicker responses to departmental and citizen needs.
Here are the top challenges faced by local government agencies when managing a digital archive without an electronic records management system:
Internal Access Restrictions: Balancing the need for long-term preservation with ensuring accessibility for actively used records, especially those containing sensitive information like personally identifiable information (PII), requires robust permission restrictions.
Retention and Disposal Automation: Managing the increasing volume of records produced daily requires automating the retention and disposal process to ensure compliance with regulations and mandates.
Compliance with Open Meeting Laws: Meeting records and other files required to be accessible to the public under Open Meeting Laws or Sunshine laws must be readily available and intuitively accessible.
Metadata Management: Describing records becomes difficult when their descriptions don't fit standard formats, needing careful customization for better indexing
Efficient Record Transfer: The transfer of records into the archive or repository from various sources, including physical formats like paper or microfilm, poses logistical challenges, necessitating streamlined processes to save time and effort.
Fulfillment of Records Requests: Inadequate control, arrangement and description of records lead to delays in fulfilling records requests
Management of Siloed Systems: Addressing challenges with different workflows and siloed systems requires significant time, resources and expertise, often resulting in maintenance burdens for records managers.
By tackling these challenges, organizations can improve their digital records management processes, ensuring they comply with regulations, are easily accessible and are efficiently managed.
Providing secure access to departments, agencies and the public
Ensuring secure and controlled access for agencies, departments and the public requires configuring access permissions properly.
Mandates aligned with federal FOIA regulations require making meetings, records and official actions accessible for public observation and participation. Compliance with these mandates is vital at all levels of local government.
Consolidating all records into a single repository is vital for facilitating easier access, yet it poses significant challenges. Records may reside in different systems, proprietary software, local drives, or emails, complicating the process.
Challenges of ensuring long-term accessibility of digital records
Limited Physical Storage: Addressing space constraints for bulky records like large format building plans and the high costs and delays associated with offsite storage.
Vulnerability of Physical Records: Risks of damage and natural disasters that physical records face, emphasizing the need for digital preservation.
Efficient Record Management: Preventing delays in fulfilling requests through well-arranged digital systems that provide audit logs for traceability and enhanced security.
Secure Access for Sensitive Documents: Ensuring appropriate access permissions for sensitive documents in departments like Health, Police, or Courts.
Accessibility of Extensive Records: Facilitating instant access to extensive or large-scale records via secure cloud-based systems.
Outdated IT Infrastructure: Mitigating risks associated with manual backup systems and securing sensitive citizen data against ransom attacks and data breaches with robust cloud-based solutions.
With records stored in various locations, including digital files and physical formats, the benefits of modernizing processes become evident.
As a dedicated records manager, Brad Houston from the City of Milwaukee prioritizes government transparency. He faced challenges in providing public access to City Council meeting recordings.
With Preservica, Brad transformed his workflow by enabling timely responses to records requests, easy delivery of large or complex files, secure preservation of permanent government records, instant access for citizens via the public portal and efficient transfer of files from dark storage for processing and publishing.
Preservica offers several avenues to automate this process for the public:
Browser-based content submissions with a large 50GB transfer capacity per request.
Ability to submit requests from any repository or individual without requiring the submitter to log in.
Preserve365 integration with Microsoft365, enabling auto-transfer using retention labels, maintaining context with inherited Microsoft metadata and facilitating search and retrieval within Microsoft environments.
APIs and OPEX capabilities for large-scale ingestions, offering multi-TB transfer capacity per day, transfer between Preservica tenants and customizable rules for automated transfers.
Overcoming digital records management challenges with Preservica
As the volume of electronic records grows, it's crucial to guarantee their long-term accessibility through automated systems. Digital preservation, involving the conversion of obsolete or unreadable file types, is key to addressing this challenge. This process enhances security and ensures the authenticity of government documents, safeguarding both records and citizen data from potential threats.
Preservica for Local Government offers a tailored solution to ease the transition into digital preservation for clerks, records managers and archivists within the local government sector. Designed as a templated version of Preservica, this edition provides a pre-configured system, reducing the overwhelm often associated with adopting new software.
The folder hierarchy mirrors the typical records management structure in local government, distinguishing between public and internal records while ensuring secure access through unique departmental security tags. Metadata templates incorporate appropriate search criteria for vital records including meeting records, court records and property records.
Here's how a system like Preservica can help address the risks associated with digital files:
Protection Against Changes and Deletions: Accidental or deliberate changes or deletions of files can compromise the integrity of your records. Preservica automatically maintains files in readable formats, reducing the risk of alterations.
Preventing Siloed Records: Records scattered across different systems can lead to inefficiencies and difficulty in retrieval. Preservica stores, preserves and organizes records in one centralized system, ensuring easy access and management.
Ensuring Integrity and Authenticity: The integrity and authenticity of records are crucial for trustworthiness. Preservica employs checksums to ensure the integrity of files, providing assurance of their authenticity.
Addressing File Corruption: Corrupted or unreadable files can render important data inaccessible. Preservica helps prevent file corruption and ensures that records remain readable and usable.
Mitigating License and Format Issues: Lack of software license or vendor support, as well as obsolete or unmanaged file formats, can pose significant challenges. Preservica helps mitigate these issues by providing a platform that supports various file formats and eliminates reliance on specific software licenses or vendors.
Preservica's External Submissions tool streamlines the digital preservation process by allowing town staff to easily participate in the accessioning of digital records.
“External Submissions tool is a big advantage in the way town staff can participate in the accessioning of digital records and in digital preservation in general . with this tool, there is no need for a file hosting service. Submissions go directly to your repository after they’ve been approved. There is no need to fight email file size limitations and you can prompt colleagues to submit records through an extremely easy to use interface that allows drag and drop or traditional file upload. Most importantly it saves time. [..] The Submissions tool is nearly instantaneous.”
–Ashley Large, Archivist, Town of Bedford, MA
As organizations grow, additional features like automated retention management, advanced security measures and detailed reporting are available to support scalability and enhance system insights, ensuring a seamless and comprehensive Digital Preservation journey.
Watch our three-part Preservica for Local Government Education Series to learn more. Explore the fundamentals of electronic records preservation, see best-practice workflows in action and learn from fellow government clerks, records managers and archivists.
You can also download this datasheet for more information or request a free trial.
