Ensuring critical digital human rights records can be used by employees for decades to come
Keeping human rights records in Microsoft 365 readable & trusted over decades
Amnesty’s IT and Information Management group selected Preserve365 to transform how it manages the archiving, access & Digital Preservation of permanent & long-term records in Microsoft SharePoint in order to create a living resource that staff researchers can easily access & trust.
Stopping unauthorized access, loss, corruption or deletion
Ensuring case records remain useable & trusted over decades
Saving valuable time by automating disposition & archival transfers
Ensuring staff retain access to always readable high-value resources
“Making preservation archiving part of our SharePoint workflows means archival transfers can happen automatically. Highly sensitive records stay useable for years to come & our researchers can always find, use & trust them in support of their vital work.”
Fiona Bolt
Information Manager, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a non-governmental organization dedicated to researching, advocating, and mobilizing to end human rights abuses around the world. The archives & records team predominately support the internal information needs of the organization and is part of the IT group.
With close to 100% adoption of SharePoint it is now the accepted solution to file storage and information management including records relating to prisoners of conscience, case files, missions, correspondence, campaigns, governance papers & material about the Amnesty movement.
Challenge
Amnesty International faced significant challenges in managing its long-term records due to the growing volume of digital evidence stored on SharePoint.
With cases spanning decades, critical records—including case and mission files, correspondence, campaign materials, and governance papers—were at risk of loss and format obsolescence. Ensuring the readability, integrity and access to these records is essential.
In addition the lack of a streamlined archival process for SharePoint records meant valuable time was being spent by staff researchers reviewing and deciding which files should be archived and when.
Without a sustainable long-term records management solution, Amnesty International risks losing historically significant information and compromising its ability to support current & future human rights investigations.
Solution
To address this challenge Amnesty implemented Preserve365® an automated solution embedded in their Microsoft 365 environment designed to simplify the archiving and digital preservation of critical records. The key features of the solution included:
- Integration with Microsoft Purview: - Purview retention labels categorize content and automatically initiate the secure transfer of files to the digital preservation archive
- Ensured Readability & Integrity: Preservica’s Active Digital Preservation technology automatically protects record readability, integrity, and accessibility throughout the entire retention period
- Scalable Archiving: SharePoint files and folders were archived at scale, while individual records could be transferred as needed
- Context Preservation: Records consisting of multiple files, along with their SharePoint and custom metadata, were stored together to maintain context
- Efficient Search & Retrieval: Microsoft users with the correct ACL permissions could quickly search for fully indexed files using SharePoint, enhancing record discoverability
- Keeping information alive: Users could access and utilize archived records directly within SharePoint, even if file formats changed or became obsolete over time
Outcomes
By implementing Preserve365, Amnesty International can save valuable time as researchers no longer need to manually select files for archiving. The seamless integration with Microsoft Purview retention labels ensures records are automatically categorized and transferred for preservation without researcher intervention.
Preservica’s Active Digital Preservation technology safeguards high-value records from format obsolescence, ensuring they remain accessible, readable, and trustworthy over time.
By embedding archival preservation within existing SharePoint workflows, Amnesty can enhance efficiency and control, streamlining the archiving process, reducing the burden on research teams, and mitigating the risk of data loss.
“Preserve365 makes archiving, digital preservation and records retrieval part of our day-to-day SharePoint workflows. We are more efficient and now proactively protect the integrity and provenance of important digital records and human rights evidence for decades to come.”
Fiona Bolt
Information Manager, Amnesty International
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