UNC System Archivists and Records Managers Meeting September 10, 2003 UNC Greensboro

Managing the Digital University Desktop: Understanding and Empowering the Individual; Preserving the Public Record and Institutional History

Original Plan Personnel Data collection Budgetary decisions at UNC-CH

That Was Then, This Is Now Funding decisions Personnel changes Changes in methodology

Project Goals Document use and management of files and records Develop “best practice” guidelines Develop educational opportunities Develop user profiles Disseminate information

Rationale for project The University environment Lack of recordkeeping systems Public institutions Private institutions

Phase I (July 2002-May 2003) Survey distributed by email and web In-depth interviews conducted IT interviews conducted

Phase I Findings Top concerns on each campus: SPAM and unsolicited email Privacy and confidentiality, esp. with sensitive information, patient records, students

Conclusions Both faculty and staff are concerned about issues of privacy, confidentiality, and security Being concerned is not enough to get people to change behaviors

Conclusions - Confidentiality Varying knowledge about privacy and confidentiality laws and policies Knowledge that email is not confidential doesn’t prevent people from acting as if it were Vague idea that someone can access email, but don’t know who specifically

Conclusions – Sensitive Info People/departments routinely send sensitive info via email HIPPA has created greater awareness in medical community Faculty often do not know what would constitute confidential communication with students

Conclusions – Data ownership Faculty and staff often have different attitudes/beliefs about data ownership Only 1 person out of 100 indicated that the author of an email, not the recipient, holds the copyright

Conclusions – State of knowledge Many people phrase their concerns as questions Most people do not take advantage of features available in email applications Few people have had training in use of their current email application or records law

Need For User Education Unlikely that passive posting of policies is an effective means of disseminating information Unlikely that posting of FAQs and Help Pages provides pervasive education

Phase II (June-December 2003) Analysis of filing schemes on email and other desktop systems Comparisons of electronic and print filing schemes Comparison of electronic filing schemes with records schedules Technical capabilities of various desktop application and servers Investigation of ERMS system features

Phase III (January-May 2004) Creation of draft desktop management recommended practices manual Review of manual Revisions and writing of final manual Posting of best practices manual

Phase IV (March-August 2004) Development of classroom workshops Development of web-based training modules Presentation of study findings at state, regional, and national conferences

Phase V (Sept.2004-June 2005) Scheduling of on-going training sessions for records liaisons and records managers Conducting email and desktop records management training sessions Convening conference for records managers, archivists, system administrators Analysis of evaluations of conference content, training sessions, web training modules, and best practices manual

Phase V continued Revision of best practices manual Interviewing project participants Evaluation of project outcomes (hired consultant) Presentation of study findings Writing of final report for NHPRC

Project URL http://ils.unc.edu/digitaldesktop