This thesis has focused on digital born personal archives; how they are different from analog paper archives and possible ways to overbridge these differences. It is also studied how archivists and librarians are dealing with digital archives, what they think about new proactive solutions when collecting private papers and collections and positive and negative effects with this way to work. The thesis is delimitated to only private collections and digital created material. It do not concern digitized material or electronic documents in government or business organizations. The challenges in digital curation and administration are discussed in aspect of the Records Continuum Model. The empirical material is also put in relation to research in Personal Information Management and identity theory. Two qualitative methods have been used, a case study of an authors personal electronic archive and five deep-going interviews with archivists and librarians working with personal collections in university libraries. This study shows that many difficulties and problems displayed in the electronic archive could be solved in the future with a more proactive approach and early cooperation with the collector. By educating and informing creators of personal records about file formats, archival structure and the need of them to engage in their own collection, more personal digital records could be preserved. Librarians and archivists are imagining more proactive work in the future but are also asking for other solutions. A lot of the challenges united with electronic personal archives are associated with lacking continuity which is a reason to use the Records Continuum Model to explain and work with personal digital collections. This is a two year master’s thesis in archival science.

The purpose of this project was to explore the use of Web services to solve enterprise computing problems. XML-based Web services allow complex information systems to be subdivided. In order to explore this architectural paradigm, two systems were built: an employee records sytem, and a vacation system.