This thesis is about a potential trade-off between integrity and long-term usability in the choice of file formats for preservation of text documents. Five common formats are discussed: plain text, PDF/A, Office Open XML Document, Open Document Text, and Markdown. The formats are compared with respect to four criteria related to integrity and usability and to the records continuum model: support by widely used software, stability, rendering of contents and reusability. It is concluded that no single format is optimal with respect to all four criteria, when it comes to preserving typical documents in a modern environment, with more or less complex formatting and document structure. Therefore, the feasiblity of using two or more formats for preservation of a single document (e.g. PDF/A combined with Markdown and/or Office Open XML) is discussed. It is necessary to weigh the importance of integrity and long-term usability against the costs of preserving documents in multiple formats. This is a two years master's thesis in Archival Science, Library and Museum studies.

Abstrakt   Den snabba tekniska utvecklingen har lett till ökad produktion av digitala handlingar/records och transaktioner. Inom e-arkivens domäner, har detta medfört ett ökat tryck på det tekniska området för att kunna garantera autenticitet av bevarad information över tid.          Tidsstämplingstekniker är ett sätt att säkerställa digital information för en särskild tidpunkt och kan användas för att garantera autenticitet av digital information över tid. Denna magisteruppsats undersöker funktionen tidsstämpling inom e-arkivens domäner genom en kvalitativ metod med fem semistrukturerade intervjuer av fem svenska organisationer. I undersökningen ingår också en fallstudie av det svenska innovationsföretaget Enigio Time AB för att ge en förståelse av tidsstämplingstekniker och av deras tjänst time:stamp. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten i denna magisteruppsats är records continuum model med dels dess syn på kontinuitet i handlingar/records och dels dess belysande av skapelseögonblicket av handlingar/records. Den internationella standarden OAIS (Open Archival Information System) används för att hantera digital information och är, i denna uppsats, använd för att analysera hanteringen i dokumenthanteringssystem inom de fem organisationerna.                       Resultaten visar att denna snabba tekniska utveckling har komplicerat dels hanteringen i att säkerställa att digitala handlingar/records inte kan bli manipulerade eller ändrade och dels för att fortsatt kunna garantera autenticitet i ett långtidsperspektiv.                       Undersökningen visar även att organisationerna kan garantera att det bevarade materialet inte kommer att ändras när det väl är inne i arkivet men dess autenticitet, innan de kommer innanför arkivens trösklar, kan aldrig bekräftas. I och med att den moderna tiden producerar och bevarar enorma mängder data så bör detta starta med skapelsen av ett digitalt record tillsammans med bättre strukturerad metadatascheman som är säkrade i tid. / Abstract   The rapid ongoing technical development has led to increased production of digital records and transactions. In the domain of electronic archives, this has put pressure on the technical area in order to guarantee authenticity of preserved information over time. Time stamping techniques are one way to secure digital information at a certain point in time and can be employed to guarantee authenticity of digital information over time. This study examines the function of time stamping within the domain of electronic archives and is conducted with a qualitative method using semi-structured interviews on five Swedish organisations. The study is complemented with a case-study of the Swedish innovation company Enigio Time AB in order to gain understanding in time stamping techniques and their service time:stamp.                       The theoretical framework in this study is the records continuum model with the view of the continuity in records and its illumination of the point of creation. The international standard OAIS (Open Archival Information System) is used by several electronic models to manage digital information and is, in this study, used to analyse the management in record keeping within the five organisations.                       The conclusion is that this rapid technological development has complicated the management of secure digital records from manipulation and guaranteeing the authenticity in a long term perspective.                       The study further shows that organisations may guarantee that records will not change once they are received into the archive but the authenticity of them, before they were delivered, can never be confirmed. Since the modern information era produces and preserves enormous amounts of data, this has to start with the creation of the digital record where better structured metadata schemes are secured in time.

Digital preservation is a relatively new subject to Swedish archives. Alhough computers have been used for a long time, preservation has been made on paper and stored on shelves. These days a lot of cities in Sweden have investigated how to best secure the digital information for the future through electronic archiving, e-archives. One option is to hand in the information as soon as possible, but to let the producer keep the information ownership yet some time. The idea is to let the producers of the information answer questions and hand out material, since they are more competent on their field. This thesis analyzes how five different cities have organized the submission of information. I have used archiving models and interviews. For comparison the cities creating their e-archives have been set against Stockholm. There archive has been up and running for some time. The conclusion is that the solution using a transfer archive could be useful, if the material has got a lot of secrecy and one needs specific knowledge to handle the questions. The theoretical framework has been the life cycle model versus the records continuum model. Swedish city archives embrace the continuum approach early in the creation of the information, but the archivists believe in the life cycle model where all long term preservation comes to the point where no further changes can be done, to protect the authenticity of the information. Two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies. Archival science.

This study concerns the contracting of digital archives for Swedish municipalities and the needs and requirements that govern this. Since the early 2000s, the Swedish government has been interested in expanding the utilization of digital information management. In order to preserve “born digital” official documentation, digital archives are increasingly becoming a necessity for Swedish municipalities. This study considers what the requirements and requests are explicated in formal requirement specifications for such systems. Tobias Edvardssons framework from the book chapter “Kommersiella IT-avtal” (commercial IT-contracts)  in the book “Rättsinformatik” edited by Cecilia Magnusson Sjöberg, as well as grounded theory, is used to discern pertinent categories of requirements. The study finds that the main areas of interest while negotiating a new digital archive can be divided into functional-, qualitative-, governing-, and economic requirements (in accordance with Edvardsson). Archival specifications and technical considerations are also central, as per findings using grounded theory with the support of such models as OAIS and Records Continuum Model.  The study concludes that there still are considerable steps to take before reaching an e-archive solution that can be used on a broad scale to accommodate many different needs and restrictions. However, at the same time, the development of long-term preservation systems for digital records would benefit from more standardized guidelines on a national scale.

This thesis investigates the potential consequences resulting from the migration process of the medical journal system, Auricula Ordination, to an alternative platform, with a particular focus on the risk of information loss and the long-term accessibility of the migrated data. The study examines how the migration to systems with potentially different data structures poses challenges in preserving the integrity of information. By adopting the perspective of accessibility and using the Records Continuum Model's fourth dimension of pluralisation, this study sheds light on the complexities associated with maintaining the accessibility of information within the new system. Even after the new system is archived. By conducting case studies using the appraisal investigations conducted by the Swedish regions, examples to support the findings were found. This analysis highlights the need to address the information management challenges arising from the migration process and emphasizes the significance of preserving the integrity and accessibility of data in the context of medical journal systems. In conclusion, this study underscores the potential information loss and challenges associated with the migration process of medical journal systems. By drawing insights from the Records Continuum Model, it enhances our understanding of the complexities involved in ensuring long-term accessibility of migrated data. These findings have implications for information management practices in regional archives, calling for more comprehensive approaches to preserve and facilitate access to valuable medical knowledge. / Denna uppsats ämnar till att undersöka de risker som uppstår vid migration av information från en informationsinnehavare till en annan. För att undersöka dessa risker har ett flertal fallstudier gjorts utifrån gallringsutredningen av journalsystemet Auricula Ordination, vilket användes inom hälso- och sjukvården i flertalet av Sveriges regioner. För att avgränsa undersökningen gjordes valet att enbart undersöka de regioner som samarbetar inom R7e-arkiv. Förutom att belysa de risker som finns ämnar likväl denna uppsats att skifta fokus i arkivforskningen i Sverige bort ifrån de större statliga arkiven till att belysa de mindre arkiven i landets regioner.  Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att genom ett flertal fallstudier undersöka konsekvenserna av migrationer av informationssystem och hur detta påverkar den framtida möjligheten för tillgängliggörande. Likväl hur ägandeskapet av informationen kan påverka dess integritet. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten har gjorts utifrån Records Continuum Models fjärde dimension pluralisation. I kombination med en hermeneutiskteori ämnas att skapa en mer utförlig bild av regionernas utgångspunkt i sina utredningar av Auricula och hur perspektivet av tillgängliggörande har framkommit. Undersökningen resulterade i att migrationer av information från ett system till ett annat har en negativ inverkan på framtida möjligheter av tillgängliggörande. Vilket grundas i framförallt riskerna av informationsförluster under själva migrationen. Där förlusten av relevanta metadata är i störst risk att gå förlorad. Vilket i förlängningen kan skada informationens integritet och dess kontext kan gå förlorad.

This paper has had the purpose of examiniating how the chritical discussion about the well known archival theoretical topic The principle of provenance has been discussed by international researchers. The papper has also intended to examinate the discussion of the priniciple of provenance from the swedish national archives guidelines called Överlämnande av arkiv till annan myndighet. The author of this paper has been searching for answers of two research questions; In which ways are the principle of provenance being discussed by researchers in a chritical way? And, in which ways does the national archives of Sweden discuss the principle of provenance in their guidelines?  The papers results in the first research question shows that there is a lot of research about the problems and chritique about the traditional way of seeing and using the principle of provenance. The conclusion from the author regarding the first resaearch question is that many authors of the research articles found that the classical way of describing archives according to the priciple of provenance and respect des fonds, could use some modernazation. Similar patterns and words has been seen in discussion of research from the used articles of this paper, from 1983 to 2020 regarding the principle of provenance. Some special focus for the word of multi-provenance and a minimalistic and maximalistic understanding has been discussed in many of the articles, which has been analyzed by the author with the chosen theory of the paper. The results of the authors second research question shows that the national archives try to follow the principle of provenance at their best in the case were records and archives are being handled over to a new organization. The conclusion of the paper is that the priciple of provenance is chriticized and many searches for a more modern version of it, including multiprovenance and a broader perspective of the principle. The results from above has then been analyzed from a theoretical point of view with the records continuum model and a problematizized postmodern perspective.

The implementation of electronic records management is a challenging task due to the resources it requires and most importantly because it requires a substantial change in the methodology to be used for electronic rather than analog records. Universities in North America have struggled with electronic records management for the last two decades because most records practitioners have neglected this methodology paradigm shift created by the arrival of electronic records. Given the great significance of universities in their societies, it is important that they manage electronic records effectively. It seems a bit odd that universities have not developed adequate responses to the challenge of managing electronic records since many are heavily funded by governments and must comply with multiple regulations that obligate them to manage their records well. Moreover, universities have been the source of much academic research into digital records issues and have access to this expertise, and familiarity with the issues. They also have a long tradition of archival programs for analog records. This thesis analyzes the causes for delayed implementation of electronic records management (eRM) best practices in certain North American universities in Canada and the United States. It concludes that the main cause is failure to adopt the guiding principles of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) Records Management (RM) standard 15489: 2001 and the methodologies associated with it.

The implementation of electronic records management is a challenging task due to the resources it requires and most importantly because it requires a substantial change in the methodology to be used for electronic rather than analog records. Universities in North America have struggled with electronic records management for the last two decades because most records practitioners have neglected this methodology paradigm shift created by the arrival of electronic records. Given the great significance of universities in their societies, it is important that they manage electronic records effectively. It seems a bit odd that universities have not developed adequate responses to the challenge of managing electronic records since many are heavily funded by governments and must comply with multiple regulations that obligate them to manage their records well. Moreover, universities have been the source of much academic research into digital records issues and have access to this expertise, and familiarity with the issues. They also have a long tradition of archival programs for analog records. This thesis analyzes the causes for delayed implementation of electronic records management (eRM) best practices in certain North American universities in Canada and the United States. It concludes that the main cause is failure to adopt the guiding principles of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) Records Management (RM) standard 15489: 2001 and the methodologies associated with it.

I och med att det finns en möjlighet till otillåten gallring, och därmed risk för allmänhetens bristande insyn i svenska statliga myndigheters verksamhet, var syftet med denna uppsats att se i vilken utsträckning en handläggare har praktisk makt över bevarande och gallring hos svenska statliga myndigheter. Vidare var uppsatsens syfte att redovisa vilka faktorer i myndigheternas egen verksamhet som bidrog till utfallet av hur handläggare hanterade bevarande och gallring.   Som metod har intervjuer gjorts med arkivarier och handläggare på två olika svenska statliga myndigheter för att se om myndigheternas verksamheter påverkade hur handläggare valde att bevara eller gallra handlingar som de hanterade. I undersökningen deltog en mindre myndighet och en större myndighet med syftet att undersöka om olika verksamheter kunde påverka vem som hade den praktiska makten över bevarande och gallring hos myndigheterna.   Som teorimodell användes verksamhetsteorin och verksamhetssystemet för att systematisera och redovisa resultaten av undersökningarna. Ännu en teorimodell som lyftes fram i uppsatsen var Records Continuum Model som visade på informationens olika dimensioner och vikten av att fånga och organisera handlingar så att det finns en möjlighet att tillgängliggöra dem.   De två fallstudierna visade att det förekom att handlingar inte hanterades efter de regler och rutiner som tagits fram för den ena av myndigheterna. Resultatet visade också att hur verksamheten såg ut hos myndigheten starkt påverkade den praktiska makten som handläggare gavs för att ta ställning till bevarande och gallring av vissa handlingar. Resultatet visade att för en myndighet med många anställda och större informationsflöden har arkivarien svårt att nå ut med information och rutiner på ett bra sätt och handläggare hade mindre tid till att värdera informationen. / There is a suspicion of increased destruction of documents when the Administrative Officer manages the records appraisal in Swedish government authorities, which can lead to a problem regarding the transparency and public access to information. The aim of this thesis was to contribute with knowledge about in which extent an Administrative Officer has the power over practical records appraisal in Swedish government authorities and to find out if the practical power depended on activities within the agencies.   Interviews with Archivists and Administrative Officers at two different Swedish government authorities were conducted in order to see if the activities within the authorities affected how Administrative Officers handled the records appraisal. The study involved a small and a large authority to examine whether different activities could affect the practical power over records appraisal.   The activity theory was used to introduce, present and analyze the survey results. Records Continuum Model is another theory model that was highlighted in the thesis to show the importance of planning the records management even before a record is created.   The result of the case studies showed that there were records not handled according to the rules and policies for one of the studied authorities. It was revealed that Administrative Officers had some practical power over appraisal. The result also showed that the activities within the authorities strongly affected the practical power which Administrative Officers was given. It was shown that, in an authority with a large number of employees and greater flow of information, the Archivist did not reach out with information and routines to the employees. Administrative Officers also had less time to evaluate information when the number of e-mail was a problem.

Detta forskningsarbete lyfter den problematik somdebatterats kring proveniensprincipen och den ombildningdenna princip har mött sedan digitaliserings ankomst.Studiens avsikt var att påvisa vilken innebörd principen haridag i en modern informationsförvaltning och deninformationshantering som sker där. Syftet var även attundersöka hur informationsförvaltningen arbetar proaktivtmed att garantera proveniens i all sin informationshantering,samt belysa hur proveniens förstås i förhållande till valet avmetod kring informationshanteringen.Undersökningen var kvalitativ och utfördes på tiokommunarkiv i form av att varje kommuns kommunarkivariedjupintervjuades. I undersökningen har även planer kringinformationshantering en studerats. Studien konstaterar vilkaförenklingar som digitaliseringen inneburit kring att säkerställa proveniens, där automatiserad och utvecklad metadataskapat verklig proveniens som kan påvisa informationenssamband med den process och det sammanhang där den harbefunnit sig. Uppsatsen diskuterar även de bekymmer somuppstår då digitaliserad information ordnas på helt andra sättän tidigare och vilka konsekvenser detta får för hur vi skaförhålla oss till och förstå proveniens.Resultatet visar att informationsförvaltningarna kan borga föryttre proveniens vad gäller arkivmaterialet men inte helahandlingsbeståndet. Studien fastslår vidare att inreproveniens som en spegling av organisationens verksamhetmåste förstås utifrån hela handlingsbeståndet och desslogiska ordning, snarare än utifrån arkivmaterialets synliga.Undersökningen konstaterar även betydelsen av proaktivitetkring arbetet med att tydliggöra informationens processuellakontext, samt tidig metadataapplicering ochsystemutveckling som behåller metadata genom allaprocesser. Uppsatsen understryker slutligen att detta inte görsi den utsträckning som är nödvändig. / This essay describes the debate about the principle ofprovenance and its multiple forms, and the transformationsof these forms, due to the coming of electronic informations.The thesis intended to explain the definitions of the principlein a modern information management and there explore howthey operate proactively to assure provenance.The qualitative investigation was carried out at tenmunicipality final archives, where each municipalityarchivist was being interviewed. The study expounds in whatway the digitisation has simplified the methods to conductassured provenance, where automated metadata shows therelationships of the information to function and process. Theessay also debates the difficulties that appear when digitalinformation are being organized in different ways thananalogue information, and how this fact requires a newinterpretation of the principle of provenance.The researcher concludes that the investigated archives,ensure respect des fonds when it concerns the content of thearchives, but not when it comes to the whole content of theinformation management. The result of the study also showsthat the respect of original order as a reflection of theorganization, has to be understood throughout all content ofthe management and its logical order, rather than the visiblecontent that the archives embrace. Furthermore the thesisobserves the importance of proactivity, regarding theclarification of the relationships between the information andthe processes that produce and use them. This could beachieved with early application of metadata and developmentof systems that keep metadata trough all processes. Theconclusion of the essay is that this is not pursued in theextension that is required.