For Immediate Release:
Call for Input and Feedback on Standards for
"The Quality Electronic Records Practices "
Jointly
Funded by Government and Industry
Medford, Massachusetts, February 5, 2003.
The Global Electronic Records Association is pleased to release for
feedback "The Quality Electronic Records Practices" that focus on
designing, validating, legal defense, and auditing of electronic evidence in
documentary form that is of high economic, high legal or regulatory consequence,
or high historical value. Our focus is on the entire lifespan of electronic
records and their long-term preservation and access for many decades, centuries,
or perhaps “permanently.” The US National Archives & Records
Administration's (http://www.archives.gov/)
National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC) and the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association
(http://www.censa.org/)
have jointly funded the Quality Electronic Records Practices (QERPs) standard
specifications and guides. The first three QERPs Specifications and Guidelines
are available for your input and feedback now.
The Quality Electronic Records Practices (QERPs) standards target audience
includes judges, attorneys, records managers and archivists, regulators, quality
assurance and compliance staff, information technologists, vendors of electronic
records products and services, and anyone else using electronic records. These
standards will impact all these groups and your feedback on standards is critically
important.
The (QERPs) foundation document, the Electronic Records Lifecycle Specification
(ERLS), identifies and details all required design elements in an organizational
program to capture and manage electronic records over their entire lifespan.
This specification covers all organizational mandates, policies and procedures,
systems and technologies for records creation, records management, and long-term
preservation and access. Keeping in mind that all underlying technologies change
quickly over time, and programmatic components such as change management, risk
management, and contingency planning change less frequently.
The second QERPs document available is the QERPs Validation Guide. It is designed
to help any government or industrial organization validate and verify all required
elements of a Quality Electronic Records Program, its organizational components,
and its technology systems and components.
The Legal Acceptability Guide
for Electronic Records (LAGER) is the first QERP available. It was funded entirely
by CENSA and can be purchased at (http://www.censa.org/order.nsf).
The LAGER is the most comprehensive (260 page) legal guide available for helping
professionals resolve legal issues on electronic records. It is useful because
it provides a brief on the challenges of electronic records, and detailed reference
models for electronic records programs and the full lifecycle of electronic
records over any retention period. It provides a litigation process roadmap
and details of how to properly design and validate electronic records programs,
in order to facilitate admissibility and maximum assignment of weight to electronic
evidence. It applies to litigation of civil, criminal, intellectual property,
regulatory compliance, and administrative cases. It was designed and written
by and for lawyers, judges, legal support staff, records managers, archivists,
information technologists, auditors, quality assurance, and others who must
design, support and defend (or attack) an electronic records emanating from
their electronic records programs. The LAGER had dozens of contributors and
reviewers from many government agencies and industry experts on electronic records
in many disciplines.
For the GERA-NHPRC funded QERPs,
we are creating a smaller, different guide called the Litigation Guide for Electronic
Records (LitiGER) focused primarily on the needs of litigators, judges, and
legal support staff. The core of the Litigation Guide for Electronic Records
includes short descriptions of the litigation processes using electronic records,
pictoral day-to-day roadmaps with descriptions, and other relevant details to
help faciltate full admissibility and maximum assignment of weight to electronic
evidence. The types of litigation covered also include civil, criminal, intellectual
property, regulatory compliance, and administrative cases. The Appendices of
the LitiGER will include international laws and regulations on electronic records,
case law citations, legal analyses, and recommendations. International coverage
will include Canada, Europe, Australia, the US and elsewhere. Because of the
difficulty of making the core "Litigators' Guide" concise AND has
the Appendices cover additional case law and legal analysis, we expect it to
be available in final form later in 2003. GERA is drawing upon the knowledge
gained during the CENSA's work on the LAGER standard to create the GERA-NHPRC
LitiGER standard. We need your help now to help ensure the GERA-NHPRC "LitiGER"
fits this broad set of litigation needs. We expect it to be done in Fall 2003.
We need your feedback on these
draft standards now. Please register for free access at ( http://www.erecordscentral.org/gera_register.htm
). After registering, you will be granted access and given a named account.
You can then log in to the "GERA Deliverables Library" and can download
the latest draft deliverables in PDF format. We prefer electronic mark-ups,
so please send your comments to 
,
via e-mail, using the Adobe Acrobat "Comment" yellow sticky notes
facility into the PDF file. We have also given you instructions how to
make the review, feedback, and input easier. We will also accept manually
marked-up pages via (781-935-3113) or postal mail. When corresponding, please
give all contact data: name, title, organizational affiliation (if any), address,
telephone and e-mail so we can contact you to provide or get full clarification
if necessary. Phone calls are welcome at 781-395-3004 x203. The current
comment period ends February 23th.
We have also given you a "Reviewer Survey" to help us improve the
documents and our work overall.
Please help us with your feedback
to make these The Quality Electronic Records Practices
the best possible standards and guides for your purposes.
About GERA
The Global Electronic Records Association (GERA) is a 501(c)6 research and
development partnership between government and industry to develop the "Quality
Electronic Records Practices" as globally useful standard specifications
and guides for government, industry, nonprofit, academic, and other organizations
that must keep electronic records under government regulations and to conduct
good business practices.
Contact:
GERA Manager
Global Electronic Records Association
19 Bowen Avenue, Suite 100
Medford, MA 02155 USA
781-395-3004
