Information Archiving

Historically, when ministry information has been archived it has been put in a box of paper, on a tape, on micro-fiche - in a place where it will probably never be seen again. Planning for its use has been limited to "If we need it we can get it back".

This type of archiving may address the need to reproduce a fact, some records, or a document. It does not address the real value of historical information - to easily answer questions about what happened in the past, to allow analysis of history so we can learn from our mistakes, to provide background information supporting current decisions and future planning. To get the best future return on the investment made in information it must be closely analysed for future value, and must be put away in a highly organized manner so it is accessible and understandable in the future.

What are the pieces of Information Archiving?

• determining the value of the information and creating the archive datasets.
• storing, cataloguing, searching and restoring archived information.
• preparing the processes for, and using the restored information.

Creating archive datasets involves determining what portion of historical data (subset, summary, integrated, augmented, etc.) has long-term business value, and then fully documenting this data so anyone restoring the dataset five or ten years down the road knows what they are dealing with. The information custodian determines the long-term business value of inforamtion no longer required for daily operations (it could be anything from settling a dispute with an archived legal document to assisting reforestation planning through trend analysis of historical data). The historical data is then fully documented in a metadata file (metadata describes all aspects of data). The data and metadata files together make up an archive dataset.

For storing, cataloguing, searching and resotring the archive datasets a Forests Archive Manager (FAR) working prototype has been developed. FAR allows archive datasets to be described in an on-line catalogue and then stored. It also allows the user to search the catalogue, find the right archived data, and restore it. It is the first version of an infrastructure tool which will allow archived information to be accessible in the future.

Preparing for use of the restored information involves understanding what was archived and restoring it to the appropriate place for analysis. Often this will require creation of an analysis database which the restored data can be loaded into for querying and reporting. To allow flexibility in the analysis tool chosen, the archived data will be probably be stored in a simple format (flat files).

What has been done to date to work towards Information Archiving?

Ministry staff have long been working on addressing the concerns regarding long-term retention of electronic data. A working group was put in place to define archving and determine what was necessary to move the ministry towards this goal. A prototype project was initiated to investigate archiving information requirements. Working with Valuation's Piece Scale data, a prototype Archive Manager was completed to help determine requirements for, and issues surrounding, the storage, cataloguing and retrieval of archive information. The prototype project also defined initial requirements for information which must be included in archive datasets to make them understandable in the future.

An Information Archiving Strategy paper was distributed to Management Services in February for review and comment.

Pilot projects for archiving of statements, maps and invoices have been discussed with Financial Services Branch, Inventory Branch and Valuation Branch.

Where do we go from here?

Using FAR, the Data Administration group in ISB is leading a project to archive historical data from the Minister's Referral Letters system. This is our first test case to archive production data and validate the process.

When the pilot archiving projects for statemets, maps, and invoices go ahead, Data Administration staff will analyze the result of each with the goal of improving the archiving process and determining the appropriate technology for full-fledged information archiving.