Policies for recordkeeping and digital preservation. Recommendations for analysis and assessment services. Interpares Trust report n. EU04

The proposal has the ambitious goal of analyzing and assessing the role and the quality of policies dedicated to the recordkeeping and digital preservation in the new digital environment characterized by a large use of networking systems in the web environment. The critical questions at the basis of the research were related to the capacity of the policies of mitigating the risks of technological obsolescence and improving the access to the digital records and systems interoperability when i-cloud systems are involved, thank to the active presence of record keepers and custodians in defining and defending good and flexible internal policies and specific procedures. The proposal has identified a specific set of terms of reference (digital preservation handbook, interoperability, manual for record management procedures, policy and responsibility). The project group has also defined a survey template for collecting experiences in many domains and analyzed the legislations and the practices in Italy, Spain and at the European Union. Some deliverables of European projects (Erpanet, Aparsen) have been considered. The final results testify a delay in taking into account the impact of the web dimension, but – at the same time – the presence of flexible tools (specifically in the Italian legislation) seem able to provide a common basis for developing in the next future recommendations in the area a s a sort of general but flexible guidelines.