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A canon, from the Greek for model, is a body of principles, rules, standards, or norms that is, at least to some degree, regarded as normative by a society, a discipline, or professionals in the area of endeavor to which it applies. This 'body' may be more or less coherent and it may include rules that are implicitly embedded in practices as well as explicitly expressed in formal standards and guides. Furthermore, the term canon is typically reserved for conventions that are respected on an ongoing basis, though they may undergo some modifications or interpretations over time. On the topic of records authenticity, one confronts different canons, depending on the context in which the authenticity is addressed. Beginning with a basic, empirical consideration of what an authentic record is, this article explores the canons on authenticity in jurisprudence, diplomatics and archival science, and considers both how they have evolved and how they need to evolve to be meaningful and effective for digital records. The issue of effectiveness is addressed from both an intellectual and practical perspective. Are there clear and adequate principles, standards or norms for ensuring and verifying the authenticity of digital records and preserving it overtime so that it can be proven and attested to throughout their life? If there are, can they be implemented in diverse digital environments? Candidates that could form the basis of a cannon for digital record authenticity are considered and both their promise and shortcomings identified. The final section of this article addresses the empirical question of whether there is a current canon for records authenticity that is generally accepted and applied by records and archival professionals. A survey designed to test whether the results of major research initiatives on the means of establishing and protecting authenticity have become part of the canon for the practice and beliefs of records and archival professionals reveals a significant disconnect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A popular bumper sticker states: "There is no cloud. It's just someone else's computer." Despite the loss of control that comes with its use, critical records are increasingly being entrusted to the cloud, generating ever-growing concern about the privacy and security of those records. Ultimately, privacy and security constitute an attempt to balance competing needs: privacy balances the need to use information against the need to protect personal data, while security balances the need to provide access to records against the need to stop unauthorized access. The importance of these issues has led to a multitude of legal and regulatory efforts to find a balance and, ultimately, to ensure trust in both digital records and their storage in the cloud. Adding a particular challenge is the fact that distinct jurisdictions approach privacy differently and an in-depth understanding of what a jurisdiction's laws may be, or even under what jurisdiction particular data might be, requires a Herculean effort. And yet, in order to protect privacy and enhance security, this effort is required. This article examines two legal tools for ensuring the privacy and security of records in the cloud, data protection laws, and data localization laws, through the framework of "trust" as understood in archival science. This framework of trust provides new directions for algorithmic research, identifying those areas of digital record creation and preservation most in need of novel solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preface to the book "The Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science" is presented.

Rapid technological advances are fuelling trust requirements and concerns about public and private sector records alike. To guarantee the reliability and authenticity of records requires a framework of policies, procedures, technologies, and intentional action or intervention by 'trusted custodians' who have the knowledge required for attesting to and ensuring the continuing authenticity of the records. Records professionals have claimed the role of trusted keepers of the authentic record of our times, but how do they earn that trust? To begin, by acquiring competence. In order to define what kind of education would contribute to qualifying records professionals as competent, it is necessary to identify the components of knowledge they require and the role that society at large expects of them. The responsibilities and challenges presented by managing digital records through time are ones that records professionals should not meet in isolation. In order for records to be able to serve as evidence of actions and events, they must be protected as such. Records-related knowledge requirements are being articulated in the related disciplines of archival science and records management, law, digital forensics, and information assurance and cyber-security. The need for interdisciplinary knowledge to understand and manage the complexities of digital records is being realized in new research alliances that foster the development of knowledge that can support the role of trusted keepers of the authentic record of our times. One such alliance is the Digital Records Forensics Project at the University of British Columbia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archivaria is the property of Association of Canadian Archivists and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents a case study on the preservation of the digital heritage of universities institutional repositories. According to the article, digital preservation is defined as the whole of the principles and strategies aimed at prolonging the existence of a digital object while protecting its authenticity. It also discusses an InterPARES 3 Case Study called "cIRcle," which is a digital repository for the management of the intellectual output of a university and its community members.

This paper introduces the Digital Records Forensics project, a research endeavour located at the University of British Columbia in Canada and aimed at the development of a new science resulting from the integration of digital forensics with diplomatics, archival science, information science and the law of evidence, and of an interdisciplinary graduate degree program, called Digital Records Forensics Studies, directed to professionals working for law enforcement agencies, legal firms, courts, and all kind of institutions and business that require their services. The program anticipates the need for organizations to become "forensically ready," defined by John Tan as "maximizing the ability of an environment to collect credible digital evidence while minimizing the cost of an incident response (Tan, 2001)." The paper argues the need for such a program, describes its nature and content, and proposes ways of delivering it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archivaria is the property of Association of Canadian Archivists and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archivaria is the property of Association of Canadian Archivists and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents the concept of electronic record as articulated by the first phase of the InterPARES (International research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems) Project (1999-2001) and discusses it in light of the findings of the second phase of the Project (2002-2006). While InterPARES 1 focused on records produced and/or maintained in databases and document management systems, InterPARES 2 examined records produced and/or maintained in interactive, experiential and dynamic environments. The authors describe the characteristics of these environments and of the entities found in them in the course of case studies conducted on systems used for carrying out artistic, scientific and e-government activities, and propose the new concept of record that InterPARES 2 is eleborating, which expands on that formulated by InterPARES 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the problems and issues that have arisen with the widespread use of digital technology in the modern office, in particular those related to the trustworthiness of electronic records and to their permanent preservation. It defines the concepts of record reliability, authenticity, and authentication; it outlines the principles that should guide the creation and management of reliable electronic records and the maintenance and preservation of authentic records; and it describes methods for the management of trustworthy electronic records in the context of two research projects undertaken by the archival scholars of the University of British Columbia, the first of which, known as the UBC-MAS project, was completed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense in 1994–97, and the second of which, known as InterPARES, is a multinational multidisciplinary collaboration begun in 1999 and nearing the completion of its first phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archival science is to be regarded as a system. The properties of that system can be investigated and integrated. The methodology to do so has been tested in two research projects which are presented in this article as examples of the way in which the view of archival science as a system supports the development of new knowledge and as a demonstration of the stability of archival theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The greatest challenges with which digital systems present us are the creation and maintenance of reliable records and the preservation of their authenticity over time. It is vital for every organisation that its records be able to stand for the facts they are about i.e. that their content is trustworthy. To meet these challenges the international community of records professionals must develop appropriate strategies, procedures and standards. In this article the author explores the concepts and principles derived from archival diplomatics that should guide the management of electronic records and therefore these developments, as well as drawing conclusions about the nature of the research work required [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the concept of archival bond as formulated by archival science and used in a research project carried out at the University of British Columbia, entitled “The Preservation of Electronic Records.” Being one of the essential components of the record, the concept of archival bond is discussed in the context of the traditional diplomatic and archival definitions of records, and its function in demonstrating the reliability and authenticity of records is shown. The most serious challenge with which we are confronted is to make explicit and preserve intact over the long term the archival bond between electronic and non electronic records belonging in the same aggregations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]