Information Management Journal articles from September 2008

Information Management Journal archives from September 2008

The need for speed in the age of rage.(IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editors)(Editorial)
September 1, 2008... Ten years ago Internet users still marveled at the utility of navigating through cyberspace. Back then web surfers joyfully maneuvered from one website to the next, waiting patiently for each web page to open. Now, waiting just a few seconds...

The digital universe explodes.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... According to research from IDC, a provider of market intelligence for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, by 2011, the digital universe will he 10 times the size it was in 2006. "The Diverse and...

Tenn. Gov. updates open-records law.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Phil Bredesen )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... In June, Gov. Phil Bredesen signed an update to Tennessee's open-records law that for the first time created deadlines for records custodians to respond to requests. Under the new provisions that went into effect July 1, records officials...

Study: most data breaches preventable.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Report)
September 1, 2008... The Verizon Business Risk Team reviewed more than 500 corporate data breaches between 2004 and 2007 and found that 87 percent could have been prevented--if only the companies had the proper security measures in place at the time of the breach....

Judge: White House office not subject to FOIA.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's ruling on Freedom of Information Act )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... A federal judge has ruled that the White House's Office of Administration (OA) is not a federal agency as defined by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and, therefore, is not required to respond to FOIA requests. Judge Colleen...

Sweden approves warrantless wiretapping.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... Sweden's Parliament has approved controversial new legislation that will give authorities sweeping powers to spy on cross-border e-mail and telephone traffic. The country's intelligence bureau, The National Defense Radio Establishment, will be...

GAO: NARA not doing its job.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Government Accountability Office and National Archives and Records Administration )
September 1, 2008... U.S. agencies are not complying with federal laws on electronic record preservation, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has done little to ensure that agencies properly preserve e-mail, according to a Government...

New Zealand: record updates pricey.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... New Zealand's public sector agencies may have to spend $140 million to improve their document management systems to meet a 2010 deadline to comply with the Public Records Act, according to an estimate by one of New Zealand's biggest document...

Agencies must standardize data labels.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... President Bush has ordered federal agencies to simplify the labels they use to organize sensitive but unclassified information. According to FCW.com, the order requires agencies to adopt three standard labels in place of the more than 100...

Iraq records spark controversy.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... Millions of Saddam Hussein's records could soon be accessible at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University, but the plan has been criticized by the director of the Iraq National Library and Archives (INLA). ...

NARA prepares for Bush's e-records.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(National Archives and Records Administration)(George Bush)
September 1, 2008... Will the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) be ready for the estimated 100 terabytes of electronic records the Bush administration will hand over as it exits early next year? Government auditors and NARA's inspector general...

Finland makes police archives public.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... For the first time, Finland's Security Police, Supo, will make its archives public next year. Supo Communications Manager Liinu Lehto-Seljavaara told the daily Aamulehti that in 2009 its 1949 archives will be transferred to the National...

Small firms unprepared for disaster.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... According to a national survey, 40 percent of small U.S. businesses admit they are not prepared for a disaster-and one-third said they have no plans to prepare. Of those businesses indicating they were not prepared for a natural disaster:...

Agencies urged to change their FOIA data ways.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... A study by the National Security Archive at George Washington University found that most federal agencies are still not complying with 1997 language in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that requires them to expand online access to records....

California to adopt FRCP--with changes.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... Since amendments to the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) regarding electronically stored information (ESI) became effective in December 2006, many states have amended their own evidence rules to reflect the FRCP's ESI provisions....

Maine law requires records training.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... Under a newly modified law, elected officials in Maine must complete formal training on the state's open-records law. As of July 1, Maine's state and local officials are required to complete training on the Freedom of Access laws related to...

Library sues FBI over NSL.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Federal Bureau of Investigation)(national security letter )
September 1, 2008... In a rare move, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has decided to withdraw its request for data on a digital library's patron. After receiving a secret administrative order, called a national security letter (NSL), from the FBI...

The Times offers 200 years of history online.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... History buffs now can read The Times of London's coverage of the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888, Amelia Earhart's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1932, and more historical events, thanks to an elaborate digital newspaper archive that...

Tech firms battle info overload.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Survey)
September 1, 2008... Thanks to the proliferation of e-mails, instant messages, and cell phone calls, countless surveys have shown that workplace productivity has suffered. It may seem strange, however, that some of the companies responsible for those distracting...

Hacker leaks six million Chilean private records.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... A computer hacker in Chile released the personal information of six million people online in an attempt to demonstrate the lack of data protection in the country, according to officials. Investigators believe the individual hacked into...

Report: few doctors using EHRs.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(electronic health records)(Survey)
September 1, 2008... A recent report published in The New England Journal of Medicine revealed that even though doctors who use electronic health records (EHRs) said the records have improved the quality and timeliness of care, fewer than one in five U.S. doctors...

E-mail increases firms' legal issues.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Survey)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A recent survey of 301 U.S. businesses with 1,000 or more employees revealed that e-mail has become a legal headache for employers. According to the survey, in the past year: * 114 companies (38%) said they...

Secret U.K. documents left on train.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)
September 1, 2008... In yet another embarrassing flub involving highly classified documents and the British government, top-secret papers were left on a train in Britain not once, but two times in the same day. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The first incident...

Amassing digital files.(UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The Consumer Electronics Association's recent consumer research study "Amassing Digital Fortunes: A Digital Storage Study," states that U.S. online adults own an average of nearly 1,800 digital files each--that's 310 billion nationwide. ...

Bosses can't read employees' messages, court says: in a victory for workplace privacy, an appeals court ruling has made it more difficult for employers to snoop in employees' electronic messages.(ON THE EDGE: The Use & Misuse of Information)
September 1, 2008... According to the 2007 Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey from the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, 43 percent of organizations surveyed said they monitor employees' e-mail; 40 percent said they employ an...

RIM on the hot seat: what to expect when testifying: litigation can be stressful, intrusive, and exhaustive--so it's best to keep deposition and trial testimony simple, short, and honest.(records and information management)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As spoliation claims become increasingly common in lawsuits, so, too, does the allegation that records and information management (RIM) programs are part and parcel of the spoliation. Claims in this regard generally...

Techniques for making molehills out of unstructured data mountains: visual analytics, a new technology that graphically illustrates datasets, helps users quickly identify responsive documents for electronic discovery review.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The astounding volume of data produced, shared, and stored by organizations today is accelerating at a greater pace than ever before. Managing this information in the past posed some challenges, but what was once...

Skills for building success in the electronic business environment: today's electronic business environment demands that records and information professionals expand their skills but also provides the opportunity for them to have more influence on an organization's success.
September 1, 2008... A corporation takes a routine human resource process online using new interactive voice response (IVR) technology to execute changes to the employees 'benefits plan, allowing the company to save millions annually A large technology company...

Mapping an approach for successful content management: combining a records management and electronic document management program to create an enterprise content management program produced notable results for the County of San Diego and provided a road map for others to do the same. (Lessons Learned).
September 1, 2008... Historically speaking, records management (RM) is something that few wanted to address. Typical attitudes towards it were, "I'm just too busy to deal with it" or "I just save everything." With mindsets like those, it is line wonder that RM can...

Building a better model for technical problem solving: when an organization develops a practical approach to problem solving, it teaches employees how to overcome barriers and instills in them a desire to accept ownership of problems.(Management Wise)
September 1, 2008... There is a thin line between value-added processes and inefficiency in 21st century business. Re-solving technical problems can be an expensive business. The practical approach to solving problems is a model that focuses on each step of the...

The secrets to successful archives and records management.(Book review)
September 1, 2008... TITLE: Leading and Managing Archives and Records Programs: Strategies for Success AUTHOR: Bruce W. Dearstyne, Ph.D. PUBLISHER: Neal-Schuman Publishers PUBLICATION DATE: May, 2008 LENGTH: 347 pages PRICE: $78 SOURCE:...

Big buckets for simplifying records retention schedules.
September 1, 2008... Like it or not, all of an organization's recorded information is potentially discoverable in a court-ordered legal discovery or regulatory investigation. This means all recorded information needs to be managed for retention purposes throughout...

Strategies for improving electronic recordkeeping performance.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The "big bucket" approach to records retention calls for a consolidation of disparate retention categories, so the total number of categories is drastically reduced. This approach can result in a reduction from...

Legal implications: for using big buckets.
September 1, 2008... Developing any records retention schedule inevitably involves a series of compromises. The goal is to produce a document that is comprehensive, yet intuitive, easy-to-use, and reasonably brief. These sound like simple goals, but in practice,...