The following announcement is reposted from ARCAN-L for the benefit of AAO
list members who may not subscribe to ARCAN-l.
Iona McCraith
AAO Preservation Consultant
Bethany, Ontario
Tel: (705) 277-1309
Fax: (705) 277-2091
e-mail: [log in to unmask]


                              Symposium 2003
   Preservation of Electronic Records: New Knowledge and Decision-making
                         September 15 to 18, 2003
                              Ottawa, Canada

Call for Papers
Submissions are now being invited for Symposium 2003 - Preservation of
Electronic Records: New Knowledge and Decision-making. This symposium,
hosted by the Canadian Conservation Institute, the National Archives of
Canada, and the National Library of Canada, will be held in Ottawa, Canada,
from September 15 to 18, 2003.

During the last quarter of the 20th century, heritage collections have
included increasing amounts of information stored on magnetic and optical
media (videotapes, audiotapes, computer tapes and disks, CDs, and DVDs).
Although archives and libraries have the largest amounts of this material,
much is also found in museums and even galleries (e.g. oral histories,
documentation of relevant recent events or performances, and contemporary
artworks).

Leading archives and libraries are increasingly aware of the challenges of
preserving these materials and the information stored on them. The purpose
of the symposium is to expand this awareness by bringing expert and leading
edge opinions to a larger audience including small and medium-sized
archives, libraries, and museums. The focus will be on making decisions and
finding practical solutions that can be implemented immediately, especially
for the materials that are at risk of being lost within the next 10 to 20
years. Participation is encouraged from experts in larger archives who are
knowledgeable of the preservation of such collections, as well as
collection managers and conservators who have the responsibility for this
sort of material but may not be as well informed about the issues and
approaches.

The program for the symposium will be based on a decision tree (i.e. the
chronological decisions that need to be made as electronic records come
into the heritage institution to ensure they are preserved). Papers
emphasizing new knowledge, case studies, or critical reviews are encouraged
for each step of the decision-making process outlined below.

      Value Criteria: What criteria can be used to identify records that
      should be preserved? How do libraries, archives, museums, and
      galleries approach this? Are they fundamentally different?

      Authenticity Criteria: What criteria can be used to assess the
      authenticity of records that will be preserved? How do libraries,
      archives, museums, and galleries approach this? Are they
      fundamentally different?

      Factors to be Considered in Developing a Preservation Strategy: What
      professional and institutional requirements must be considered in
      developing a preservation strategy? Does current information
      technology meet specific preservation requirements? What is the
      likely nature and quantity of future acquisitions?

      Preservation Strategies for Information Content: What is the best
      strategy to preserve information content ? maintain old technology,
      emulate old technology, migrate records within proprietary format,
      convert to a standard format, or create a persistent object?

      Media Knowledge: How do media (CDs, DVDs, magnetic tapes and disks)
      deteriorate? How should media be stored (including survey
      methodology) and handled? What is the longevity of media? What is the
      best method of recovering media from a disaster? How is good quality
      media selected?

Presentations at the symposium will be limited to 30 minutes (including
time for introduction and questions), and may be in either English or
French. Simultaneous translation will be provided.

Call for Posters
In addition to formal papers, submissions for posters are also welcome.
Posters may be presented in the traditional fashion on boards, or
electronically in the form of Web pages. Computer stations will be set up
at the symposium venue to allow delegates to view electronic posters.

Submission Procedure
Submissions should include the speaker's name, address, e-mail address,
telephone and fax numbers, a short one-paragraph biographical note, the
title of the presentation or poster, and an abstract of 400?500 words.

Submissions must be received by April 30, 2002.

All abstracts will be considered by the Program Committee, and suitable
papers and posters selected by June 15, 2002. Selected authors will be
provided with guidelines to assist them in preparing their papers or
posters, first drafts of which will be due by December 15, 2002. These
drafts will be carefully reviewed by the Program Committee and final
selections made by March 15, 2003. Final papers will then be due by June
30, 2003. These papers will be incorporated into a CD to be distributed to
delegates at the symposium, and eventually published as postprints.

Note: Following the symposium, authors will have until October 31, 2003 to
revise their papers to incorporate any new knowledge they may have gained
during the conference; if no amendments are received by this date, the
final draft papers will be used in the postprints. All papers will undergo
a full peer review before publication.

Please send your submission to:
Symposium 2003 Program Coordinator
Canadian Conservation Institute
1030 Innes Road
Ottawa ON  K1A 0M5
Canada
tel: (613) 998-3721
fax: (613) 998-4721
e-mail: [log in to unmask]

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