In 2019, Building Operations completed a project to modernize its aging Land and Building Files (LBS) file server.
The MoveIt tool’s end-user panel
Staff copied what they required to the new server and left everything else on the LBS server for one year. The year acted as a cushion ensuring nothing crucial was left behind. Over the summer of 2020, the Records Management Office (RMO) on the Vancouver campus approached staff at Building Operations suggesting a collaboration between the LBS shared drive decommissioning effort and the RMO’s Digital Transfer and Managed Storage Pilot project.
How long records are kept in the ‘e-warehouse’ is determined through the university retention schedules and the business need of the units
The Digital Transfer and Managed Storage Pilot project is a cross campus initiative to test an application called MoveIt. This application, managed through the RMO (UBCV & UBCO), helps units manage content on their drives by allowing them to transfer record directories to a secure central location. How long records are kept in the ‘e-warehouse’ is determined through the university retention schedules and the business need of the units.
RMO’s collaboration with Building Operations served three purposes:
- First it provided an opportunity to do a ‘last look’ at the files left on the server. Destroying information can be scary for units and we wanted to help them through that process.
- Second, it identified record series suitable for transfer to managed storage in RMO’s e-warehouse enabling RMO to test the MoveIt tool and to formulate procedures; and
- Finally, the collaboration allowed the University Archives (UA) to locate institutional records suitable for long-term preservation in the UA.
Previous to the development of this application the University Archives had no trustworthy and convenient method to transfer important institutional electronic records to the Archives for appraisal.
The project team was under a tight deadline, and working remotely added to the pressure. All the information needed to be reviewed and key records transferred by August 15, 2020. We had only 6 weeks from start to finish. Barbara Towell e-Records Manager, and John Moran, Archivist (term) reviewed ten terabytes on the LBS file server (up from 6.7 terabytes in 2018) and transferred records for limited retention as well as archival appraisal. In total, 325.5 gigabytes of electronic information or 217 “digital bags” were transferred to the e-warehouse (a bag is a container for storing digital files that follows the BagIt File Packaging Format) with more than half identified for archival appraisal. Previous to the development of this application the University Archives had no trustworthy and convenient method to transfer important institutional electronic records to the Archives for appraisal.
RMO would like to thank Building Operations: Greg Scott, Kishani Gibbons, and Pearle Lundeen for being willing and curious collaborators in the Digital Transfer and Managed Storage Pilot project and also Paul Chan from UBC IT who provided robust and responsive technical support for the duration of the project.
RMO’s digital transfer pilot project will continue in pilot phase into Spring 2021