Managing Public Affairs Records in the Digital Age

Public Affairs operations at institutions of higher education are rapidly abandoning paper as a medium for disseminating press releases, news stories, and campus promotional materials. Archives must develop plans to acquire and preserve these electronic records as paper surrogates are no longer produced. The Duke University Archives has found that while its “traditional” records scheduling and accessioning methods have worked to manage the intake of these records, “traditional” processing and access methodologies have not proven as effective. New workflows are needed to facilitate the transfer of electronic files and to assess file format longevity and authenticity. Re-evaluation of processing procedures and identification of appropriate access tools for electronic records need to occur.