This is the second post of a multi-part recap of the 2016 e-Records Conference. Presentation materials from the e-Records Conference are available on the e-Records 2016 website.

“Accessing the Texas Digital Archive” – Mark Myers, Senior Electronic Records Specialist at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission

In creating the Texas Digital Archive, TSLAC strove to fulfill our stated mission of securing and making accessible historically significant records and other valuable resources. The system has been in incubation for several years now as TSLAC figures out everything that we need the system to be able to do and the best ways to accomplish that. We want to be able to ingest electronic records from state agencies that are ready to be handed over to the custody of the Archives, and monitor and track them in their digital formats over time. Importantly, the Texas Digital Archive is not a storage solution for governments that are seeking to shed some electronic records. Rather, it is a permanent transfer of state records that were born-digital or became digital and are now eligible for transfer to the State Archives. Part of the Archives’ mission, of course, is to ensure that records ingested are properly accessible and searchable.

Now that TSLAC has the Texas Digital Archive up and running (you can start browsing records here!), our next steps will be to start expanding our capacity for future preservation by possibly developing a forensic workstation to work with legacy media and to further build partnerships with state agencies to expand the Texas Digital Archive. If you’d like more information about what can be transferred to the TDA and how the process works, please contact Mark Myers, our Senior Electronic Records Specialist at mmyers@tsl.texas.gov. You can download his presentation here.

“Showcase: Enterprise Information Management in SharePoint 2016” – Jason Dausey, Director of Professional Services, DataPoint Solutions

Mr. Dausey is a subject matter expert on SharePoint and its suite of products and for this showcase, he began his presentation with a detailed look at the history and evolution of SharePoint to give the audience a better context for the product that is available today. The most recent iteration, SharePoint 2016, aims to improve user experiences and build on the existing cloud-inspired infrastructure to provide a more reliable and productive experience. It also includes new compliance monitoring tools to help guide users in correct practices and protect against data-loss. These compliance tools would include things like enforcement of deletion policies, identification of sensitive content, and other already existing features like retention rules, file plans and e-discovery tools. Many records managers find these tools and the rule-making ability within SharePoint to be very valuable in preventing accidental deletion or loss of data.

Mr. Dausey also conducted an in-depth product demonstration of the new SharePoint 2016 platform and different, innovative ways that many companies are using it. You can download a copy of his presentation here.