e-Records 2024: The Next Records Frontier – Session Recap #3

"The Next Records Frontier" over an outer space horizon.

Thank you for tuning in for the third and final post recapping the e-Records 2024 sessions!

Presentation descriptions and details are available on the conference website. See our previous recap posts for more.


Can AI Be Our Friend: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

by Megan Carey

Craig Kelso, Director of State and Local Records Management at TSLAC, and Kurt Thies, Vice President at Gimmal, teamed up to tackle AI-Government relations—from the theoretical potential and promise to the practical implementation and actions the relationship requires. Thies spoke to the modern day reality (problem?) that the world is creating more information and more data, faster than ever. Capability and power emerge for those with access and understanding of not only the data, but also the technology (AI) that trains and learns from the data.

Jumping off from the premise that humans can use Generative AI (GenAI) as a thought partner to increase their own knowledge and capability, what does it require? The described computing power of GenAI can be transformative, however it relies on good data quality, which is threatened when the data ROTs (redundant, obsolete, trivial).

Achieving (and maintaining) data quality requires a well-executed information governance (IG) program, which Mr. Kelso spoke about establishing through his recent experience. At TSLAC, an information governance council (IGC) was formed in response to legislative changes and requirements. Through the council’s initiatives and subcommittees, such as a technology review committee, data and information are more easily identified and addressed to avoid the dreaded ROT.

Mr. Thies returned to remind audiences that even with AI trained on quality data, it isn’t a slam dunk scenario. GenAI provides responses based on what it has learned, however, it is a prediction based on patterns and statistically likely words, not necessarily factual. Approaching GenAI information access will require additional analysis and consideration, which can be helped along with IG and AI data governance frameworks.


Crawl, Walk, Run: The Digital Transformation Experience

by Erica Wilson-Lang

In this panel discussion hosted by Adam Guillen of Toshiba Business Solutions, three local government employees shared how Toshiba helped with their digital transformation (DX) experience. Toshiba is a company that devises solutions for local, national, and global organizations in everything from semiconductor and power generation to data storage. “Crawl, walk, run” is a concept used to illustrate the cumulative, increasing levels of complexity, investment, or resources needed to successfully get a project off the ground.

For the crawl segment of the presentation, Rosendo Banuelos, a Business Analyst with City of Austin Water, took the audience through his organization’s Toshiba journey. The organization realized that they needed some kind of digital transformation solution— they had large amounts of historical utility customer records, among those records were duplicated items, and there were accessibility and chain of custody issues. Additionally, there was reluctance among staff to employ something new and a lack of top-down support, even though a solution was needed. So, Banuelos started with KPIs and metrics to show their current situation and when there was a change in management, he met with them to show what was possible with Toshiba’s solution, which garnered the much-needed support. The result? Increased efficiency and greater user acceptance. With the newly created central digital records management system, the organization was able to support remote workers during the pandemic, as well as ongoing remote working initiatives. Moreover, they increased internal and external customer accessibility and decreased the time that research requests took.

In the walk section of the presentation, Chriselda Bazaldua, Chief of Information Systems with Edgewood ISD, led us through the process of implementing structure and organization of a records management system. The challenges they faced were numerous and well known to anyone working in the information field: records stored everywhere in all different formats, no real enforced organizational structure, voluminous records requests, and difficulty in dispositioning records at the end of their retention period. The organization went through a request for proposal process to find a vendor who could create a comprehensive electronic records solution. They wanted a single product to address the problem. Toshiba was able to design a solution that secured sensitive student records, provided a cloud-initiative disaster recovery solution, and increased efficiency around information requests. The solution provided a proactive, “go forward” strategy for digitizing records and greatly reduced the stress experienced by staff having to manage the records.

Rounding out the run portion of the panel discussion was Trisha Walker, the McKinney-Vento/Foster Case Liaison for the City of Laredo. The workflow for their office consisted of a largely paper process with manual review of information, which presented issues in reaching at-risk children. They wanted a digital transformation solution that would benefit both students and parents as well as increase accountability, oversight, and policy enforcement. The results were increased efficacy for campus counselors, visibility for the program, more efficient communications due to a digital forms submission portal, and auditable processes.


Digital Archives: A Multi-Sector Dialogue about Accessibility and Preservation

by Rebecca Hanna

Each panelist from different areas of government (state agency, public university, and local government) provided strategies from their experience in digital archives. Some of their guidance are areas that records managers can definitely help with, which were: know what type of records you have (including the record series), what format the records are being stored on, and familiarize your digital archivist with the state’s minimum requirements for electronic records needing to be retained for 10 years or more. Those minimum requirements are called the Electronic Records Standards and Procedures, which TSLAC publishes as Bulletin 1 for state agencies and public universities and Bulletin B for local governments. TSLAC publishes a list of resources to help comply with both.

The archivist’s guidance was to understand the storage conditions required for the types of formats you are storing on. Not only would this entail familiarizing yourself with Bulletin 1 and B, but also familiarizing yourself with what resources you’ll need to keep the records on that format indefinitely. Also, if your entity is not able to preserve the record in the original format, what format should it be converted to? Some other tips that were offered for ensuring you consider preservation in a practical way were to avoid making the mistake that born digital media will be around permanently, to conduct regular assessments on your storage conditions and the background metadata, to create file format specifications for your entity to gain back some control, and to use checksums because they let you know if something has changed. The last tip was to be careful with what you accept related to open source software. To lightly quote Mark Myers of TSLAC, “Open Source is like a free cat, not a free drink. One goes away, one needs maintenance.” The overall main takeaway from all three panelists was that networking and building relationships is the key to a successful archival program. Bethany Scott mentioned reaching out to organizations such as TSLAC, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and ARMA International or ARMA local chapters.  Mark Myers encouraged attendees to attend the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries. Shawn Malone recommended creating relationships with technology experts, vendors, and elected officials.


Driving Collaboration: How Data, Records, and Privacy Fuel the Texas DMV

by Ella Castro

With permanent records for each of the 26 million cars registered in Texas, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is no stranger to records management. The conference closed out with a panel discussion between Lena Roberts, Ashley Crutchfield, and Tammi Powell, who serve as the Texas DMV’s Records Management Officer, Privacy Attorney, and Data Management Officer. The panelists spoke about the importance of bringing one another into relevant meetings and incorporating records management, data, and privacy in all areas of operations. They identified a gap in data literacy across the agency, so they are working together to create a new training program targeted at developing “muscle memory” among staff.

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