Keynote: Blurred boundaries: capturing and managing personal information in archival records in the digital era

• Main Author: Lomas, EJ
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa 2016
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1522479/1/Blurred_boundaries_ELomas_Rio_2016.pdf; https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1522479/

Over the last decade the role and responsibilities of archivists in managing ‘personal’ information have shifted dramatically as record creation and capture has moved from paper to digital paradigms. Online collaborative tools have blurred the boundaries between personal and public spaces. In addition ownership is underpinned by a complex network of legislation which comes into play not only dependent upon where the record author sits but on the infrastructure of the software channels through which s/he generates and exchanges information. For example a record author sitting in Europe may generate records through a software company with headquarters in Iceland, hosted within a ‘Cloud’ in India but with an intended audience in the USA. How then is this set of records passed to the archivist and who owns the records after transfer? This paper will discuss the challenges faced by archivists in acquiring, holding and negotiating access to personal information through time. The discussion is positioned from a UK/European standpoint which provides a particular lens for the work, as Europe has possibly the toughest personal data and privacy legislation in the world. The paper will seek to position this perspective within the context of wider international considerations.