Words of welcome and introduction

Kari Tarkiainen Director-General of the National Archives of Finland

Dear participants in the DLM-Experts meeting - dear colleagues, The National Archives Service of Finland has in connection with the Finnish EU-Presidency the pleasure of arranging an experts meeting here in Tampere, today and tomorrow, as a part of the DLM-process of the Historical Archives of the European Commission. Three weeks ago many of us had the privilege to visit Brussels where the superbly arranged DLM-Forum gathered hundreds of experts around new and important issues in connection with electronic records and databases. The theme of the Forum was European citizens and electronic information: the memory of the Information Society. It is very fortunate that we now have such an arena for free discussion and debate between experts, because the various aspects of electronic information are today in many ways key issues. They immensely concern wide circles of the population; in the developed countries citizens are increasingly affected. The recent DLM-Forum was the second one held in Brussels; the first large meeting of experts on electronic information convened three years earlier in the autumn of 1996. Various interests were represented, then as now: The industry was represented by people for whom the developing of electronic communication instruments and systems, with technical diversity and perfection in mind, was a matter of business. There were representatives of the administration who regarded the new media from a political or judicial viewpoint and finally, representatives of the archival establishment focusing on the long term preservation of electronic information and later secondary use. All these issues require international cooperation, exchange of experiences and development of standards as we are indeed dealing with a common complex of problems, which reaches over national boundaries. The efforts of the Historical Archives of the European Commission to develop the DLMForums are especially commendable. For the archival sector, which I represent, the DLMForums are becoming the most central institution in this field. For the participants as a collective body the DLM-Forums are particularly valuable due to their interdisciplinary character. They are increasingly arenas for the outlining of real future issues. The seminar today and tomorrow here in Tampere is an offspring of the large DLM-Forum in Brussels in October. It centres round the appraisal of electronic material, a theme of considerable importance for us. The theme of the Tampere seminar is Principles of appraisal and their application in electronic environment - European models and concepts. What electronic information is essential and should be preserved permanently; what is less relevant and should be destroyed are questions of ever increasing urgency as the electronic media gain more and more ground and dominate the production of information? Are the views of the National Archives Services on appraisal of paper records also applicable when we are dealing with electronic material, or does digital information require completely new approaches based on the specific character of that information? Could the different models of appraisal in the 2

National Archives Services of European countries be of any help in the appraisal of electronic records? I hope that these seminar days will in one way or another give answers to these difficult, but vital questions. And now, perhaps I should say something about why this seminar is held here in Tampere. This town is a leading industrial centre and was once called the Manchester of Finland. The industry of today is, however, quite a different story. Finland has, much to our surprise, emerged as a leading country in information technology with a rapidly growing electronic industry alongside the traditional industrial sectors of processing raw material. In the neighbourhood of Tampere we have a small community Nokia which has lent its name to a multinational company with products selling all over the world in amazing numbers. Nokia is also a battlefield where a large peasant uprising was quelled during the so-called Cudgel War in 1596. The word Nokia has therefore a dual ring and we can only hope that its modern aspect will be associated with a purely positive dimension. Finland is a country where almost every family has at least one mobilephone and the rate of Internet-connections is among the highest in the world. The question whether Finnish information networks are still filled with emptiness has been raised, partly with good reason. Electronic networking has been a very fast process and the contents of the networks are not in parity with the technical abilities of the population to use the new tools. Information is still predominantly available on paper. The Finnish state has, however, started a so-called Information-Finland-project, concentrating on the quantity and quality aspects of the available electronic information. The project offers funding for digitization of vital parts of the national heritage and later use in electronic form. The state has also founded an Information archives at the University of Tampere; the archives will preserve electronic information mainly for social science purposes and make it available in electronic form. The University of Tampere is the only institution of its kind in Finland which offers archival education on an academic level. The Finnish Parliament will, after a few weeks, probably in December, pass a law which allows purely electronic transactions between citizens and state authorities, without any paper. The handwritten signature will be replaced by a so-called digital signature, an identity card which will be fed into a reader for the time the document is written. The law is interesting; the Parliament is on the point of allowing transactions that do not exist, yet. The carriage will, so to say, be put before the horse. I very much hope that this conveyance will move and even in the right direction. I welcome you warmly on behalf of the Finnish National Archives Service and I hope that we will today and tomorrow succeed in bringing some clarity to the issue of appraisal of electronic material. I hope that your stay in Tampere will be a pleasant one.#

Anne Luoto-Halvari Senior Advisor, Ministry of Education, Finland

Ladies and gentlemen, As I was leafing through a journal of archives, I happened to read an interesting and illustrative comparison between the qualities and durability of a paper document and an electronic document. The article dealt with old documents stored in the Finnish National Archives, the so called bailiffs' books. The central content of the article was something like that: " The unbroken series of documents, the bailiffs books, which are stored in the National Archives, date back to the 1540s. They are legible and readily understandable for anyone with a good command of old Swedish and the handwriting style of the 16th century - at that time Finland was a part of the Kingdom of Sweden, so administration used Swedish. - Preserving digital information for over 400 years will be much more difficult." This quotation from an expert in the field of archives describes accurately todays reality. The world around us becomes increasingly digital, whether we want it or not. The development of information technologies and information networks has changed both our manners to produce and to consume information. The results of research and academic dissertations, as well as an increasing share of scientific literature, are being published on the Internet; a growing amount of lectures and instruction is delivered through information networks. In our everyday work and during our leisure time we search for information in the ocean of data on the Internet. We often send notices of meetings and minutes to the recipients electronically. Information technology, electronic corpora and a variety of databases have entered also the world of administration. Official interactions through information networks, confirmed by a digital signature, will soon be reality. Nonetheless, as much good as information technology has brought along, it has also raised problems and questions yet to be solved. The introduction of electronic documents has presented completely new requirements and challenges for the planning, screening, storage and use of document material. What is an electronic document? How can we guarantee the reliability of the document now and in the future; how shall we solve the problem of long-term storage in general? Authorities, enterprises and citizens should be entitled to trust in the authenticity and reliability of any official document. People working in the field of archives are not alone with their concern: the problem is shared with many involved with electronic databases and information networks. The problem is well known e.g. in libraries, where the key question is the accessibility and long-term storage of the printed cultural heritage in electronic form.

Here in Finland, the Ministry of Education has recently appointed a committee to draft a legislative proposal for the new Act on Legal Deposit Copies, which would place electronic material under the same provision with printed material, thus enabling the preservation of this material for the future generations. The National Strategy for Education, Training and Research in the Information Society 20002004, published by the Ministry of Education in the spring of 1999, presents a vision of the target of the Finnish information society development, and provides suggestions for attaining this target. As we enter the period of the new strategy, our objectives are to ensure every citizen the basic skills needed in a knowledge-based society, to invest on the maximum utilisation of information networks in learning and teaching, to strengthen the structures of the information society in the fields of education, training and research, and to contribute to the growth of digital information capital. The strategy also defines cooperation and networking as the distinctive features of an information society. The ability for networking and interaction is the key factor in the success of an expert organisation. ---------------------Ladies and gentlemen, Cooperation with actors from the fields of archives, public administration, information technology industry as well as from education and research is essential in considering the problems of an electronic document and the principles and objectives inherent in it. It is, however, equally important to try to find solutions at an international level - the problems are, indeed, almost similar in every European country. The activity of the DLM-Forum, coordinated by the Historical Archives of the European Commission, as well as the various expert meetings represent the kind of cooperation that we need now and in the future. On behalf of the Ministry of Education, I have the pleasure of wishing you welcome to Tampere for the conference on Principles of appraisal and their application in electronic environment.#

Katriina Avonius City Archivist, Tampere

This is a year for celebration in Tampere. One reason for celebration is that 220 years ago the city was founded by king Gustaf III of Sweden. Tammerkoski falls gave birth to the city. The surging water was a source of power for mills and later for factories, which made Tampere Finlands first and leading industrial town. Here in Tampere, we have always been proud of our industrial past. The red-brick factories by Tammerkoski falls are still standing here today. Only one original factory still operates at full capacity. In the other factories, where 100 years ago high technology was adopted in cotton mills and where the first locomotives were built, it is seen today the development of wireless communication, digital media and ICT applications for various areas ranging from medicine to forestry. A major characteristic of todays Tampere is, however, the number of educational institutions in the city. Thirty three thousand students in the three institutions of higher education illustrate the significance of our educational and scientific community. In the University of Tampere we have also Records management and archival studies. In addition to the two universities and a polytechnic, Tampere is home to a wide range of other schools, colleges and research institutions. In spite of our remote location Tampere has always had close contacts with the rest of Europe. After Finland joined the European Union, our international partnerships have become stronger and are effecting our business and other areas of life. For this reason I am very pleased that a DLM- conference will be held in Tampere. During Finlands presidency Tampere will host several EU-related meetings. I am working in the city archive of Tampere and I am responsible for the integrated office system and for the archives of Tampere. The city of Tampere has strongly developed its electronic netservice, electronic matter handling and its electronic personal identification and integrated office systems. The archivists role is changing. Now we are living in the world of difference between paper based archives and electronic archives. We are facing a completely new challenge and we feel that we need some support. I am glad to see that the program of DLM-Experts meeting deals with the Principles of appraisal and their application in electronic environment. Welcome to Tampere and to Tampere Hall. I wish you inspiring debate and a productive outcome.#

Presented papers

PRESENTATION OF THE GOALS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE DLM-FORUM1

Hans Hofmann Director of the Historical Archives of the European Commission

The European Commission welcomes this European Conference of DLM-Experts in Tampere, which has been organised by our Finnish colleagues and friends. It is a direct, and I think, the quickest follow-up Conference ever to a DLM-Forum. Just three weeks ago on 18 and 19 October 1999, we met at the second DLM-Forum European citizens and electronic information: the memory of the Information Society in the European Commission's Conference Center Charlemagne in Brussels. There we had some 400 participants representing public administration, archives, research and industry both from the EU-Member States and other European countries as well as the United States, Canada and China. I am happy to say that we had excellent presentations and discussions, which led to good results and substantial conclusions for increased Europe-wide cooperation in this field. My presentation this morning will consist of two parts: I. Firstly, I will briefly talk about the goals of the DLM-Forum, that is about the context and the general aims of our interdisciplinary and Europe-wide DLMenterprise. Secondly, I will explain in more detail the main activities and the different achievements of the DLM-Forum so far, and I will finally try to stress the particular connection between the DLM-Forum and the present Tampere Conference on appraisal and selection of documents and records in the electronic environment.

II.

Part I. First of all: what are the general goals of the DLM-Forum? The first DLM-Forum and the resulting DLM-follow up activities - the 10 points - on electronic documents and records management, which we have together initiated in December 1996 in Brussels and pursued since then, are a far reaching operation. The main aim of this operation is to investigate possibilities for wider cooperation in this area both between EUMember States and at Community level.

In order to make progress in the field of electronic access and electronic records, expertise from different professional backgrounds is necessary and has therefore been gradually developed and encouraged. It is no longer possible that, for example, the archival profession on its own tries to find solutions to the pressing problems of managing, preserving and accessing electronically stored data. This is exactly the point where the multidisciplinary European Forum on Electronic Records the first DLM-Forum of December 1996 and the second Forum of October 1999, both held in Brussels - comes in. Most of you will recall that the idea of organizing the DLM-Forum originates from the so called Blackbook which is the report Archives in the European Union published in all 11 official languages - recently including Finnish and Swedish - by the EU-Office for Publications in 1994. This report has been made by a group of national experts, which was created, at the request of the Member States, by the European Commission and chaired by its Secretariat General. The Blackbook was then presented to the Council of the European Union, which welcomed the report and indicated in its conclusions of 17 June 1994 concerning greater cooperation in the field of archives in the European Union, a number of priority activities, one of which is the multidisciplinary DLM-Forum. The first DLM-Forum 1996 had four main aims: 1. Initiating and developing an interdisciplinary and continued dialogue between different professions involved in electronic information handling. In this case between public administrations, modern archives services, industry (soft- and hardware suppliers) and research to investigate possibilities for wider cooperation in this field in the Member States and at EUlevel. 2. The establishment of multidisciplinary guidelines on best practices for using electronic information. The establishment and progressive implementation of a DLM-Action Plan (10 points). The creation and mandate of an interdisciplinary DLM-Monitoring Committee to combine the necessary expertise and to actively contribute as a pressure group to the realisation of the DLM-Action Plan.

3.

4.

The DLM-Forum I and II show very clearly, and this is an important key point I want to make, that the modern archivist has to "network": with decision makers in public administration as a principal creator of electronic information; with the ICT-industry in order to provide useful and updated messages and requirements to soft- and hardware suppliers and to other relevant bodies;

to work together with research (industrial research as well as University research), with the legal profession and other professional backgrounds.

Thus one of the general goals of the DLM-Forum is active and innovative networking, better mutual understanding and solution orientated activities between Archives Services and other electronic information related professions in Europe. We have already made some good progress on this way. The special European DLM-Conferences organized since 1996 by different Member States in the framework of their respective EU-Presidencies: The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Austria, Germany and now Finland - are important steps from the first to the second DLM-Forum: The Hague, London/Kew, Vienna, Koblenz, Tampere and further on. I wish to say as a rsum of the first part of my expos: Let us go ahead together from this Tampere DLM-Conference and within the context of our general DLM-goals, towards the new millennium and beyond. As the Secretary General of the European Commission, Carlo Trojan, has indicated in his inauguration speech on 18 October 1999: we hope that the forthcoming EU-Presidencies: Portugal (first half 2000), France (second half 2000), Sweden (first half 2001), Belgium (second half 2001) will continue to support DLM-activities in the same way.

Part II: The main activities and the different achievements of the DLM-Forum Since the DLM-Forum 1996, which had concluded with 10 points for priority DLM-Followup activities, significant progress and a first series of concrete achievements have been made, on which the second DLM-Forum of October 1999 has been built. I wish to stress - when we are now talking about DLM-progress and DLM-achievements how much the success of Forum I and II owes to you, to your numerous and constructive contributions, to your outstanding know-how as national experts in the field of electronic documents and records management. Let us start with a number of immediate priority DLM-activities and first achievements:

II.1 DLM-Proceedings and DLM-Guidelines With regard to the first Forum the DLM-Proceedings and the multidisciplinary DLM-Guidelines (DLM-Follow-up points 1 and 3) are published as Supplements II and III of INSAR, European Archives News (DE, EN, FR) and are also available on the DLM-Website. The special point here is, that the DLM-proceedings of the first Forum 1996 have stimulated a Europe-wide and continued interest in the interdisciplinary approach to electronic documents and records management up to this very day. They are still used, for example, here in Finland as a reference publication for nationwide training activities in this field. And they are regularly requested from other places in Europe, within the EU-Member States and abroad. Last week, for example, we got an E-mail suggesting to sell the first DLM-Proceedings on a commercial basis and that in particular concerned industries seemed to be prepared to buy 9

them. Furthermore the DLM-Proceedings of Forum II will rapidly be published and distributed. There is already now an increasing demand for copies. The multidisciplinary DLM-Guidelines are even more popular. They became some sort of a bestseller. They were out of print within a short time. Given the continuing numerous and Europe-wide requests for copies from different disciplines (public and private sectors; training purposes; general and specific information on DLM-issues; best practices) and in view of forthcoming DLM-events, a reprint (EN: 3000 copies) had to be launched. In addition, the down-loading of the DLM-Guidelines from the DLM-Website has been promoted. There are even new initiatives for translation of the DLM-Guidelines, which exist in English, French and German, into other languages: Dutch (in progress), Spanish (already achieved) and Serbocroat (published at the initiative of the National Archives of Croatia).

II. 2 DLM-Website This special DLM-Website (http://www.dlmforum.eu.org; DLM-Follow-up points 4 and 9) was established directly after the first DLM-Forum. It serves for the collection and distribution of DLM information and helps to combine the efforts and the follow up activities of the DLM-Forum in the Member States and at Community level. The DLM-Website is on the ISPO-Server of the European Commission. It has been reinforced through a service contract for the function of a chief-editor. Furthermore, the Europe-wide DLM-correspondents network has been considerably enlarged through the DLM-Forum '99. I am happy to say that the interdisciplinary dialogue has also been strengthened, in particular there is an increasing interest from the ICT-industries. This allows now for an even faster and easier circulation of DLM-related information for the benefit of our experts and the interested European citizen. There are more achievements in the form of important basic documents for the DLM-Forum:

II. 3 Member States report: relationship public administration/archives What is the situation, what are the facts in electronic documents and records management in the Member States? The description and evaluation of the particular relationship between public administrations and archives services in the Member States are a key element for better interdisciplinary understanding and action in this field. Based on the initial report of Ken Hannigan, senior archivist in the National Archives of Ireland, presented at the first DLM-Forum 1996, it was felt that a more comprehensive study should be carried out by experts and addressed to policy makers and administrative decision makers (DLM-Follow-up point 2). 10

This very useful comprehensive survey is at present being elaborated by Essex University, United Kingdom. It is financed as a study contract by the European Commission (ISPO). Dr. Kevin SCHRER made a substantial progress report on this survey on 19 October 1999 at the second DLM-Forum in Brussels. This study focuses on the development of practical solutions and illustrates a certain number of existing applications in the Member States. It is envisaged that the European Commission will publish and distribute the "Member States report" in the first half of 2000.

II.4 Legal implications in the field of electronic documents and records management There is also some good news. This report which has been elaborated by our colleague Claes Grnstrm from the Swedish National Archives, is ready. We still have to wait for the translation of the text into German and French. This important report refers to the legal implications with particular regard to the application of the European Commissions Data directive of 24 October 1995 in the different EU-Member States. It also concentrates on new items such as the electronic signature and other relevant legal aspects.

II.5 Conclusions of the DLM-Forum '99 European Citizens and electronic information: the memory of the Information Society (Brussels, 18-19 October 1999) The second DLM-Forum issued the following conclusions (see also: http://www.dlmforum.eu.org) on three main areas: 1. Development of a reference model for managing electronic documents and records in public administration; special DLM-message to ICT-industry; Realisation of a modular European training programme for administrators and archivists on electronic documents and records management (E-TERM); improvement of skills and recruitment facilities in Europe; Implementation of a reinforced DLM-Action Plan, 1999-2004: access for the European citizen and funding priority activities.

2.

3.

II.5.1 Development of a reference model for managing electronic documents and records in public administration The progress achieved in the development of a reference model for the management of electronic documents and records is a major result of the DLM-Forum '99. It was initiated at the first DLM-Forum with regard to the establishment of functional requirements (DLM Follow-up point 5b) for electronic documents and records management in the public and private sectors. It was also referred to in the DLM-Guidelines (cf. chapter 8.4. Checklist for electronic information strategy).

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The reference model takes account of the continuum of electronic documents and records, i.e. their reception or creation, active life and long term preservation and accessibility. It benefits from relevant activities and projects in the Member States, for example in the Netherlands: a) Project Long-term preservation of electronic documents and records as a testbed to find the right procedures (emulation or migration; costfactor etc.), b) Project Digital Depot 2000 (How to store digital documents and records in the short term; design process of the system; trial period from December 1999 to February/March 2000) and in the United Kingdom where the Public Record Office in London/Kew deals with a major project on functional model requirements. The Moreq (Model requirements)-Project, which is financed by the IDA 2 (Information Interchange between administrations) - Programme of the European Commission, is closely linked to these activities. We will hear more about Finnish and other Scandinavian projects during the Conference today and tomorrow. There is also international cooperation in this field, such as the INTERPARES (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic systems) - Project which was initiated by our Canadian colleagues. With regard to the specific topics discussed at our Tampere Conference, it is suggested to integrate the specific functionality for appraisal and selection of electronic documents and records into the reference model which we are developing in a joint effort.

II.5.2 Special DLM-message to industry Another important result of the DLM-Forum '99 is the elaboration of a DLM-message to the ICT-industry to promote best practices in public administration and provide easily applicable and cost-effective records management and digital archival solutions. The European Commission together with the Member States is asked to update and forward this DLM-message to the ICT-industry. This message will take into account all presentations and comments issued at the DLM-Forum '99 as well as best practices in public administration. Thus industry across Europe should be encouraged to exploit the field of electronic documents, records management and digital archiving as a new and viable market. At the DLM-Forum on 18 and 19 October 1999 in Brussels, the Secretary General of the European Commission, Carlo Trojan, and the new Commissioner for Enterprises and Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, stressed in their respective inauguration and closing speeches, the importance of the DLM-message to industry. This clearly shows the increasing awareness of political decision makers in the field of electronic documents and records management. It is now the task of the concerned industries to examine and to give a timely reply to this message. I wish to draw your particular attention to the Consultative document on the content of a DLM-message to industry which was issued at the DLM-Forum '99 in Brussels (cf. also DLM-Website: http://www.dlmforum.eu.org). We would very much appreciate if you could send your observations and comments by the 6 December 1999 to the DLM-Forum Secretariat (Mrs Christina Beckers and Mr Peter Berninger, European Commission SG1-AH, E-mail 12

dlm-forum@cec.eu.int) in order to elaborate a revised and enlarged text version of the DLMmessage.

II.5.3 Realisation of a modular European Training Programme on electronic documents and records management (E-TERM) The DLM-Forum' 99 gave a big boost to the realisation of a first module of the European training programme E-TERM. It was established on the basis of the experiences of different archives schools and other specialized bodies in the Member States. It aims to improve the training of public administrators, modern archivists and other information specialists in the field of electronic documents and records management. The initiative of this activity lies with the Member States (in particular The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Portugal) which introduced in March 1999 a request for co-funding by the LEONARDO-Programme of the European Commission. One of the objectives of the E-TERM Training Programme is the continued enhancement of skills and recruitment facilities in Europe in this field. What we really need is the profile of the modern archivist in the Information Society. The concerned industry will find business opportunities in contributing to the development of the material for the module and subsequent training programmes and can profit from the know-how they will generate. The conclusions of the DLM-Forum '99 indicate that the training module called E-TERM is to be distributed to interested parties in the Member States together with supporting training material in the second half of 2000. I would like to call upon all of you, and in particular on our colleagues Angelika MenneHaritz, Peter Horsman, Theo Thomassen, Pertti Vakkari, who will speak to us later on, to take the opportunity of our Tampere Conference to further discuss and develop the progressive integration of appraisal and selection of electronic documents and records into the E-TERM training programme.

II.5.4 The reinforced DLM-Action Plan, 1999-2004: access for the European citizen and funding priority activities The European Commission together with the interdisciplinary DLM-Monitoring Committee has now been asked to reinforce the DLM-Action Plan for the period 1999-2004 and to continue looking after the priorities to be set and their timely implementation. Therefore we need a restructured DLM-Monitoring Committee as an essential driving force for ongoing and future priority DLM-activities. One of the main emphasises will be on closer co-operation with the ICT-industry. We also need co-funding of priority DLM-activities by the EU-Member States and by EUProgrammes. Good progress has been made since the first DLM-Forum 1996 in relevant co13

funding between different Member States and EU-Programmes, in particular INFO 2000, IDA 2, LEONARDO, ISPO. The conclusions of the second DLM-Forum 1999 clearly indicate the need for the continuation and the reinforcement of this co-funding of priority DLMactivities for the period 1999-2004. More persistence and lobbying from the Member States would be of great help in order to promote the timely implementation of the reinforced DLM-Action Plan 1999-2004 and to improve access to electronic information by the European citizen. I conclude by stressing the particular connection between the DLM-Forum and the present Tampere Conference. Appraisal and disposal of records are among the archivists most important tasks. Appraisal and the selection of permanent value documents and records hold one of the key positions within the main tasks of archives services, in order to ensure central archival control, limit the continuously growing number of documents and records (on paper and electronic support), to reduce costs and to meet the wide ranging information needs of the citizen as an important basic democratic right. In the electronic environment, these tasks are to be reexamined and reinforced. For this purpose, I would like to suggest the following three main areas of activities: 1. Consideration and implementation, wherever it seems feasible and useful, of the indications made in the first chapter Records Management: appraisal and disposal of the publication Archives in the European Union (Blackbook). This first list of reference points for appraisal and disposal of documents and records on a national and, perhaps, Europe-wide scale could be progressively adapted and completed through updating the Blackbook. The European Commission has been asked by the Group of Directors of National Archives of the Member States and the applicant Countries at their Helsinki Conference (27 August 1999) to proceed with the updating of the experts report Archives in the European Union (Blackbook). 2. "Appraisal"-visits: given the increasing transborder interconnection of electronic information between the Member States and between the Member States and EU-Institutions, there should be specific "appraisal"-visits of archivists from and to interested Member States and EU-Institutions in order to better understand best practices in this field. As a general rule, travel and hotel costs should be paid by the department which sends the archivist. 3. Integration of appraisal and selection of electronic documents and records in a reference model of functional requirements and also in the DLM-message to ICT-industry. Furthermore this could be combined with research (study) in the content aspect of record groups in archives and on legal regulations on appraisal, selection, preservation and accessibility of permanent value records in the EU-Member States and EU-Candidate Countries. In this sense, appraisal and selection of permanent value records in the electronic environment could be considered for progressive coordination under regional, national and international aspects, in order to encourage transborder and interdisciplinary research, to make public administration more transparent and to better inform the citizen.#

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DLM is a French acronym for Donnes Lisibles par Machine; in English: Machine Readable Data; in German: Maschinenlesbare Daten.

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