As the work environment has changed to an Electronic Government, websites of public organizations have become an important link between the government and the people. Public service websites are windows providing real time information, and are links t...
As the work environment has changed to an Electronic Government, websites of public organizations have become an important link between the government and the people. Public service websites are windows providing real time information, and are links to access other information resources. With continuing development of the internet medium, these public websites have come to provide information of searchable value on the history of the organization. As web-based activities and work progressed, the websites are able to directly store and/or create records, thereby giving rise to the problem of records management in the web environment.
'Web records' are retained in the web environment as a result of interaction between data stored in the website and web activities thereupon, and is a records form which are produced or registered through the work process, including records of both the web contents and the website manager. Therefore, the record management system must acquire and manage not only the records of web contents provided on the web, but must also detect that processing activity on the web as evidence of web activity on the website management records.
The problem with web records management is that archivists have yet to consider it as data to be managed, and that reams of Web records are being created without any form of control. Web records are highly volatile and will evaporate if not managed, so record management is necessary from prior to the web records creation stage, over the entire process of its creation, usage, disposal, and preservation.
This study raises the necessity for web records management. Having surveyed the current state of web records management in Korea, with referral to leading industry standards, this study attempts to establish a basis for changes to the website operation and management manual, and the need for development of web records management manual. Under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Service, which is the primary organization for record management, develop strategies to create, manage and preserve Web records completely and accurately, and establish a "Web records management policy and guidance manual" as the most important practical guideline.
The responsibility for suitable and effective record management in the creation, alteration, or deletion of Web records rests with the archivist. To differentiate from those duties of the website manager, as a priority establish a archivist dedicated to each organization, within the website management company's work program. Recommend new duty for the website manager to require dedicated storage of web records for long-term preservation. The archivist should intervene at the time of web records creation, or before, in the website development and operation management, to assure Web records are managed together with sufficient metadata immediately upon its appearance on the web.
Since the web itself is an evolving medium, the development of perfect guidelines would not be expedientat this time, but this study wishes to assert for the first time, the fact of Web records' importance, and hopes tocontribute to further studies on web records management.