 Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our bridge meeting for April 2023. My name is Ariane Ravenbach, and I will be serving as the moderator for today's meeting. As a reminder, the Office of Agency Services at the National Archives and Records Administration hosts these bimonthly records and information discussion group or bridge meetings to present information relating to federal records management. Bridge is a co-production by the Office of the Chief Records Officer for the United States and the Federal Records Center program and is live streamed to the audience over our YouTube channel. Generally, bridge meetings consist of a scheduled program of presentations with an open forum at the end of each meeting to ask questions of the presenters or of any related federal records management topic of interest. Viewers are encouraged to post questions in the chat or by sending an email to rm.communicationsatnara.gov. Our staff is monitoring this email box during the meeting. You're also welcome to make comments during this meeting in the YouTube chat. However, keep in mind that all comments are subject to moderation, so we ask that you keep the comments relevant to the topics being discussed today. Copies of the presentation slides used today will be posted on the bridge page of the archives website. That webpage is also where you will find the transcription of today's meeting when it is available, as well as links and information about previous and upcoming bridge meetings. If you have general comments about bridge or suggestions for future topics, you can use that same email address rm.communicationsatnara.gov to pass these along to us. We welcome your feedback. With that, I would like to start today's meeting by introducing Lawrence Brewer, the Chief Records Officer for the US government. Good afternoon Lawrence. Good afternoon, Aryan, and thank you for the setup. Good afternoon, everyone. Good morning, depending on where you are. Very happy to have you joining us today for our April spring edition of bridge. If you'll flip the slide, we will just review very quickly the agenda, and I have one quick announcement to make before turning it over to Chris Pinkney. You'll see what we'll be talking about in addition to the updates from me and from Chris. We're going to feature some of the work we've been doing in our records management oversight and reporting program. We're going to talk about our semiannual report that just came out at the end of March, and really focus on a couple of assessments that we've recently done on what we believe are really interesting topics that we wanted to share. And then we're going to close the program with, I think, topics of particular interest right now and update on the rollout and status of ERA 2.0 and the imminent, hopefully, publication of our standards and regulations for digitizing permanent records. Lisa Harrell Lampus will be around to close the program, give you a brief on the substance of those standards prior to its publication as a final rule. But before I kick it over to Chris, the one announcement I really wanted to highlight for you today is that we have a deadline coming up at the end of this month. And that is less than two weeks away. Capstone resubmission forms are due. So we have received, based on recent stats, about 22% of what we expect from agencies in terms of Capstone resubmission forms. I encourage you to really try and focus on getting your Capstone form submitted or contact our GRS team at the email address you know and love GRS underscore team at neuro.gov. If you have any questions, concerns, or there's anything that we can do to help facilitate the submission of those forms. As always, our goal is 100% compliance across the government. If we do not hear from you and receive your form by the end of April, we will be contacting you directly to inquire about the status of those Capstone forms. So please mark those on your calendar and get in touch with us if you need any assistance or clarification. So with that, I'm going to pause here and turn it over to Chris Pinkney of the acting director of the federal record centers program for an update before we get into the other agenda items on the schedule today. Chris. Thank you Lawrence always a pleasure to be here for a little while. I have a little bit of facility news I wanted to pass along to people and then just a very short operational update. Probably our biggest news at the moment is that I am very happy to announce that as of this week, we've essentially finished removing all of the agency records from our soon to close this field FRC. While the FRC will still technically have occupancy until approximately the end of August of 2023 and price and her move crew are now going to turn their attention to accessing property and then coordinating with GSA to handle shelving disassembly and removal. Some of the regional records from Pittsfield have been relocated to the Boston FRC so that local collections remain in New England. But most of the former Pittsfield holdings have been trans shipped to either the Lenexa FRC or the Dayton FRC. And at both of those sites we've experienced staff members available to provide the full suite of services to the collections. This is the Pittsfield closure is wrapping up. We've also started to move out of our Fort Worth warehouse nine annex. The first trucks of agency records ship last month and our current projection show that this relocation will conclude in April 2024. All of the agency records stored at warehouse nine are being trans shipped to the Lenexa FRC. And I also wanted to take this opportunity to emphasize, since I've received several additional questions, that we're just closing the old Fort Worth annex, which is on the Felix Street Federal Center. Uncle Sam has decided to access the Felix Street property, and that decision is what's driving the shift of records out of the annex. The main Fort Worth FRC located on John Burgess Drive is absolutely remaining open and staff from that facility are supporting the move operations. So, beyond those two facility related activities, most of the FRCP remains focused on backlog reduction, and we continue our work to fully restore all of our pre pandemic service levels. I think that at this point, most of our sites have essentially worked their way through the influx of transfers that were retired in response to the original in 1921 deadline. FY 23 FRCP staff have now received and shelved in excess of 521,000 boxes. As of this morning, ARCA shows an additional 15,803 transfers, which cover 250,654 cubic feet in approved status. But importantly, the number of transfers and submitted status in awaiting review is all the way down to 381, which essentially gets us back very, very close to our regular operations. Eliminating the remaining pandemic era disposal backlog is another area of sustained focus. My thanks again to everyone who has continued to review and return disposal notifications. It's very much appreciated by all of us within the FRCP. As of this week, our staff have destroyed more than 686,000 cubic feet of records during FY 23. And the total disposal backlog, which includes both a decreasing number of records that we would have normally destroyed during the pandemic, as well as more recently approved transfers. Currently sits just under 1.37 million cubic feet, which is down from almost 2 million at the middle of last year. Continuing to reduce that number remains a top priority and will keep going into where again 100% current with our processes. And then finally, I've also received several additional questions related to the status of the DC area truck service and metro courier operations. I spoke to Shannon Harris, who's the WNRC director last week, and he gave me an update of where he stands. I'm actively recruiting new motor vehicle operators for the truck service with the USA jobs announcement that closed on April 3. He's now waiting a referral list so he can interview candidates. The recruitment of additional metro courier drivers is actually moving more quickly. They have their hiring certificates in hand and WNRC managers are setting up interviews. Well, it never seems the government hiring moves quite as quickly as I'd like it to go. It's a significant progress. And I really do hope that by the next bridge, WNRC will be in a position where the site can once again operate with a full or nearly full complement of drivers. And that is essentially my update today. If folks have questions, I'd be happy to answer them now or do my best to answer questions at the end. Thank you. And as a reminder, individuals can ask questions through the YouTube chat or by sending an email to rm.communications at narra.gov. We did get one earlier while Lawrence was speaking. Any plans to bring bridge back on site in DC again? Yeah, so I was just thinking about that and that is something obviously that we have considered and talked about. There's certainly a trade-off involved and we certainly like the reach and the access that the virtual platform gives us. We can instead of focusing on staff in DC when we used to do it just in Archives 1, we can now reach so many more people using the virtual platform. But the face-to-face version, the benefits there were we had good opportunities for networking, for breakout sessions, which we could figure out how to do virtually. But then a lot of it comes down to resources too. I think if we were going to do a hybrid or introduce more face-to-face engagement with bridge, we have to make sure that we can resource it and support it because it takes quite a bit more work. Not that doing the virtual platform doesn't take a lot of planning and resources as well, but it does complicate things in terms of the planning if you're trying to do a hybrid or a mix of some sort, which I think we would want to do because we wouldn't want to lose the reach and the access that the virtual provides. It's a great question, something that we have considered and we'll continue to think on it. And if anybody has any ideas they want to share with us offline, we're more than happy to take this into account. Thanks for the question. Thank you, Lawrence. Chris, we don't have anything for the FRCP yet, but I'll keep my eyes open and we'll maybe bring you back at the end if something comes up. With that, I would like to turn it over, turn the presentation over to Don Rosen, the Director of Records Management Oversight and Reporting for the next section. Don, you're up. Thanks, Aryan. Good afternoon. I'm Don Rosen, Director of Records Management Oversight and Reporting Program. I'm joined by my colleagues, Karen Skavakis and Andrea Noel. We're happy to be here and share some lessons learned and observations from two oversight records management assessments we've recently completed. The video surveillance and portable electronic devices. Next slide, please. Before we start that briefing, I wanted to share the recently completed and posted our semi-inner report on records management oversight activities. Our latest report covers the period of July through December of last year. The report highlights the accomplishments of the records management oversight and reporting program. We sent this report to the AROs and SEOs. We also posted on our oversight and reporting page and I encourage you to go there and view the report. The report captures some of the broader trends and recommendations we saw during that period resulting from our inspections and assessments, including the two assessment reports that we are discussing today. The semi-inner report notes some general risks identified during inspections such as the need for internal controls, evaluations and senior level advocacy for records management. We also know that records management policies procedures exist, but implementation continues to be an issue. We also wanted to share that we are in the process of analyzing all the data you submit to us for the records management and reporting period, which closed in March. And thank you again for your submissions and we will share the results of that report at a future bridge meeting and the report will be out later in the summer. So we're excited to share the information. We'll be back soon with that. Next slide. With that, I'm not going to turn it over to Karen Skavakis and Andrea Noel, who will discuss what we learned from our two recent records management assessments, which was highlighted in our semian report on video surveillance and portable electronic devices. So with that, Karen, over to you. Thank you, Don. My name is Karen Skavakis. Today, my colleague Andrea Noel and I will be presenting our two most recently published records management assessment reports on video surveillance and oh, video surveillance records and portable electronic devices. Next slide, please. Records management assessments are used to provide a quick snapshot of specific topics or issues and how federal agencies manage them. Unlike inspections that focus on agency compliance and corrective actions, assessments are designed to focus on real life experiences agencies have with a specific topic and no formal plans of corrective action are established as a result of the assessment. Agencies are selected based on their knowledge and expertise with the topic or issue different methods are used to identify relevant agencies, including an agency request. A request from other areas of Nora, such as appraisal or accessioning and the annual agency reports. Next slide, please. The video surveillance assessment focused on six law enforcement agencies and how they create manage use and ultimately dispose of video records. This assessment also served to gather information for NARA in regards to the types of video records created and used by agencies, methodologies, agencies are using to create, capture and preserve them, and how agencies are approaching the use of these records. To begin, we conducted a pre-assessment questionnaire that focused on overall agency information, such as the size of the agency, type of activities the agency recorded, if audio is recorded, how long the systems retain video, mediums used to capture and if the agency has any recovery process for deleted videos. We also requested agencies send us any policies, procedures and records retention schedules that were related to the creation management use and disposition of video records. The information was collected and evaluated and interviews were conducted with participating agencies. The participants of each video interview were representatives of programs that directly created, managed or use video surveillance records as part of their mission. Next slide, please. We had six participating agencies, the Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Protection, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marine Corps and the Secret Service. Next slide, please. Agencies that demonstrated the best practices had a centralized approach to the management of their video surveillance records. Agencies where the ARRA was actively engaged demonstrated the most inclusive, up-to-date policies, procedures and records retention schedules. These policies ensured that video records were managed effectively for the life of the records and that records retention schedules were reflective of agency procedures. Additionally, most of the agencies have established policies and procedures for the different types of video surveillance records generated and have procedures in order to identify those videos that are required to be retained for other purposes. A noted best practice was where policies and procedures were developed prior to the deployment of new technologies. This ensured that prior to deployment, agencies have developed the method and methodology to maintain the records. All agencies restricted video access to federal employees only, and agencies that utilize contractors limited them to providing technical assistance. Contractors did not have control over or access to video recordings. All agencies are saving metadata automatically with the video, and most of the agencies are capturing additional metadata, in particular when those videos are needed for evidentiary purposes. All agencies are using agency-specific schedules for video records. Only two of the agencies indicated that they are using the GRS and then only for routine surveillance videos that are associated with facility security. All agencies established quality controls to ensure that equipment is in good working order, and all participating agencies had established training for staff members in regards to video records. In some instances it was a more formalized training, and in others it was ad hoc on the job training. Next slide, please. All of the agencies participating in the assessment have many locations scattered across the country, and in some cases in other parts of the world. There is a lack of standardization and standard policies and procedures for those agencies' facilities to follow. All agencies stated there's a lack of funding and resources. This can lead to agencies developing ad hoc solutions, in particular for field locations. One agency stated that getting hardware to store the videos was actually a resource issue. There is a lack of guidance for electronic records. Without the government-wide guidance, agencies are left to determine the methodology for managing the records. Agencies were also concerned as to how to handle permanent electronic video records, in particular how those agencies are to transfer those records to NARA at the end of their retention period. Next slide, please. The agency records officer should have an active role in developing policies and procedures for all agency records. A lack of agency records officer oversight could lead to unauthorized dispositions of records or the inability for the agency to provide video records in response to a Freedom of Information Act and or legal request. Agencies should incorporate records management policies and procedures into any video surveillance policy and procedure. Some of the agencies' interviews did not have established policies and procedures to manage specific types of video surveillance records. All agencies needed to establish standard operating procedures for all facilities to ensure that video surveillance records that need to be retained for other purposes are saved appropriately. This lack of established procedures could potentially lead an agency into inadvertently deleting videos prior to the end of the retention period or that are required for other purposes. All agencies should have standard operating procedures to recover lost or damaged videos. These types of procedures would be necessary to prevent inadvertent loss or damage to video records during the retention period or while they're required by the agency. Record schedules should be regularly updated and video surveillance should be specifically defined within electronic record schedules. All agencies must establish safeguards for the long-term storage of any video records they are retaining and must determine if those methodologies used to store videos are appropriate for long-term storage. Next slide, please. Overall, most of the agencies that participate in this assessment establish specific policies in order to regulate and control the use and management of their video records. These agencies use record management regulations and best practices to manage and preserve the integrity of the records in light of evidentiary needs for legal proceedings. NARA recommends that agencies continue to work on mitigating the identified weaknesses by developing and applying records management regulations, policies and procedures, and to ensure that the integrity, liability and usability of these records when applicable. And now I will turn the presentation over to Andrea Noel. Andrea? Thanks, Karen. Good afternoon. The portable electronic devices or PEDS are an assessment evaluated agency policies, practices, procedures and IT tools used to manage government furnished and personally owned smartphones, tablets and laptops with particular emphasis on managing federal records created, stored or accessed by these devices. During the assessment. During the assessment, agencies responded to a pre-assessment questionnaire, provided documentation relevant to PEDS and participated in semi-structured interviews. Next slide. There were five participating agencies, National Archives and Records Administration, Corporate Records Management Division, Millennium Challenge Corporation, Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the Department of Interior's Office of the Secretary and the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office. Next slide. Some potential RMRIS factors related to PEDS include improper storage of agency records in locations outside of the agency's control, ineffective segregation of federal and personal activities when agencies permit the use of personally owned devices or do not restrict what users can do on government furnished devices, non-capture of text or instant messages, photographs, videos or audio recordings from the local storage of these devices. Next slide. Our team has handled several unauthorized disposition cases associated with PEDS. Most of these cases were tied to an agency's inability to capture or verify the capture of federal records from smartphones and tablets, primarily because of having incorrect passwords or agency staff resetting or wiping devices before returning them to IT departments. Other UD cases involved lost, stolen or unreturned laptops that had records stored on local drives, intentional unauthorized removal of records via remote interactions on these devices, information system backup failures, as well as illicit use of unauthorized communication applications on PEDS. Next slide. In summary, all agencies provided laptops and smartphones to agency personnel, both Android and Apple devices. Agencies disseminated policies and guidance on PED usage, used IT software applications to disseminate, deploy and manage device use. Microsoft Windows was the primary operating system for laptops. One agency issued a few Apple laptops and four agencies approved the use of personally owned devices for agency business. Next slide. Our analysis of agency documentation focused on policy transmission and implementation, develop reference tools, assessment and validation of policy compliance and mitigation strategies for policy non-compliance. Our team found that across all agencies, there was insufficient or ineffective communication linking PED use to federal records and records management overall. Review documentation offered limited guidance that explicitly connected PEDs to the management of records. Also, most agencies did not have effective mechanisms in place to assess how consistently users adhered to PED and records management policies, guidance or training. In the report, our team listed several best practices regarding agency documentation. Next slide. NAR has not issued guidance that addresses record keeping requirements and RM regulations within the specific context of PED functionalities, IT systems, network access, administrator and user rights, overall user behaviors and the ever changing realities of remote work environments. Consequently, there was much variation in how each agency addressed RM associated with PEDs. Furthermore, agencies expressed that rapid technological changes forces them to leave the charge in investigating and acquiring new tools to meet business demands and changing work environments. With little time and resources left to assess and mitigate challenges that lead to non-compliance with records management regulations. Next slide. NAR found that the volume of devices, availability of financial resources, the nature of agency business and the level of collaboration between records management and IT departments determined how mobile device management or MDM tools were used at each agency. A few agencies capitalized on MDM features that directly related to records management, the most simply used MDM to manage the life cycle of devices. Additionally, most agencies primarily used MDM applications for smartphones and tablets and only a few agencies employed MDM features on laptops. When agencies use MDM tools, NAR recommends that agencies consider deploying MDM functions that can enhance the agency's ability to consistently retain control of federal records created, stored or accessed by PEDs. Next slide. The following are some best practices noted in the report. When agency policies use simple everyday language, it helps staff correlate day-to-day business practices more effectively with devices and associated records, resulting in better compliance with RN regulations. One agency's policy listed potential consequences for not safeguarding records associated with PEDs. It noted that reminding staff of consequences better helped them understand how non-compliance with policy guidelines directly affected their work and agency business. Those agencies that required PED users to annually review and sign user agreements found this to be an effective way to check user understanding and reiterate user RN responsibilities while using these devices. Finally, agencies that automated retention processes, omitting the need for user action, asserting that this helped ensure that records created, stored, sent or received on devices were consistently captured and preserved in the appropriate record keeping. Next slide. In conclusion, 36 CFR 122032 states that federal agencies must create and maintain authentic, reliable and usable records and ensure the preservation of these records for their entire retention period. 36 CFR 1220234 requires federal agencies to establish processes and controls that ensure access to electronic records and minimize the risk of unauthorized additions, deletions, alterations to federal records. Adherence to these two regulations necessitates a regular evaluation of RM risks associated with both government furnished and personally owned devices. This assessment brought to light that agencies need stronger collaboration between IT and RM programs to ensure that policies and procedures do not simply address record keeping requirements and RM regulations in a vacuum, but within the context of PED functionalities, IT systems, network access, administrator and user rights, overall trends in user behaviors and changes related to remote work environments. Agencies also need to regularly and better evaluate the efficacy of employee execution and adherence to policies, guidance and training, and make meaningful modifications to address non-compliance with RM regulations. Finally, IT and RM programs should consider dedicating more resources to IT solutions that automate record retention for all PEDs to ensure consistent capture and appropriate records retention. Next slide. Please visit NARA's records management assessment webpage to access the video surveillance and PED reports. Thank you. Thank you Andrea, Karen and Don for for your presentation. We do have a few questions that have filtered in both by RMCOM communications at nara.gov and over the YouTube. The first one, the Department of the Interior is currently working on its schedule for law enforcement records and video recording is a big topic of conversation. Has this report been directly shared with the department records officer? Yes, we did share it via ACMMA. All records officers received the report when we completed it. But if not, we can certainly share it to anyone who's looking for it is unavailable on our website and we're happy to circle it around anyone who has not seen it. And Don, I'll note that I also pasted the link in the YouTube chat. Excellent. Thank you. The next question. Was the ability to capture metadata, not just the message on PEDs, an issue for agencies and or addressed in policies? Yeah, so there were issues with metadata that was something that was discussed. It was in policies to capture as much metadata as possible, but there were some technological challenges in the access of whatever technological tools like MDM tools they used and how much information and how much metadata was associated with that capture. But agencies did identify different tools and different ways to capture as much metadata as possible. Thank you. I don't see any more questions. Please stick around and if any come in, we'll address those at the end of the meeting. So thank you, Don and your team. Next up, we'd like to bring updates on ERA 2.0. We'll hear from David Lake and Sam McClure. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Hello and welcome. Thank you, everybody. So Sam and I are here again providing update on the transition to ERA 2.0. As you may have noticed from recent communicates via AC memos, system notifications, etc. We shut off access to ERA 1.0. We'll call it on March 24 to begin final preparations for the migration of data to ERA 2.0. So in fact, the transition has really begun. Next slide. So we're going to talk a little bit about the phases of ERA 2.0. The first one is underway as of yesterday. So this is kind of our first phase that we're taking to calling authentication testing and account verification. As you know, we now have authentication through max.gov using PIV. So it adds an extra variable to the whole authentication scheme and logging into ERA. So we thought it prudent to kind of take this time up front to allow agencies to come in and start exercising that part of the system and logging in. We want to thank everybody who's been able to do that so far. We know many of you have gotten in. We know some have had issues and we really appreciate you reaching out to the help desk, providing information and details about what you've encountered. We're finding that some of the issues are falling into just a few buckets kind of coalesced into a few different issues that Sam's going to talk about a little bit more and some tips on that. So the next phase will be the use of ERA 2.0 for record scheduling and transfer requests. So that's dependent upon the completion of the data migration. A little bit more about that later in terms of the timing, but we'll notify you as and continue to communicate about the timing of that when we can start in earnest using the system for scheduling and transfer. Something else to mention and it's a little bit further off kind of once we get our on solid footing with scheduling and transfer is the upload feature of ERA 2.0. And so we plan to start probably later this year and in allowing or trying it out kind of in a pilot mode with a limited number of agencies. So that if you want to start thinking now in the meantime, if you have electronic records that are ready to transfer, please do reach out to your accession archivist to determine if these would be a good candidate for some of those first instances of direct upload from federal agencies to ERA 2.0. With that, I'm going to pass it on to Sam talk a little bit more about this authentication and login phase. Hello everybody, please be back to give another update on ERA for this group and the audience we can reach here. So we're just going to reiterate some of the points that were made in the system notices that many of you would have received from the ERA help desk last week as we prepared to open up for testing agency access this week agency and our access for that matter. The URL for the new environment is available here. It was also made available on in that email. It's also on archives.gov and some of the reference materials that are available there. One of the biggest changes and we hope improvements from ERA base is our browser compatibility has moved into the modern era with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. The starting point for the accounts that are in ERA 2.0 were the roles and agency permissions that you all had, excuse me, had in the original ERA system. There are some wrinkles associated with that. We can we can talk about that on on one of the upcoming slides. But the basic point was to get you into the new environment at a starting point similar to where you were in the old environment and from there we can make changes where you can get in and start work when the when the data migration is complete. So we want to give everybody into a consistent point of use for the system with a framework similar to what you had in the original ERA. Next slide please. So we we've moved this into phases because of the level of complexity involved in our authentication mechanism and in the account creation process. One of the things that that I did not put into the email that you all received from a system notice standpoint was the reminder of the use of the same network permissions approach we had with the original ERA. Meaning you should log in from your agency's network. If you're on site, you're good or from your agency's VPN. And we will continue to enforce the IP address management protocol we use with the ERA base, meaning if you have your IP addresses that were granted access to ERA base and vice versa in the old system. Those have been ported over to our new system environment where IP addresses change just as you did with the original ERA system. Those should be communicated to the ERA help desk. We can make sure you have the appropriate network permissions to access the environment. So there have there have been some issues with people whose whose agency IP addresses have not been on the access list. We're trying to get those updated as we encounter those problems. One of the biggest mismatches we're finding is the email address in the ERA accounts that we migrated in from the original ERA with the email address that all of you have used and setting up your max.gov accounts. We should have done a better job communicating the need for these email addresses to sync. But as we encounter these issues now, the ERA help desk is working with folks who have run into issues to make sure that those ERA. I'm sorry that those email addresses are the same because that's the link between our authentication service, which is max.gov and your ERA account. So having that as the link is critical when there is a mismatch. We have seen some issues with folks unable to log in from there. Next slide. So just as a reminder, some of the resources we've made available through email was want to reiterate it here. Ensuring that your ERA account is good to go. It's always a good good idea to start with the ERA service desk at the now standard email address and phone number we've had for years. Any questions we do max.gov account we give the same contact points for that team so you can ensure that your profile there is active and ready to support authentication into ERA. And for those organizations who have not had a PIV or CAC issued to you, contact the ERA help desk. We have an exception process for that. You will still be using a profile in max.gov. But we have the ability to support those organizations who don't get that kind of badge to ensure that you can authenticate in a consistent way. Next slide. So I'll turn it back over to David for some updates and we'll go from there. Thank you Sam. So in terms of the status of the data migration. Right again, moving towards use of the system for scheduling and transfer will rely on on this data migration that we've started. So the first data to go in are the transfer requests. And we're starting this week migrating those into the production system. Next to follow will be record schedule data that's legacy record schedules and then regular record schedules. That data is we're completing the testing of that migration data right now and that will follow the transfer request data in the system. Lastly would be the NA 1005 otherwise known as capstone forms. Those would follow the record scheduling data. At this point, based on where we are we're playing complete that data migration somewhere between the end of April and mid May. And we'll see, again, as we'll communicate on the progress of that as we get into it and see where it looks like we're going to end up. And then, as I said before, a couple of times, then we can turn the system over to starting use for scheduling and transfer at that point. Next slide wanted to highlight again some of the support materials that we have for this transition to your a 2.0. And we have links on here to the training materials there's a number of materials there in terms of job aids demos for you to use. We also have the user manuals listed there. The large single user manual as well as a couple of more focused ones. And then we also have the page and materials for account support so that would be for. There'll be additional information there about logging in the system, your max dot gov account process, as well as account creation and updates. And with that, I think we turn it over Sam talk about our 1st of several upcoming sessions for to meet with users in office hours. Thank you, David. So, again, to reiterate a message that most of you should have received as area account holders from our service desk. We're going to host an open hour this this Friday afternoon to go over any issues concerns folks are having and trying to use the system. There's a lot going on in this change the authentication mechanism is a big change the the porting of the accounts over from the original system. Several thousand accounts on the roof may have resulted in some disconnects that we have to make sure are are working as expected. There's a lot of changes in the way the system works compared to the user interface in the original era system. There's a lot of training materials as David said. Most of the training materials are specific to the task you need to undertake the manual is the high level overview of everything in some detail. There's a lot to take in. And so we want to provide a venue where you can come in in an informal way, ask questions, raise concerns and we can address those. This 1st, go around to the office hours. We expect to focus heavily on account and authentication issues. That's what people's 1st encounter with the system is and where the issues that we've seen have come up. We're going to continue to hold these sessions and we'll communicate about more of these in the coming weeks and months. And as we move into the use of the system, the focus of this will change to become broader not only about account issues and authentication questions, but then the use of the system. How is the the new record schedule form here. What are the differences. What are the any questions you're having about that will have folks in the relevant program offices and are available for some of those sessions. Also getting the transfer requests when we do get the uploads will be able to handle questions about that in the near term, but just a place where you can come in ask us questions will will be there to take input that we need to get back to our help desk. Or better communication products that need to be developed to mitigate confusion that folks are having on aspects of the system. Basically, anything we can take from this discussion to make your use of the system better, get communication, some sort of fix or enhancement new procedures from the help desk. So that when you do have your data available in the system, you can, you can start successfully know where you are in your processes and accomplish the work that you need to do. So this will be the 1st, depending on how many folks join in and the feedback we receive will determine the frequency of how we'll do these going forward, but we're going to continue a series of these. As we move into the use of the system in earnest, particularly with the completion of the data migration in the coming weeks. The area help desk is always your best initial point of contact. I've taken emails from folks with questions and concerns this week. I'm happy to help those where I can and get those to the right technical staff. But after you've talked to the help desk, or if you just have questions that that you would like to talk to somebody about this, this is a session where we want to start together that input, clarify what we can. And again, do the best we can to get you ready to use the system. With that, that's our short update for now. We will be back. But in the meantime, we're happy to take questions. And we have a couple that have come in. Thank you, gentlemen. The 1st 1, how many era users are there. So the difference between active users and total users is somewhat vast in a given week. When we had an era base, we were somewhere between 150 to 200 users actually going into the system to perform work that could be NARA and agency users at the time. We expect to see similar numbers in the area 2.0 just based on the user base being roughly constant. The total number of users at any 1 time in the system as far as account holders is a great, great deal larger. We have somewhere between 700 800 active accounts and there are many more suspended accounts in the back end that we've, we've also reported over that can be reactivated when those folks make a request. So on the NARA side, the Erie 2.0 system will differ from Erie base because it is a substantially larger user base for Erie 2.0. So all told, we're probably. We'll have over 1000 active users and probably in a given week anywhere from from 2 to 400 users in various components of the system. We anticipate. And that'll probably grow over time as well. We've had a couple questions or discuss or. I'll read these 2, they're about browsers. The 1st one is there a specific internet browser that works best with Erie 2.0. I've been unable to access via the link on Edge and Chrome. The page doesn't seem to load. And following that up. You mentioned that Erie 2.0 will be compatible with Chrome and Edge. These are the most commonly used browsers, but during previous bridge meetings, it was stated that Erie 2.0. Would be browser agnostic. Why the change? So agnostic means a lot of things and right now we can test to Chrome and we can test to Edge. And so we want to make sure that we have this working in the best way possible. But what's a similar infrastructure from a browser perspective, the Chromium engine and Edge and Chrome being what they are. We want to make sure we cover. The largest mainstream use of browsers. That's that's going to be our, our. Our posture for for some time to we can enhance from there for those folks who are unable to. To access the system. First contact the help desk so we can open the ticket they are triaging in the various issues like David said that we're finding with the login, but. But any version of Chrome or Edge that's in use today should be supported. And if the connection is working in the accounts valid and the email address syncs up to what's in max.gov and you're in your agency infrastructure. All that's working your browser would be the least of your worries. But for now, we will be Chrome and an edge in part that was based on. Surveys we conducted several years ago through a CMO is asking. Agency folks, what are the browsers in use in their agencies? What are they moving away from what do they expect to have coming into the right to inventory. And Chrome and Edge were by far the dominant browsers. And we take on support for Safari or the browsers or something we'll be looking into to make sure we can. Keep the system as broadly usable as possible, but at this, at this time we're going to be Google Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. So here's another question that's come in with the upcoming sunsetting of max where will authentication move to so we can be prepared for that eventuality. So we have to do the preparations first and I'll let David speak to that, but we, you know, from the recent update we got from from our max.gov partners we have to the end of calendar year 2024. What we have to do in the meantime is ensure we can employ a different government wide appropriate authentication service and time to communicate that to you all. And then figure out the best mechanism for for either migrating or creating those new profiles, we can have no interruption in service as we move to authentication to a different authentication provider. We know we have to move. And David, if there's other parts of that that I didn't state. Well, the good news is that for all of us. We have more time. Just recently, we are expecting max.gov to cut off this authentication service by the end of calendar year 23 so we were staring at having to move to something else pretty quickly. But they just recently changed that to the end of calendar year 24 so we do have extra time. Now to choose a different authentication service and move to that we certainly been looking at login.gov as a possible service to move to but we'll have to, you know, evaluate that but again we do have to the end of calendar year 24, because of the change, which is not much time. So we'll be working on this later, just not the first critical thing to change, which is what our plan was going to have to be if we were stuck at the end of 23. We've gotten a couple questions around sort of in the training basket. Last time I used era was in 2021. Is there new training or requirements that must be met to use era 2.0. We didn't put a training requirement per se on the account approval and request process. The shift to the asynchronous online training modules and the great content Eddie Klein and his team have prepared and made available in archives.gov. As I said, sort of covers the game if there's very specific job cast support you can find with the content that they've made available. There are also some general system overviews that are available there. I encourage you to take advantage of that content. As soon as you can to get some familiarity with the system, it is substantially different than the original era, but we don't have that sort of requirement to access the system from the account perspective. Also, welcome back if it's been since 21, we missed you. That kind of leads into the next one where they're new videos or animation based training for era 2.0 users, which you kind of answered already so I'll drop a link in the YouTube chat in a moment to where folks can find that. And then there's been sort of a couple questions about era and CUI and FOIA so in the memo retransfer era transferring and CUI. Why did you include adding a FOIA exemption instead of sending out a separate member memo on FOIA requirements. CUI is a flag that the information contained in the document needs to be reviewed more closely, but the marking itself does not indicate this information can't be released under FOIA. So I'll just throw that out as a jump ball for for anybody. That's not a jump ball I can go for Arian. So, Arian, I'm willing to take a stab at it. I'll just say I'm not familiar with all the requirements surrounding CUI. However, I think the bottom line is that the accessioning this is in the TR the accessioning units just need to know as much as possible about the records they are accessioning in order to appropriately store them and or review them for release. So it's just another another data element that memo itself was sent out by the request of our accessioning unit since this indicating CUI is a new requirement on the TR so it's not something that you would have seen in the old system. So it was just a way of, you know, kind of providing some advance alert to that to hopefully that answers the question. Thank you Maggie for picking up the jump ball. And there's another question in the chat. What about the IV. So, I have cards and accessing the system. Yeah, I probably know that so that, you know, our, our adoption of piv cac as a technology is part of the whole shift to identity based authentication rather than account based which is the substantial change we've made from era to era 2.0. And our hope is, and we've been our information services internal organization has been rolling out piv access for internal applications. So this is just another of those applications is moving to identity based and with that. With that identity token that most federal employees having given that's the simplest way for us to enforce that sort of identity based authentication. David did I goof any of that was a history major. No, no, I think you outlined it. Gentlemen, we also have a thanks to you Maggie for jumping in in the chat. So thank you. With that stick around. I'll encourage folks to still drop questions in and we'll pick them up at the end of the meeting if there any. And I'd like to turn the program over to the director of records management policy and outreach Lisa here at Lampus to speak about digitization regs for permanent records. Lisa, you're up. And thank you, everybody for sticking through this very interesting content rich bridge meeting. I have one more piece of content to share with the community today. And it is a little bit more than a digitization status update. In the past, I've said the status update is we are working on review their internal review, they're going through review review review. And I wanted to share that they are out of review. So these standards digitization standards permanent records are out of review. They are in the final clearance process, and will soon be sent to the office of federal register, the office of the federal register. So we have one more step to take on this very, very long journey, one more step to actually work with OFR to get them up and published and out. Because we know the review is done. We're not expecting any more changes to the content. So my goal today is to provide you that status update, but also to give you a high level overview of what's going to be coming in the digitization standards. They're going to be issuing them. They are going to be contained in the code of federal regulations. For those of you who are regulations, familiar regulations experts. It's going to be in 36 CFR 1236. So that'll be our citation. They're going to have their own section their own sub part e covering digitization for temporary records. So we're going to talk about two terms, which is we're going to talk about how to create digitized records from source records through the stories of the development of these regulations. Those are the two terms that I want you to start thinking about and being familiar with. We have source records. We curate digitized records. So that said, let's go to the next slide and I'll start with my overview. I love that Sam joked a minute ago. I'm a history major, which is why my story is going to start with a little background, a little history. You come to the archives, you get a little history. I wanted to just use this as a reminder that the regulations we have been working on these and I know when I look at the story, I'm like, it's been 10 years. So starting when the Federal Records Act was amended back in 2014. We were given direction at that time to issue regulations with digitization standards for digitizing permanent records are actually digitizing records with an eye to disposal. So when you look at the current NARA strategic plan and the OMB NARA memos that talk about the transition to electronic records, I didn't come out of nowhere. We've been working on this for a decade or more trying to get to the point where we could issue regulations that cover the digitization of federal records so that we can dispose of the source and spend our efforts managing these digitized records. It was in the FRIM amendment. It was in our 2018 strategic plan. It was in the original 2019-21 memo and then the subsequent 23 memos. We know what we've been working towards for a long time. Back in our early days when we were coming up with our strategy and we were doing serious consideration of how we were going to issue these. We broke our world into two pieces. Digitization standards for temporary records and digitization standards for permanent records. The digitization standards for temporary records were issued four years ago in 2019. Now what we have been doing since once we finished that we started working on the permanent records actually working on the whole time. But after we got the 2019 temporary records started, we then focused on these digitization standards for permanent records. In December of 2020, we published on the Federal Register a draft. So for three years there's been out there on the Federal Register. This is what NARA has proposed. We took the agency comments. We took the public comments we received to get another draft. We actually ended up sending that draft out to agencies again. So there's been multiple iterations. And we are now at the step where we're planning to issue these regulations. I hope in just a few more weeks. So the next slide, please. I feel it's really important before I talk about permanent records to remind again that there is another set of regulations for temporary records that covers the bulk of what most agencies have to digitize. We wrote them at a very high level. There is an FAQ to explain them. And if you go to the next slide, it's an example of what I mean by high level. So when we wrote those standards for temporary records, things that are never coming to the National Archives, those digitized records and source records that are covered. And they spend their lives in the in the agency sphere. So when we had those high level we said here's the requirements. Here's the standards. Here's how you validate and here's how you dispose. So these standards or temporary records, they take up basically a page. You can read them all on one screen. This is going to be very different than what I'm about to preview for you. When it comes to digitizing permanent records, we are going to provide a lot more guidance. And those regulations get published, you will need to click through several screens to read them all. And in the next slide, I think about you've got here four parts. The next slide is going to show you all of the parts that are contained in permanent records digitization standards. So we're going to cover, as you can see a lot more detail, because it's necessary to provide this level of detail in order for us to be able to give you agencies. So the questions you need to digitize permanent records with the intention of sending NARA those digitized images. That's what's going to become part of the National Archives. The source records will eventually be deleted or destroyed, I should say, since our source record, they will be eventually destroyed according to an agency record schedule. This is coming. And as a preview to the preview, I'm going to go through and give you a slide of content on each one of these. I know it's not fair to talk about something you haven't seen for a while, but if you can work with me here to sort of understand this is what's coming. This is the content. I'm hoping it will make it easier for you to read those regulations when they get issued, because you'll have a little familiarity and know what to expect. So let's take a little walk on what's coming. The first thing I'd like to talk about on the next slide is the scope. So the first thing you're going to see when you read these regulations is what is in and what is out. At this time, we are writing these regulations and they are covering paper. It's the easiest way to think of it. I would put these to say this is going to cover the paper records and photographs that are printed on paper, right? So photographic prints and anything that's on paper. That could be a document, it could be a map, it could be a chart, something that's been printed, because that's how the scanning technology works. So we're going to place these paper regulations that are coming out first based on what type of scanning technique you're using. The reflective technique. That regulation will also talk a little bit more about what to do, like what's in, what's out, like what's going to be covered, but at the high level we're covering paper records. So we've not yet issued the digitization standards for film records. If the scanner, if the scanning technique is light will go through it instead of being reflected back if it's a transmissive technique. We're going to be working on issuing follow up technical standards for how to digitize film records. So what's coming out in the scope is digitization standards for permanent records that are on printed paper materials. The next slide that's coming that we have a section on records management. My takeaway is to say, don't start digitizing before you start, don't start before you start. We recognize that is really important to have full records management control over the records before you start to digitize. What do I mean full records management control. It's the best expressed way to talk about it, but to say, do you know that these are permanent records are temporary records what schedule covers them. Do you know if the records are complete is there a date gap in those records. There's things we have to know before we start scanning, so that at the end of the day we're not like well what happened to 2020 records. I'm going to take those in 2020 this. There was a skipped year. So the idea of knowing what intellectual control you have, what are the types of records you're going to be scanning. Do we know what paper what type of material they are. Are they on onion skin thermal facts are the prints very small are we looking at oversize. We know that intellectual control and know what we're scanning so that you can pick the proper digitization equipment start scoping the project properly. So we've asked for people to take a moment of stop. Don't start before you start and think about the records management implications before you start doing the digitization. So that's going to be coming after we've we've given you the scope and the records management piece. We have a documentation section in the rights, and that's on the next slide. So, here we are talk about and again I don't think anybody would be surprised that an agency like the National Archives and focus on records and management and administration included documentation very specifically in our regulations. Because once you've done the records management, once you know what this project's about, it's critical that there be documentation on how these records are planning to be created. It's what we would look for if we were doing an inspection. It's what you're going to need is your maintaining records over time. So we talk about what was the quality plan. What was your project plan. How are you going to know that you what the scope of this project is if you don't have good documentation requirements. In the 2020 version, we had documentation sprinkled throughout the regulations. One of the comments we got was this is hard to understand what you're asking for. So we have really reorganized our regulations to say, let's not make agencies read each section and find documentation. Let's pull it together in its own section so that you'll be able to find what's my scope, what were the records management requirements I needed to look at and how am I documenting this work. So once you've done the documentation piece and you're ready to really start doing our records management, we can now get ready to prepare starting to do the digitization. So on the next slide, we're going to talk and I'm going to give you a preview that there's an entire section on quality control. And again, this is just a high level preview with a couple of takeaways to show you what's going to be coming. I think the quality control portion of the digitization regulations is almost it's the one takeaway I'd like you to have today. If you don't remember everything else I said she said they were coming to that there's going to be a lot of parts, and she said quality control is extremely important. It's harder to fix mistakes than it is to prevent them. So we have an entire section here to explain the importance of doing quality management quality assurance quality control as part of the digitization process. You're when you read these you're going to understand the importance we play have placed on quality control so that we can say yes at the end of the day. But now wants is to have these beautiful digitized records that we're going to make part of the National Archives. We're not going to have the source records to go back and be like oh well that that page was cut in half only got half an image. Well that could be a digitization mistake or it could be there was only half a page to scan. Right so we need the quality we want the highest quality images we can get. And highest quality means highest quality managed right like we know that there are there shouldn't be mistakes. We've tested machines on a daily basis. We have given parameters for quality means. So with that high quality image, we're going to be able to serve researchers in the future around the world, giving them the given sharing with them our nation's history that literally has been created through the digitization process. I'm going to leave that that there's quality control is extraordinarily important, and I look forward to having future conversations about what is quality management mean. On the next slide, as you can kind of see we were walking the regs are now sort of focused linearly. So you've done you make your scope you've done your document records management documentation quality is in place. We're now going to start talking about what happens in this scanning process. So for example, when the output happens. We've got to preserve these digitized records as part of the National Archives. No surprise, we have very specific file format requirements, because we can't see every type of format that's out there. So on this slide you're seeing an advanced preview was actually the same thing we shared in the 2020 version with a few few updates on what type of file formats will be coming out. So we're going to give you more detailed guidance in the regulations to explain what kind of file formats do we need what you need to know that so you know what quality of checking. So we're going to have a whole section just on file formats. And we are also going to have a whole section on digitization requirements. So the next slide. Thank you Patty is 1236.50. I brought you through the story specifically this way. For me, the digitization requirements 50 is probably what most people expected to see when we talked about digitization requirements. It's kind of the meat of the sandwich, if you will. As we said before, that we based our technical digitization requirements on a couple of existing standards. The main standard that we used was Fadji, the federal agency digital guidelines initiative. And I worked really hard to remember that and every time I do I forget and I just short handed back to Fadji. So digitizing cultural heritage standards. And when you look at like what do we want. That's where we went to find digitization standards that we used. It was, for many reasons, the choice that NARA made to use those technical digitization standards to bring them in. But as you can tell with this preview. That's the part of it. We have all these other pieces that get involved in your digitizing permanent records. So from digitization to Fadji. We have also used some international organization for standardization ISO standards. Specifically, we've used ISO standards related to photography and ISO standards related to information and documentation. Those will be cited you'll see them. When the regulations come out we explain what authorities we used and what standards we incorporated by reference. So we use Fadji and ISO work in these standards to give you even a little bit more of an idea of what you're going to be looking at when you see the section 50 and digitization requirements. And then a story I tell when we've been working on digitization records for the past 10 years, that people would come up and say are you still going to have the 300 DPI standard. When I hear people ask about 300 DPI, I can answer the question. Yeah, no, yeah, it's PPI not DPI and it's still 300, but that's asking probably the wrong question. The question you want to know is, how is digital digital digital science and digital imaging science evolved over the past decades. And where are we now. So this section you'll find things like yep, it's 300 PPI for paper 400 PPI for photographic prints, they have a higher quality than most black and white modern office paper. You can also find things like NARA's requirements for grayscale or color versus bitonal of black or white, but you're just going to find in these the section, the technical requirements that relate to imaging science. So that's this piece in here you'll be able to go find what you're looking for there about the technical parameters. In the next slide we have a section in the reg 52 that's dedicated to mixed media in layman's terms. This is when you've done the digitizing and you've done your scope and your records management and you're like yeah, unfortunately, or fortunately, there is media in the box. So it is very common to when you're doing digitizing and say here's my paper run, but I've also found some other media in that box like a CD, a disk, a drive, maybe you'll be digitizing records and be able to show some young person Oh look this is an actual floppy disk you've heard about those in history. And so when you find that you're digitizing records and we know this is a common situation, we put in the regulations yes. You have to figure out what was on that media you have to find a way to open it and figure out is that information in there to supplement the records, or was it there's somebody made a copy of this information. If you want to take information that's born digital on that media drive. How can you incorporate that into the output that's going to come out of these digitized records, we need to have a complete set of information. So we have a section on regulations that will address. What do I do when there's a mixed media file and a high level I just gave you the answer, figure out what's in it, how it relates and make it part of that digitize imaging series. So in addition to mixed media, the next section that's going to come again we sort of change that you, you walk through the story we've done the scope the records management the documentation knew what we needed had the contract in place we've done the quality. We know what format we're outputting we know what to do we find something in the box. Now we go talk about metadata. We're going to have an entire section. Number 54, just on metadata, we're hoping to make it easy for you to find what metadata do I have to associate with digitized records. There's going to be three areas of metadata administrative technical and descriptive. The way I look at this metadata is in the past, we were archivists or records managers or somebody looking at a box of records, we could come through. We could find what we were looking for the files had file numbers they were organized by date, we knew what was in the box by just being able to view really quickly what we're looking at can do that in a digital environment. We need that metadata to be able to come through the electronic versions to be able to say, well, what was the technical metadata related to this what, what did we scan how do we scan it need descriptive information what was the date what's the numbers. How is it related to the other materials in this box, and we also need some administrative metadata as well that talks about what is being scanned. So you're going to have a section on metadata and I'm sure you'll have a lot of information to share and to be able to find out what is it that Nora is looking for. The last step of the process that we're going to have specific digitization regulations for is validation validation is crucial validation is what the entire concept hangs on. As I said in the beginning back in 2014, we were given direction to create digitization standards with an eye to disposal. You cannot dispose of the source records without going through the validation step. It's just, it's just that crucial piece. Validation is a little different than quality management. When I think of it as like the Venn diagram validation covers everything, and you're even validating that you did quality management you're validating that quality assurance happen. The validation process is going to be saying throughout the project at the end of the project, you know that you have validated that what you digitize with what you were supposed to digitize. The images are legible, they're readable, they're accessible that you have that documentation, we did the records management piece. So you're sort of validating all of it together. And that validation will be the crucial step that says yes now that I validated these regulations I have validated my digitized records towards all the components in these regulations. I am going to be able to transfer these permanent records to Nora, and I'm going to be able to use a record schedule to destroy the source records. And we'll do that piece until the validations completed. So that is why the regulations were closed with that validation as the last step on the next. So I've given you all a high level overview of what's coming. I just wanted to start doing this briefing this awareness of what I hope you will see in the next several weeks when the regulations are produced. I want you to know this is going to be a lot more information is going to be coming. We've received a lot of questions through the agency review process, the public process about what's coming. The regulations are requirements based as regulations should be the regulations explain these are the technical parameters. These are the quality assurance parameters. These are things you need to do. They are not the regulations are not about implementation. So I want you to know that we are going to be doing a lot of communication coming up to both explain what these records with these regulations that mean what they are. You'll be seeing we're going to have in depth webinars, blog posts communications to explain what's happening. We also intend to provide a lot of guidance related to best practices quality guides sort of to talk about well how can I implement these. There's regulations apply to all records and all digitization projects. We know there are agencies that have digitization centers that were digitizing hundreds of thousands of paper, and we know there are agencies that have 20 boxes. So how do we apply the same set of standards to all different types of digitization projects. We expect to be working on this implementation guidance best practices guidance and guides for months and months and years and years to come. Actually, we know we're going to be issuing our regulations, and that is now the start of the digitization work that we'll need to do to help you implement these regulations. So, Arian, I think I took this maybe got 15 minutes left for questions. And I have two of my colleagues with me today to help answer some of those questions. So, I'll back over to you to help us answer questions and conclude for today. Thank you Lisa we do of course have a few questions. I'll just start reading. Is this just for permanent records are all records. So I think you kind of. I learned that I need to start my presentations. I get so excited to talk about these digitization regulations. I have to remind myself, we are this slide that I just took you through this story of all these parts are for permanent records. Those things are coming to the National Archives, we already issued those standards in 2019. So I've had people ask, ah, but can I use the permanent standards for temporary records. Well, of course you can you can use them any way you want. We're not recommending that agencies say, oh, I'm just going to digitize everything to these permanent standards, because they're written for a very specific situation. So yes, these ones I'm talking about for permanent records, they might help inform what you want to do with temporary records, but the temporary records are separate. And the temporary records were the ones that came out in 2019. And when the slides are posted on our website, you'll find the links there there and you can go get done to the existing 36 CFR 1236. So part D, D is in dog for the temporary, it'll be E as an electronic for the permanent. So here's one of the kind of what can agencies do that are already well into large scale digitization projects. Many agencies did ahead of the original M 1921 December 22 2022 deadline without these digitization standards. The US government, all agencies, those of us in this those of us in this community federal records management, we've been digitizing records for decades. This is not new. So I'm going to say that we've been working on this question inside the house inside our to come up and provide guidance to agencies that will answer the questions are actually writing an FAQ frequently asked questions. What am I going to do with the records that I've previously digitized. It is not reasonable to assume that records digitization done in the past is going to meet every part of every standard specifically, you may have done quality management, but it might not have been every day may have done digitization, you know parameters but like yeah we use black and white not gray scale. Questions about like well how do I do scope how do I make sure my metadata is appropriate. We're going to answer those questions in a separate FAQ. I'm just going to put a place where I'm not going to try to answer that today. That is going to need a ton of time. So I'm afraid many of my questions and answers here and be like, hold on. We're coming. We know you've asked that question we're going to try to answer it. Again, stay tuned for more information. This is on a tangent to that have all the exception notices been approved. If so, where the agencies notified how do I, if not, how do they go about finding out. Right. So we said in our and the OMB memos that came out agencies need to transition to digital records. These digitization standards for digitizing permanent records are part of that. But OMB NARA memos we also said to the fullest extent possible. And if you cannot meet these targets, you can request an exception. Lawrence Brewer has talked at several bridge meetings about the exception process. So we do have several agencies that have put through and have approved exception requests, where they were saying well okay, can I continue to send you the source records past that due date. So I would, I think the answer to the question is we do have exception requests that cover some things like this. Most exception requests have been in a bigger picture level where like I want to continue operating my record center. We don't have I think it's many digitization exception requests specifically related to digitization. It's more. So if you continue to send records to the records centers, right because you send source records, you send your original records to the federal records centers, they do not have to be digitized. NARA is going to take permanent records in the records centers directly. So there's exceptions or can I have more than just 18 months to transfer my records. So we don't have as many exceptions specifically saying I'm not going to digitize. I'm pretty mature since we had an issue of those right. So the exceptions are, let me keep sending records to you for this certain timeframe. Let me put my records in the records centers to where I won't be digitizing them. Did I cover that one, Ari? Yes, I think so. And if there's any questions about a digitization or not a digitization, excuse me, about an exception request just reach out to RM standards at NARA that go for for follow up. It's a 14 that's been managing the exceptions process for us. Does NARA require, does NARA require that agencies use scanners and or scanning systems applications that have the ability to capture the actual creation date versus the actual scan date. Great question. I think our technical requirements. This is where I have two colleagues online. I hope we'll help me. We definitely need the correct date. The date of the record is usually the date the records created. The date that the record is scanned. I cannot remember if that piece of metadata is in the technical metadata. And you know, that's fine. This is a high level briefing. I'm going to have to answer that question at our next session. So please. Or I see Kevin has hopped on to pick it up. Thank you. Okay. Yes. Yes, we do require a very minimal set of metadata elements that describe the original, the source record so that a researcher in the future will be able to tell that this was a record that was digitized from a piece of paper or printed photograph. So we have a metadata element to record the date that the record became a federal record. And then there will also be the metadata indicating when it was digitized. And while you're here, Kevin, will there be a specific tool we will need to use, we will need to use, we federal agencies need to use to generate check funds. We do not specify a tool. We do have in the records management section of the regulation, the requirement that agencies ensure that records are free from unauthorized alteration destruction or deletion and comply with 36 CFR 1236 10 and 20. And they may choose to use check sums to meet those requirements. And if they do, we require that they use shot 256 as a hash algorithm, or they may perform file integrity monitoring or file comparison audits. Okay, I did want to go back. Andrea, are you still here? There was one that came in after you spoke on the records management assessment piece. Thanks. Thank you. Question arise on whether any of the six agencies had a wife to destroy info on a PA on a pet PED if the PED was lost or stolen. Yeah, so all agencies had the ability to remotely wipe lost or stolen government furnished devices. And some agencies that had approved use of personally owned devices had the capability to wipe the container used to segregate business activities from personal ones, or disable the remote access functionality when a personal device was lost or stolen. Thank you. No problem. Lisa, you're back. Is there a projected date for the final clearance completion or at least a goal date. So eight weeks not months. As I said, we're, we're through the review. So we just need to now get through the federal register process is complex regulation. I'm sure they'll have questions about formatting tables along those lines, but we expect it to be issued in weeks. So eight weeks, two months. No bets. In the same time I've said something so why do I keep giving answers to this. In the standards doesn't address section 508 compliance for scan text. Oh, that's great. So in the scope section. We talk about these standards are to digitize permanent records to send to the National Archives. There are many other requirements that apply to the management of federal records and information section 508 is one of those examples. So what we did in the scope is say, when you create federal records, these standards are NARA's. There are another sets of requirements related to section 508. So we do not tell agencies, oh, here's your 508 standard. That's not NARA's purview. The way that I look at it and my colleagues who spend a lot of time thinking about this issue is if we can get the highest quality permanent image of our these permanent records. NARA will be able to then run OCR will be able to make sure the image is good enough that assistive technologies will be able to help people understand and read and and become aware of the content of those records. From a theoretical perspective, highest quality images will help NARA meet its own 508 requirements. We make those records available to agencies. As the agencies are creating records and they're still in your legal control and custody you're using to do your business. You also need to think about 508 from your own business perspective. But we didn't make a requirement in the scope that says do this for 508. We just didn't have that. We wouldn't do that NARA and we didn't have we just said we sort of vaguely say you got to comply with all other got to comply with national security requirements. You know, those are separate. You need to be able to comply with a couple of their type of records as well. I have a question about the gap between issuing them 1921 and the digit and these digitization regs and I think we kind of discuss that when you talked about the large scale efforts that we're already underway so I think we've kind of handled that. I know we're running very short on time. Will NARA provide an example of a template of what a good digitization plan looks like. Um, I can tell you right off the top of my head. I'm not working on that right now, but that's a great question. We are going to have training materials. We're going to have like handouts job aids. We're going to do what we can to make this information available. That's a great suggestion. And we'll start working on that. I'm also hopeful that through our other communities, the FRON community, the federal records mountain management community will be able to come up with examples that can be shared. You know, if we ever would say like this is an ideal plan versus this is an actual plan that works something along those lines. Thank you for that suggestion. Um, there's a question. Is there a published list somewhere that tells us the minimum metadata requirements for electronic records? Is this list all inclusive if one exists? We issued metadata guidance in 2015 in a NARA bulletin 2015 oh four. That was the list of minimum metadata requirements. Or describing records. We know there's technical metadata requirements. Like if you think about email, you look at the email format, we say things like, well, here's the email plan that we need. So the sort of answer to the question is no, there's no one stop shop where you can go find every piece of metadata that has to apply to every electronic record that was ever created. I couldn't answer that question if I hadn't thought myself, I would love to see that page. So when we issue the metadata on the digitization regs, we're going to revoke 2015 oh four because regulations are Trump NARA bulletins. And we're going to try to create some web pages where we'll start pulling together as a resource. Here's where you can go to find different types of metadata. Put that in a way to be able to consume. So we're going to be working on that a single resource, a list of that pull that NARA produces to say we've called and pulled together for you. All metadata related to all electronic records ever created, but we're going to start with a digitization meta data first because that's what we're focused on there. There's a question about will the digitization regs be posted soon after so contracting companies could update their service descriptions to correspond with the new regulations and I'll put on my Fermi hat and say this is an area that we're working on through the Fermi project to make sure that as the new as the new regulations are promulgated. They are captured in our universal ERM requirements and then moving forward the vendors that self certify against our uni universal ERM requirements will be the vendor pool. So there's a lot more to come and as Lisa said there'll be a lot more communications from our office about these regulations. There was a general question about the slides again I'll point out the slides are always available on the archives.gov bridge page you can download these slides will be posted shortly after today's meeting along with a transcript. I believe that's everything. I wasn't saying just on the digitization regs. I'm wearing my party clothes today, because I just feel like celebrating that we are so close to being able to issue this landmark guidance we've been working on for 10 years. Don't worry about contractors not knowing when those regs go live on the federal register. We are going to shout it from the mountain top so we will communicate it very widely for all of our channels that they are ready they're available I expect vendors contractors GSA. Everybody's going to know that they're finally out. And again we'll be communicating widely and more detail. As we celebrate. And Lawrence. Welcome back, Ari and thank you and Lisa thanks for that enthusiastic plug for our regs that are about to be issued. So we did use every available minute to us today and a little bit more than that and we do have a lot of questions which we are going to track and follow up so please join us on June 13 to come back and hear more on these and other topics. I'm sure there will be a lot to talk about when we get to June so please mark that on your calendars and we will see you in June. Thank you all for attending and thank you are in for facilitating. Thank you, Lawrence.