Today, much of the information we create is born digital. Because most organizations keep digital information long term for various, business-critical reasons, they need to integrate digital preservation into their information governance (IG) strategies to make sure that information is protected and accessible into the future, or they risk not having that information available when it is needed.
In this look inside The Governance of Long-Term Digital Information: An IGI 2016 Benchmark, we explore how many organizations keep digital information long term and their reasons for doing so. The data are from quantitative, survey-based research conducted by the IGI in Spring 2016.
As part of our survey, we asked practitioners whether or not their organizations had digital records and information they keep or need to keep in excess of 10 years. As the infographic shows, an overwhelming majority of respondents (98 percent) reported that they do.
What are the digital records and information that organizations keep? We asked practitioners to tell us the reasons why they are keeping digital records and information for more than 10 years and to select all that applied. As the infographic shows, most organizations are keeping them for a range of important reasons (e.g., six of the responses were selected by over half of respondents). “Statutory, Regulatory, and/or Legal Obligations” led the way as the most common response (89 percent). This is consistent with other research by the IGI that shows reducing or responding to outside risks are common drivers of organizations’ IG policies. Indeed, these may be drivers behind a number of the options practitioners selected, here, for why their organizations keep digital records and information long term.
But a number of the reasons organizations say they are keeping digital records and information long term may have another side to them—regardless of whether organizations have to keep them, those digital information assets are likely to be important to the day-to-day functioning of the organization, too. “Human Resources/Personnel Requirements,” “Contracts,” “Corporate or Institutional Governance” were each selected by more than half of respondents and “Business Operations” by more than 40 percent, for example.
Regardless of the reason, digital assets should be considered business-critical, warranting formal steps to ensure that they are findable, readable, usable, and trustworthy long into the future. To do that requires a commitment to providing long-term protection and access as an inherent and critical part of an overall IG program.
Get your copy of The Governance of Long-Term Digital Information: An IGI 2016 Benchmark.
IGI Supporter, Preservica, has enabled us to make the full Benchmark available for immediate download at no cost.
There are two ways to get the Benchmark:
- Download from Preservica.
- Existing IGI Community Members can find it in the Community here. Not a member, yet? Join today.
Join us for an online event with Preservica to discuss the key findings of the Benchmark on June 8th, 2016 at 11:00 AM EST, 4:00 PM UK. Register today.
The post Is Your Long-Term Digital Information at Risk?–Take a Look Inside the IGI’s New Benchmark To Learn Why It Is and What You Can Do To Protect It appeared first on Information Governance Initiative.