––– Evaluation of the Swiss Federal Archives
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Federal Department of Home Affairs EDI Swiss Federal Archives SFA ––– Evaluation of the Swiss Federal Archives Peer Review Reference: 031.21-Audit-BAR Date: January 18, 2010 Authors: Michel Grenier, Ineke Deserno, Sarah Tyacke ––– Table of Content Foreword 1 Executive Summary 3 The Panel’s recommendations 3 1 Mandate of the Evaluation Panel 7 2 Evaluation Methodology 7 3 Archiving in Switzerland: The role of the Swiss Federal Archives 9 3.1 Background to the constitution of the Confederation................................................................9 3.2 SFA’s legal mandate and mission.............................................................................................9 3.3 Archiving in Switzerland and its archival community ................................................................9 4 Paper and Electronic records: the SFA and the departments 10 4.1 Importance of records management within the federal administration...................................10 4.2 Records management services to federal departments and offices.......................................11 4.3 The Gever project for document management and workflow.................................................11 4.4 Responsibility for records management and archiving within the federal departments .........13 4.5 Records appraisal, selection and transfer ..............................................................................14 4.5.1 The transfer of records and storage capacity in and for the SFA .......................................................... 14 4.5.2 Storage of digital records ...................................................................................................................... 14 4.5.3 Prospective Appraisal .......................................................................................................................... 14 4.5.4 File-plans and appraisal in GEVER and normalisation from 2011 ........................................................ 15 4.6 Digital archiving and ARELDA ................................................................................................16 4.6.1 Ingest and access by the SFA ............................................................................................................. 16 5 Reference Services onsite and online 17 6 Professional training and education 18 7 Relationships with other organisations in the historical and cultural fields 18 7.1 Cantonal archives ...................................................................................................................18 7.2 Verein Schweizerischer Archivarinnen und Archivare (VSA) .................................................19 7.3 Federal Office of Culture (BAK) ..............................................................................................19 7.4 National Library.......................................................................................................................20 7.5 Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) ...............................................20 7.6 Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Geschichte (SGG) ..............................................................21 7.7 Collaboration...........................................................................................................................21 8 Strengths and Weaknesses 21 8.1 Strengths.................................................................................................................................21 8.2 Weaknesses............................................................................................................................22 9 Next Strategic Plan 22 Appendices 24 Appendix A: Terms of References .........................................................................................................24 Appendix B: Members of the International Panel...................................................................................27 Appendix C: Publications, documents and presentations provided to the Evaluation Panel.................28 Appendix D: Program September 2009 .................................................................................................33 Appendix E: List of Interviewees and visits ............................................................................................34 Appendix F: Organisation chart..............................................................................................................36 ––– Foreword C’est avec enthousiasme que j’ai accepté cette opportunité de voir les entrailles d’une institution qui traverse des défis auxquels nous, les membres du Panel, sommes confrontés ces dernières années, de façon théorique ou pratique! La distance avec nos préoccupations quotidiennes ainsi que la dé- couverte de l’institution des Archives fédérales suisse, des mécanismes politiques et administratifs dans lesquels ils opèrent ont été un défi intéressant. Somme toute notre rapport constitue une indication claire et réaliste des étapes que l’administration suisse pourrait poursuivre afin d’améliorer rapidement et efficacement la gestion de dossiers et l’archivage: enjeux de tous les gouvernements d’aujourd’hui mais aussi une nécessité d’organiser le patrimoine pour les générations futures. Améliorer toutes les facettes des activités des archives per- met d’offrir un soutien dynamique à la démocratie de chaque pays. La Suisse est un terreau de la démocratie et elle doit rapidement mettre les efforts pour réussir à harnacher le legs documentaire de son administration fédérale ainsi que de toutes ses archives. Michel Grenier Directeur général, Ressources humaines et innovation organisationnelle, Bibliothèque et Archives Canada 1/41 2/41 ––– Executive Summary An international Evaluation Panel (‘The Panel’) conducted a peer review of the Swiss Federal Archives (SFA) in September 2009. Its mandate was to support further development of the SFA and contribute to its archival and records management policies. The specific objectives of the peer review were to assess: The SFA’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to its mission Its role as the guardian of federal recorded heritage and current records management The opportunities open to and challenges facing the SFA in relation to its various stakeholders The SFA’s understanding of its leading role within the federal archival system and related to archives of a private nature The Panel found that in many areas that the SFA had fulfilled its mission very well. In terms of legisla- tion, for example, the Archival Act (1998) was clear as to the SFA’s role and that of the Federal gov- ernment and its offices, although it seems that not all its provisions are actually being carried out. Thus the Panel is making no recommendations in respect of the legislation itself. Where there is any other legal requirement which impinges on the SFA’s functions this is noted in the appropriate section. The Panel concentrated on those areas which, in its view, are most critical at this time to the SFA’s future success, namely the consequences of the digital revolution in records management and archiving and in online access for researchers and the citizens of Switzerland as a whole. ––– The Panel’s recommendations (1) Recommendation: The SFA should offer single window service to each federal department The SFA’s reality is complex and includes a variety of interactions with federal bodies concerning cur- rent and future processes for records management and archiving. This includes among other things: advice and guidelines; appraisal and transfer to the archives; introduction of a new appraisal policy and assistance with the implementation and management of the GEschäftsVERwaltung (GEVER) projects and the ingest of digital records into ARELDA1. The federal bodies need to have an excellent understanding of the SFA’s role in records management, the records and archives policies and proc- esses, and work and projects undertaken by the SFA for the benefit of the federal administration itself. At the same time the SFA needs to be up-to-date with developments within the federal administration with regard to the management of the records. To facilitate the communication between the SFA and the federal bodies, it is recommended to establish a system of “single window service”. A single window service at the SFA would offer maximum clarity and coherence in the treatment of records from their creation to their archiving or destruction. Offices have nu- merous issues with records management, especially in the context of introducing electronic records man- agement policies and systems, the transfer of large amount of paper records in preparation for the new digital systems and the electronic transfer of documents for archiving. The SFA has the expertise to answer and guide the offices. A single interlocutor at the SFA would provide more user oriented support to offices, and would prevent departments keeping documents beyond their useful business purpose. For the SFA a single window service would be more efficient and would certainly help to encourage the offices that have not respected the Archival Act regarding the transfer of their records to SFA. 1 ARELDA is a trusted and secure electronic repository and system developed and managed by the SFA that ensures the long- term preservation of digital records, ARELDA stands for Archiving Electronic Data and Records. 3/41 (2) Recommendation: Each federal department and/or office should have one person responsi- ble for records management and archiving The