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4 Electronic Records Format
An electronic records format must be able to support:
- Long life. Records must have an indefinite life. That is, the contents of a record must be capable of being viewed forever. This has three aspects:
- Preservation. The records must be in a form that can be physically preserved (for example easily copied from one media to another without loss of quality).
- Accessibility. It is useless to save records unless they can be found again.
- Readability. Records must be able to be viewed as the creators and users originally saw them.
- Comprehensibility. Records must be able to be understood in their context.
- Evidence. Electronic records must be admissible as evidence and given due weight in a court of law. This requires the ability to prove that a record has not been altered in an unauthorised or undocumented fashion since creation, and to demonstrate who created the record and when it was created.
- Disposal. It must be possible to dispose of records (that is, evaluate and determine the record's status) and, where authorised, subsequently transfer or destroy records in a controlled manner.
- Modification. It must be possible to be able to modify a record without disturbing the evidentiary integrity of the record.
The VERS long-term format (detailed in PROS 97/007 Specification 3: VERS Standard Electronic Record Format) is able to support all these functions.
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