Collection search - [Email System] [textual record (electronic), graphic material (electronic)]

Record information – Brief
1
[Email System] [textual record (electronic), graphic material (electronic)]

Hierarchical level:

Sub-series

Date:

2006-2015.

Reference:

R16093-61677-8-E

Type of material:

Textual material, Art

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

5636501

Context of this record:

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Stephen J. Harper fonds

Office of the Prime Minister - [Shared correspondence management systems]

[Email System]
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Record information – Details

Sub-series includes:

129 lower level description(s)
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Date(s):

2006-2015.

Place of creation:

Canada

Extent:

43,032 digital textual records.
7,605 digital pictures : photographs, memes, editorial cartoons, advertisements, drawings.

Language of material:

English

Added language of material:

English, French

Scope and content:

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This sub-series consists of records documenting and originating from the Prime Minister's Email System. The Email System consists of an exported database comprising of 118 XML files, 1 XSD file, and 10 folders for the "attachment" files. The XML files document approximately 807,474 email chains. There are over 50,000 "attachments" associated with the database. While they are called "attachments" in the system, they consist of a mix of email enclosures and attachments as well as administrative records relating to the management of the incoming emails.

The management of email attachments and enclosures evolved over time and this has impacted the types of records contained in this sub-series. From 2006 to 2010, the attachment folders predominantly contain scanned documentation related to the management of incoming email correspondence that was transferred to a Minister's office for action/information. From 2011 to 2015, true email attachments are mixed with administrative files, but the links between the email database system entries and the attachment folders are not always clear. As a result, many of these are missing contextual information that links it back to the email system and vice versa, and there is significant duplication of some attachments.

The Email System existed outside of the WebCIMS System (Web Correspondence and Issues Management), which tracked all correspondence. However, important emails (ex. VIPs) were also tracked in WebCIMS. Similarly, emailed invitations were also tracked in the Invitations System.

While the large majority of the emails received came from across Canada, the system also contains emails from abroad. Correspondents include citizens, public servants (personal and official requests), representatives from corporations or foreign governments, and non-Canadians, among others.

Many of the attachments are born digital or scanned correspondence. Researchers will also find various versions of official photographs of the Prime Minister and his ministers as well as unofficial photographs taken by citizens and sent to the Prime Minister for keeping. Social media was emerging during his time in office and as such, many attachments also contain political commentary in the form of cartoons and memes.

Additional information:

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Physical description note:

Digital records received in the following file format(s): PDF, JPEG, DOC, DOCX, TIFF, RTF, PNG, TXT, XLS, XLSX, XML, HTM, HTML, ZIP, BMP, DOTX, DOCM, XPS, GIF, OFT, ODT, WPS, DCM, JP2, OLE2, HWP, ICS, MIME, VML, iWorks, and XSD (17.81 GB).

Custodial history:

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Government of Canada (GoC) servers held the Email System prior to donation. The PM's Email System was used by the Office of the Privy Council (PCO) and the Office of the Prime Minister (PMO) to facilitate the handling of the Prime Minister's email.

Correspondents contacted the Prime Minister via his pm@pm.gc.ca and Stephen.Harper@parl.gc.ca email accounts as well as through the "Contact Us" online web form on the Prime Minister of Canada official website (pm.gc.ca).

Prior to transfer, the Email System would receive all inbox correspondence in EML format (a standard email format) and convert it into XML (a human and machine-readable format). The XML data was then fed into an SQL server that hosted the Email System. The Email System was a relational database with an interface that allowed its various users to track or manage electronic correspondence. The contents of email chains or exchanges were often saved as a standalone entry that was filed, tagged, and triaged for PCO response or referred to PMO or other departments. Once the information was in the database, the original incoming email was deleted from Outlook and the database entry captured the exchanges and the actions related to an email or set of related emails.

While PCO and PMO both used the Email System, the exported database and related attachments provide PMO's view of the database. PMO had access to both sides of the system.

LAC received system data from the Email System and related email "attachments". The system data was extracted into 118 flattened XML files at the time of transfer. This means the inter-relational data was extracted into a one-dimensional format. LAC received an accompanying XSD file that provides a style sheet or schema to interpret the XML content (once database fields).

Concerning the "attachment" records, these digitized and born-digital records were received in their original formats. While they are called attachments in the system, they consist of a mix of email enclosures/attachments as well as administrative records relating to the management of the incoming emails. Researchers should know there are gaps in attachment to email relationships in the email system and there is evidence of data loss prior to transfer to LAC.

The volume of emails sent to the Prime Minister increased exponentially every year he was in office, making a traditional email management software such as Microsoft Outlook Exchange, unmanageable. The Prime Minister received approximately 1.6 million emails just in 2012.

Arrangement note:

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Archivists have retained the original order of the Prime Minister's Email System to ensure that emails in the XML files can be connected to their related "attachments". These are a combination of email attachments and administrative files.

The Email System followed the Webcims file classification more loosely, for instance the folder hierarchy is based on year, month, and day. It does, however, follow Webcims' workflow for assignment and triage of the emails.

Each XML file, representing one month per year, is described at the file-level. Each attachment folder, representing one year, is described at the file-level. The XSD file, representing the XML schema, is described at the file-level.

The Email System had two different record-keeping processes in place. From 2006 to 2010, email attachments were not kept at source. In 2011, the system suffered a data loss for the first half of the year. From 2011 to 2015, all documents, whether they had a connection to a specific email entry in the system were kept in the attachment folders.

Researchers should note that the archival team retained only attachment records that directly addressed the Prime Minister or his government. Junk email attachments were not retained by the archival team nor were excessive duplicates within a file folder. The email system's database files (XMLs) were kept in their entirety.

Source:

Private
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Conditions of access:

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Textual records: electronic

[Consultation99 Closed pending processing]

Electronic container [R16093] R16093-61677-8

[Consultation 99 Closed pending processing]

Graphic (art): electronic

[Consultation99 Closed pending processing]

Electronic container [R16093] R16093-61677-8

[Consultation 99 Closed pending processing]

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Date modified:: 2024-07-24