Developing and Installing an Integrated Archiving System -

Some Suggestions

Think about what is great and not so great about your current archiving systems - what you need to carry over into a new system, what you can live without, what needs changing. If you have never had an electronic archive (text or photo - or neither) look at others’ systems and talk to as many of your colleagues as possible about their systems.

Study others’ criteria for a system (eg. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s detailed list available at the News Division web site) and customize for your situation.

Set a tight, but workable timetable to allow for development, loading of backfile, training and PR before you go live - and then double (or triple) the actual time it will take to implement.

Ask the cost of any add-ons to the system, such as filters to get your text from your front-end system to the archive. And make sure that the vendor can supply these filters.

If you have a current text system, make sure you know in what format your existing text (and/or graphics) archive is and how you will extract, convert (if necessary), store and upload it into the new system. The system vendor should handle the bulk of this, but will probably ask that the text be delivered to him in ASCII format.

Do not underestimate the size of your database. Buy more storage than you think you’ll ever need, because you’ll need it all and then some.

Make sure before you choose a vendor that the people responsible for the software design and implementation will be available to you. Then keep in communication with them as you try out the system. If this is an off-the-shelf product, test-drive it in a real environment and solicit reviews from actual users. And make sure that you can ask for and get changes that are important to the functionality of the archive.

Specify levels of access and make sure that you can customize access via password and identification of specific types of data. (For example, we have a wire database that is for in-house use only and we need to tag that data so that our outside clients can’t get at it.)

Work very closely with your systems people to make sure that the new archive will be compatible with existing network and other production systems. Make sure that the vendor and the systems person responsible for the installation and maintenance of the new archive are on a first-name basis.

Work closely with the people who will use the archive and make sure that their needs are considered (this is especially necessary for a photo archive that will also be used as a production tool). Don’t forget your web producers and the database vendors that you sell your text archive to. You will need to make sure that everyone is going to be able to adapt to the changes before you flip the switch.

Try to overcome any major objections to change through intensive public relations BEFORE the new system goes live. Emphasize the positives (easier to use, cleaner interface, quicker response time, etc.) but be open to criticisms and prepare to tweak the new system if serious objections arise to a fixable feature.

Kick the tires all along the way. As soon as you get some backfile into the new database, get a sample search interface up as quickly as possible and run it through its paces. You’ll only find the flaws if you really use it. You might also solicit test users from the newsroom to give you feedback.

 

Linda Henderson
Providence Journal-Bulletin
lhenders@projo.com
June 10, 1998


1998 News Divison Program
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