How can we capture what is important? A Case Study on the Appraisal of Government Emails in Austrian Public Archives

Although recent national research has drawn attention to the critical function of
emails in Austrian administration, Austrian public archives have not approached email archiving yet. This paper aims to provide the Austrian archival community a starting point for the implementation of email archiving by investigating the process of capture, as basis for successful digital archiving. By using the Upper Austrian State Archive as a case study and employing a qualitative approach, it examines and evaluates current practice in the appraisal and selection of governmental emails in order to identify conceptual characteristics specific to an Austrian context and reflect on practical issues that must be considered across the life cycle of Austrian governmental emails.