Long term protection / archiving and accessing of electronic records in institutions and organizations in Turkey

In this study on long-term preservation / archiving and access of electronic records, the purpose is identification of problems experienced in this regard in institutions and organizations in Turkey and to solve the problems. In order to determine the problems, ten of the institutions and organizations of our country have been selected and twenty participants who are working in the institutions and organizations have been asked fifteen questions through interview technique. The data obtained were interpreted, results were obtained and solutions were proposed. At the end of the study, it is determined that there is no electronic archiving software which is mostly needed for the archiving of electronic records and working as integrated part with the electronic records management system. This situation is generally due to the lack of adequate legislation in our country, the use of the system only for correspondence, the fact that managers do not give enough importance to electronic records management and electronic archiving. On the other hand, institutions and organizations are obliged to develop institutional policies that guarantee the permanency of the electronic records by eliminating the factors that would endanger the authenticity and integrity of the electronic records. However, it is observed that there is no written policy and standard in our country, it was seen that risk plans were mostly developed and these plans were only aimed at backing up the materials produced in digital media generally. Therefore, it is concluded that in our country institutions do not take necessary measures for long term protection of electronic records. Another issue that investigated in the study is access to electronic records. The data obtained indicate that it is very easy to access a requested records within the electronic records management system. It is understood that access problems are mostly based on the reasons arising from the personnel.