Interview with Marie-Laurence Dubois, information management expert

A portrait of Marie-Laurence Dubois, information-governanceexpert, devoted to preserving and passing on archives and objects.

Founderof Valorescence, a company specialising in information governance andmanagerial archiving, Marie-Laurence Dubois has practised this profession formore than twenty-five years. After a career within several institutions —including a bank, the Council of State and various ministerial cabinets — shecreated and ran a private archive centre in Namur for ten years. Since 2015,through Valorescence, she has put her expertise at the service of organisationswishing to improve their information governance, their knowledge sharing andthe archiving of their data. In parallel, she chaired the Federation ofInformation Managers and Archivists (Aksoni) from 2015 to 2021, and works as aguest lecturer at several colleges, where she teaches the challenges of informationgovernance and the environmental impact of digital technology.

Could you introduce yourself and explain what your profession involves, ormore broadly your day-to-day mission?

As a consultant in informationgovernance and archiving, I support SMEs, non-profits, and all kinds of publicor private organisations in structuring and restructuring their data, documentsand objects. My aim is always the same: to ensure their preservation over thelong term. It’s this time perspective that no doubt sets my approach apart: Ialways ask myself about our ability, a hundred years from now, to still read,consult or use the information we produce today, whatever its medium — paper ordigital. My connection to objects comes first through the one I have witharchives. By definition, an archive is any data or any information, whateverits medium, date or form, produced or received by any individual or legalentity in the course of their activities. As such, I have developed a very varied knowledge of the different typesof objects and media.

If you had to take justone object with you, what would it be? And why?

Difficult question! Withouthesitation, I’d say a photo album, with pictures of the people dear to me. But not only that: I’d also take thedocuments proving ownership of my belongings, so that I could demonstrate, onmy return, what legitimately belongs to me.

How have you managed your valuables and their documentation so far?

As they often say, the cobbler’s children arethe worst shod! On a personal level, I haven’t yet taken the time todocument my own objects. It’s a goal I’ve set myself, all the more so since Irecently had to clear out my parents’ house. I retrieved objects steeped in history there, which didn’t belong to medirectly but were part of the family heritage. So I know that one day I’ll takethe time to inventory and document them, if only to pass them on to the nextgeneration. But for now, that project remains to be done on a personallevel. Professionally, however, it’s quite the opposite: I document constantly.I sort, organise and classify archives and produce structured inventories. Theaim is not only to put things in order, but to allow my clients — or anyoneinterested in these archive collections — to access the documents easily and toenhance their heritage, whether documentary or material. The first step istherefore always to produce a clear inventory, based on categories of objectsor items, according to standards that make understanding, exchange andvaluation easier.

What is the greatchallenge for an archivist like you?

A good information system shouldn’t be a singletool that does everything, but rather a set of tools able to work together. Indigital archiving environments, we now talk about modular architectures, madeup of several specialised building blocks, able to communicate and complementeach other, each with its own function. The main asset of any databaseor business application is interoperability — an essential quality for any ITdevelopment today. It must be able to exchange data securely with other tools,via web services, without having to develop everything yourself. The digitalarchiving tool, for example, must be able to store information properly andensure its accessibility by interacting with websites or other applicationsthat showcase this content. In the case of the Access collective, there is agenuine valorisation platform, a bit like a reservoir of information. Thisreservoir must be able to communicate in an interoperable way, in compliancewith standards such as the OAIS standard, today a European and internationalreference. But beyond interoperability, what is essential in my view is beingable to retrieve and transfer your data at any time. In a long-term logic,that’s a crucial guarantee. That’s why I pay particular attention to it inevery set of specifications I write. A tool can be interoperable without allowingyou to extract your data in a clean, usable format afterwards and over the longterm. Yet not all software on the market guarantees this. And it’s afundamental criterion for ensuring the durability and reuse of information overtime. The history of computing is full of examples of vanished media: floppydisks, CDs… which today are only good for playing frisbee, unless you’ve keptan old reader! Even some applications, like iTunes, disappeared overnight,leaving users without access to their own music. These losses are a reminder ofhow much the durability of the digital remains a challenge.

“What is essential in my view is being able to retrieve andtransfer your data at any time.”

Is an object’s value financial or emotional? Do you have an example?

For me, the value of an archive— and of an object by extension — depends above all on its identification. Anarchive without a date, without an author, without a context of creation losesall its value. You can sometimes interpret the content of an untitled document,but without precise indications of provenance, it becomes difficult toattribute a reliable meaning to it. The first step is therefore to situate an archive in time and in itscontext: knowing who produced it, when and why. That’s what gives it itsintrinsic value, before any other form of value — financial, emotional orsymbolic. We should also remember that an archive serves its producer first. Itmakes it possible to justify an action, retrace a process, prove a piece ofwork. In the case of a creator, it attests to the authorship of a work. Onlyafterwards does it take on a historical or heritage value. A concrete example:that of an aircraft engine. Its lifespan can be guaranteed for up to fiftyyears. If an accident occurs forty-five years later, the manufacturer must beable to prove that the engine is not at fault. This requires having kept allthe technical sheets, procedures and quality controls. Without thisdocumentation, it’s impossible to justify yourself after the fact. In short, todocument is to anticipate proof. That’s what gives information value over thelong term.

Do you have a striking anecdote linked to a recent climate disaster?

Yes. I remember very well beingcalled on a Friday evening, in the middle of the Vesdre floods, during thedisaster in Belgium. It was a well-known Belgian film director. I was asked:“What can we do?” Unfortunately, there wasn’t much left to do. The water, muddyand laden with oil because of the ruptured fuel-oil tanks, had contaminatedeverything. His archives were stored in a garage on the banks of the Meuse. Theground floor had been submerged, and the file server seriously damaged. True,the final versions of his films are at the Cinematek, but all the raw material— rushes, documentation, testimonies from his work — was lost.

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“To document is to anticipate proof. That’s what givesinformation value over the long term.”

Part of history lost forever.This example shows how it can sometimes be better to entrust your archives to apublic or private archive centre, where they will be kept in good conditions.You don’t lose ownership: deposit agreements exist to guarantee the depositor’srights. You thus benefit from a secure and professional environment. Losingarchives means losing not only the ability to have proof to assert your rightsor your work, but also losing a little of your memory. The archivist is thereto prevent these losses and to ensure that the small stories can feed the greatHistory of our societies.

What advice would you give for managing wealth and valuables?

Above all, you have to protectyour objects from their worst enemies: cold, damp and dust. These are the maincauses of deterioration. The priority is therefore to watch over theconservation conditions. Then, it’s worth sorting and inventorying our objectsor archives in order to keep traces of their existence and make theiridentification easier. Only after this step should you think aboutdigitisation, which is generally an act of valorisation and, in some cases, ofpreservation (if the object or archive has suffered physical damage…).

You tested Objectory — what do you think?

I find the tool very intuitive,which is already an excellent point. It is perfectly suited to anyone wishingto start inventorying what they own — whether personal objects, valuable goodsor collections. Two main audiences come to mind:

•      collectors, who want to document and structure theirheritage;

•      creators or artists, in all disciplines, who wish tocatalogue their works and keep a record of them.

The tool is an excellent basisfor a clear, structured inventory. My only reservation concerns the securityand durability of the data: it’s essential to know where it is stored, how itis secured, and whether it can be exported easily. This full export feature iscrucial to guarantee its reuse over time. It is also desirable for theapplication to factor in environmental impact from its design through to itsuse and sustainable long-term maintenance. For example, I would avoid addingvery high-resolution photos or videos — a light image is often enough for thelong term and considerably reduces storage. Finally, if the metadata is wellcalibrated according to existing standards, Objectory could serve as a firstrecord, before a transfer to more specialised databases — for example anarchive centre, an insurer or an auction house.

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