Management and preservation of e-mail messages

E-mail is presently, by far, the most widely used form of written communication. In all business, government and private activities, a crucial share of relevant information is exchanged through e-mail messages. The need for keeping and preserving e-mail has therefore become more and more evident. In this paper we outline the main issues connected to e-mail records management and preservation. This is no trivial task, since e-mail messages are a very peculiar kind of digital document, with a rather complex structure, and because of the need to take into account, to some extent, also the infrastructure through which they are delivered (i.e., the Internet). Therefore, we briefly discuss the e-mail infrastructure, the transmission protocols and the message format, an essential step to correctly understand some of the problems connected to e-mail management. We also analyze the message capture process, the problems related to message metadata extraction, and the preservation formats, which must ensure that the content, the structure and the appearance of the message are preserved, allowing future users to access the information in the message in its original documentary form. Finally, we address the issues related to long-term maintenance and permanent preservation.