文件连续体理论的借鉴与反思

本文针对当前热议的新型文件运动理论——文件连续体理论进行了力求客观的剖析,指出这一理论确有值得我们借鉴之处,如连续管理思想、对文件运动的认知、文件保管体系的构建和设计、文件管理跨部门间的合作、对利用者的服务概念、文件形成和维护中背景信息的获取、文件连续体概念、注重文件运动、文件管理与业务活动的互动和文件运动多维研究方法等,但同时认为这一理论也可能存在若干问题,例如:能取代文件生命周期理论、文件运动阶段性对文件管理没有影响、纸质文件运动过程是线性的而电子文件运动过程是非线性的等9个方面,所以,我们对这一理论不可盲从。     

弗兰克·阿普沃德档案学术思想述评北大核心CSSCI

阿普沃德因提出著名的文件连续体理论而闻名国际档案界。结构化理论和后现代主义被认为是文件连续体理论的两个重要哲学理论基础,文件连续体理论因此具有结构化理论的时空特征,同时也体现出明显的后现代主义批判色彩。文件管理信息学是在连续体思想基础上的创新发展。阿普沃德的档案学术思想体现了理论与实践的深度交融,研究呈现出继承性与时代性,思想成果融合了集体智慧,但也存在核心理论框架和术语较为抽象晦涩、文件管理信息学的推广意义不足等问题。     

源于两种不同认识基础的理论--文件生命周期理论与文件连续体理论比较研究之一

文件生命周期理论与文件连续体理论实践基础的差异性 ,十分明显。而两种理论的认识论基础的差异 ,却是值得探讨的问题。本文认为 ,文件生命周期理论的认识基础源于实用主义哲学观点和谢伦伯格的文件管理思想 ;而文件连续体理论的认识基础则是澳大利亚对档案学的思考、后保管主义思想和吉登斯的结构化理论。     

当代电子文件管理理论综述

电子文件的大量出现，不仅对档案管理理论造成了很大的冲击，更重要的在于促使管理理念的更新，管理视角的转变。笔者对最近十余年出现的电子文件管理理论(思想)：文件连续体理论、后保管模式、文件管理流程重组理论、前端控制理论及全程管理思想进行简要介绍。     

电子文件管理理论整合思想透析

为丰富电子文件管理理论体系,指导电子文件管理整合实践,本文试图结合管理整合的思想挖掘电子文件管理理论中所透射出的整合缩影.包括电子文件管理集成论与后保管模式思想体现的电子文件管理整合理念的形成;文件连续体理论、业务流程重组理论体现的电子文件管理过程的整合;电子文件管理顶层设计思想与国家战略体现的电子文件管理架构的整合.     

试论电子文件管理的"前端控制"与"全程管理"原则

“全程管理”和“前端控制”是信息时代电子文件管理的重要原则,是以何嘉荪、傅荣校等为代表的学者在“文件连续体理论”研究中提出来的新概念,对电子文件管理工作具有非常重要的意义,同时也对传统的档案信息管理理论提出了新的挑战。传统档案管理的“文件生命周期”理论认为,从现行文件到历史档案是一个完整的生命过程,文件管理与档案管理的关系,是同一管理对象的前后两个不同阶段。即在文件生命周期(从文件产生、办理、归档、保管利用、到鉴定销毁全过程)中,以“归档”为分割界限将文件生命周期划分为前后的两个阶段。前段属于“文件管理…     

文件连续体理论核心术语解析—— 兼论我国档案学语境下的误读

20世纪90年代,以弗兰克·阿普沃德为代表的澳大利亚连续体理论者吸收安东尼·吉登斯的结构化理论思想,正式提出多维、动态、宏观的文件连续体理论,这使得从实践中总结出的连续体方法进一步升华为具有时空结构的概念模型。它已经超出了官方文档管理实践的范围,高度概括了人类社会中的一切records管理行为。因此,文件连续体模型中文件保管形式轴上对应四个维度的坐标(Archival)document、Record(s)、Archive和Archives也被赋予了与管理实践不同的概念内涵。本文在正确理解这四个核心术语的基础上,指出我国档案界仅从档案管理实践角度理解文件连续体理论是十分片面的,偏离了其核心思想,是对文件连续体理论的误读。具体而言,这种误读体现在对“连续体”概念、文件连续体理论、文件生命周期理论和文件运动规律的关系理解等方面。     

电子政务与电子档案管理的关系

电子政务无论从广义上还是狭义上理解，都离不开对电子文件的管理。而当代文件管理所依据的一个重要理论就是文件连续体理论。它起源于20世纪80年代，是继传统的文件生命周期理论之后，又一被国际档案界所广泛接收的文件管理理论。该理论认为：文件演化为档案的过程是一个连续的过程，即从文件创建(包括创建之前的文件管理系统的设计)到作为档案保管和利用是一个一致的、连续的管理过程。     

对档案文件连续体理论的理解

随着电子文件管理研究的加深,档案文件连续体理论越来越受到档案界的重视。作为一种日趋成熟的文件管理思想而言,它的出现必然影响到文件生命周期理论。对于这两种文件管理理论的关系,国内外学者论点不一,存在着很大的争议。因而,比较研究两种理论,对于我们在电子文件管理时代探究档案学发展的趋势,具有重要的意义。一、档案文件连续体理论的内涵20世纪80年代源起于澳大利亚的档案文件连续体理论,是在文件生命周期理论之后提出的一个新的文件理论。这个理论是后现代社会学家安东尼·吉登斯结构化理论与档案学相关理论结合的产物。吉登斯认为…     

当代电子文件管理理论综观与思考

电子文件的大量出现,不仅对档案管理理论造成了很大的冲击,更重要的在于促使管理理念更新和管理视角转变。本文试对近十余年来出现的电子文件管理理论(文件连续体理论、后保管模式、文件管理流程重组理论、前端控制理论及全程管理理论)作简要介绍,并阐述自己的几点思考。     

People,records and power: what archives can learn from WikiLeaks 1

The 2012 International Council on Archives congress theme of ‘Trust. Archives Supporting Good Governance and Accountability’ invited exploration of the nexus between recordkeeping and holding powerful people and organisations to account. By comparing the formation, management and use of a set of records under currently accepted frameworks for recordkeeping in Australia with the formation, management and use of the WikiLeaks Cablegate archive, we can examine how effectively archives and recordkeeping professionals today are meeting their stated goal of upholding accountability, while ensuring the creation of an inclusive societal memory. By analysing these two cases from the point of view of recordkeeping activities supporting appraisal, access, use, trust and authenticity, it is then possible to draw conclusions about lessons that recordkeepers should be learning from WikiLeaks and the changing nature of information generally, if we are to remain relevant and useful as a profession.     

Definitions of Electronic Records, the European Perspective

For the definition of electronic records, the use of new terms, like literary warrant, is not necessary, and for the European perspective even not understandable. If this expression simply means best practice and professional culture in recordkeeping, we only to know what creators did for centuries and still do today and probably will do also in the future, by referring to the archival science, diplomatics and archival practice for clarifying definitions in the recordkeeping environment. A multi-disciplinary approach is still required for the electronic recordkeeping system as it was in the past for traditional records, but the theory and the terminology should be consistent and based on the deep understanding of essential characteristics of records and essential requirements of good recordkeeping to produce in the first place and maintain reliable and authentic records. Of course, a record is more than recorded information created in the course of business activity: a record is the recorded representation of an act produced in a specific form – the form prescribed by the legal system – by a creator in the course of its activity.     

Specimens as records: scientific practice and recordkeeping in natural history research

For the past two decades, scholars in archival science have begun to question traditional assumptions about the nature of the record. Drawing on theories from fields such as sociology, organization theory, and science studies, and on their own ethnographic studies, they propose more inclusive definitions and widening the contexts of analysis of record making and recordkeeping. This paper continues this critical consideration of the concept of record by examining the nature of nonprototypical records in the scientific world. The paper focuses on the system of specimens and field notes established by biologist Joseph Grinnell at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (University of California, Berkeley) as a means of examining several aspects of the nature of the scientific record: materiality, representation, and the triad evidence/memory/accountability. Focusing on the creation and management of these scientific records, the paper argues that further analyses of scientific record making and recordkeeping are bound to benefit both scientific work, which depends more and more on databases and archives, as well as archival science, which is becoming more relevant beyond its traditional realm of the legal/business/administrative world.     

Continuous classification: capturing dynamic relationships among information resources

Records classification within electronic records management systems often is constrained by rules derived from paper-era recordkeeping, particularly the rule that one record can have only one file code??a rule that was developed to enable the management of records in aggregate. This paper calls for a transformation of recordkeeping and archival practice through an expanded definition of records classification and through item-level management of electronic records.     

Placing records continuum theory and practice

This article provides an overview of evolving Australian records continuum theory and the records continuum model, which is interpreted as both a metaphor and a new world-view, representing a paradigm shift in Kuhn's sense. It is based on a distillation of research findings drawn from discourse, literary warrant and historical analysis, as well as case studies, participant observation and reflection. The article traces the emergence in Australia in the 1990s of a community of practice which has taken continuum rather than life cycle based perspectives, and adopted postcustodial approaches to recordkeeping and archiving. It “places” the evolution of records continuum theory and practice in Australia in the context of a larger international discourse that was reconceptualizing traditional theory, and “reinventing” records and archives practice.     

Making the case for recordkeeping literacy: a narrative approach

The role of recordkeeping in our personal and professional lives is rarely perceived as a topic of mainstream interest outside the world of professional records managers and archivists. While corporate records management has been written about throughout the recordkeeping literature, there has traditionally been less focus on what McKemmish describes as the role of ‘personal recordkeeping cultures’. Yet personal recordkeeping can play a role in creating a sense of belonging, especially for children and families. For example, within the field of Australian early childhood education, one of the key policy documents replicates a similar theme with the aptly titled ‘Early Years Learning Framework – Belonging, Being & Becoming’. By reflecting on her own personal recordkeeping story and that of her family, the author aims to explore the purpose of recordkeeping awareness and the role this plays in the wider profession. This article will draw upon relevant recordkeeping theory as well as some key early childhood education literature to introduce how ‘recordkeeping awareness’ could be reconceptualised as ‘recordkeeping literacy’. She will also explore what impact a reconceptualised understanding of continuum-based ‘recordkeeping literacy’ may have upon evolving recordkeeping theory and practice.     

Placing records continuum theory and practice

This article provides an overview of evolving Australian records continuum theory and the records continuum model, which is interpreted as both a metaphor and a new world-view, representing a paradigm shift in Kuhn's sense. It is based on a distillation of research findings drawn from discourse, literary warrant and historical analysis, as well as case studies, participant observation and reflection. The article traces the emergence in Australia in the 1990s of a community of practice which has taken continuum rather than life cycle based perspectives, and adopted postcustodial approaches to recordkeeping and archiving. It “places” the evolution of records continuum theory and practice in Australia in the context of a larger international discourse that was reconceptualizing traditional theory, and “reinventing” records and archives practice.     

Documentary genre and digital recordkeeping: red herring or a way forward?

The purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary assessment of the utility of the genre concept for digital recordkeeping. The exponential growth in the volume of records created since the 1940s has been a key motivator for the development of strategies that do not involve the review or processing of individual documents or files. Automation now allows processes at a level of granularity that is rarely, if at all, possible in the case of manual processes, without loss of cognisance of context. For this reason, it is timely to revisit concepts that may have been disregarded because of a perceived limited effectiveness in contributing anything to theory or practice. In this paper, the genre concept and its employability in the management of current and archival digital records are considered, as a form of social contextualisation of a document and as an attractive entry point of granularity at which to implement automation of appraisal processes. Particular attention is paid to the structurational view of genre and its connections with recordkeeping theory.     

Recordkeeping in the Production of Scientific Knowledge: An Ethnographic Study

Recent scholarship in archival studies has employed “non-traditional” modes of analysis to theorize the nature of the record and recordkeeping in organizational contexts. In that tradition, this paper discusses the author's use of ethnographic methodology to study recordkeeping in one academic research laboratory. The paper explores how ethnography contributes to our understanding of the laboratory as a recordkeeping organization and the intersections of scientific practice and the kinds of records scientists create and use. The paper calls for more analysis of recordkeeping as an information infrastructure and inquiry into the nature of the record in other kinds of knowledge production environments.