Digital Longevity: Policies on Electronic Records in the Netherlands

In an attempt to solve the current and future problems in electronic recordkeeping the Dutch government, namely the Minister of the Interior, and the Minister of Culture, established a nation wide program: Digital Longevity (Digitale Duurzaamheid). The program is run by a bureau, staffed by consultants from the ministry of the Interior, the National Archives, and a province. By various means the bureau creates awareness at the political and senior management levels, develops policies for electronic recordkeeping, and supports implementation. The program contributes to the developing of theories in the area, supports research, and cooperates in education and training. Via pilot projects the consultants keep in touch with record creating organizations. As an opus magnum the program works on a generic design of a recordkeeping system, including a structured definition of recordkeeping functional requirements.     

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.     

Records Management Research Sponsored by the US Army and the Department of Defense

This paper is a synopsis of results achieved in addressing research questions and issues in the management of electronic records. The formulation of records management theory within the context of set theory is briefly described. Steps toward establishing functional requirements for electronic recordkeeping are summarized. The use of software prototyping to develop software techniques for classifying, profiling, and records disposition is described. New research issues and approaches to their resolution are proposed. The methods used in this research suggest the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing issues in the management of electronic records.     

Crunch time: the revised ISO 15489 and the future of recordkeeping

The revised International Standard ISO 15489:2016 Part 1: Principles and Concepts establishes a framework and a set of techniques with which today’s recordkeeping professionals can implement appropriate and digital-ready strategies for recordkeeping. Moving away from conventions that remained tied to the paper world, the Standard establishes a set of principles to guide any approach, regardless of technologies and formats, and explains the fundamentally important work of appraisal. It also describes the essential elements of controls for records, to assist with access, retention and more. In this reflection, the author describes the genesis of the revised standard and argues that, unless recordkeeping professionals embrace the contingent and fluid nature of their work, and adhere to principles such as those described in the Standard, they will not produce solutions to accountability, access and memory challenges that meet the needs of the connected world.     

Recordkeeping issues arising from the public hearings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was set up in January 2013 to investigate child sexual abuse in institutional contexts and to focus its recommendations on addressing systemic issues. Recordkeeping issues are at the core of the problems that institutions face when dealing with child sexual abuse although the Royal Commission did not address them systematically in 2013–14. The present article analyses the recordkeeping issues that arose in the public hearings held by the Royal Commission up to October 2014. It shows that recordkeeping issues that appeared in different contexts provide evidence of critical failures in the recordkeeping systems of the institutions under study. It then highlights three implications for professional practice: the need for the professional associations to step up and advocate for a hearing on recordkeeping issues, the importance of putting in place appropriate systems to preserve the records of the Royal Commission, and the need to raise awareness about the complexity of the recordkeeping issues in the institutions that deal with out-of-home care and to develop recordkeeping systems that better meet the needs of the children in care and that support the prevention, detection, reporting and prosecution of child abuse.     

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.     

Australian Approaches to Policy Development and Resulting Research Issues

This paper is in two parts. The first outlines the context in which the Archives Authority of New South Wales (State Archives) is implementing electronic recordkeeping as part of a recordkeeping regime across the New South Wales public sector. The second part is an attempt to identify what I feel are unresolved issues, which may be resolved by practical or pure research, and as they relate to electronic recordkeeping, that we are facing in implementing the regime.     

Recordkeeping in local government in norway 1950–2000

In the Skandinavian countries local government agencies provide a big part of the puclic services and have a great impact on society. They are seldom considered in archival research. This paper discusses the practises of municipal recordkeeping in Norway 1950–2000, focusing on how the administrative, legal and technological factors may have affected the content and structures of the archives.     

What are these among so many? Pre and post Vatican II recordkeeping

Contemporary Church recordkeeping has been an area all too often ignored by historians and archivists. There were two significant events in the last 140 years that defined the types of records created and maintained within the Church namely: Vatican I and Vatican II. After the suspension of Vatican I and the promulgation of Pastor Aeternus, we begin to see a centralization in ecclesiastical governance structures, due in part to interpretations of papal primacy. This centralization of Church authority eventually impinged upon the recordkeeping processes of dioceses. However after Vatican II the pendulum shifted with the promulgation of the Decree Concerning the Pastoral Office of the Bishop and the re-introduction of the tenet of collegiality. The promulgation of this document and others caused a de-centralization of Church recordkeeping practices. Using the Archdiocese of Vancouver as a case study this paper will attempt to show recordkeeping changes that occurred after Vatican I and Vatican II and the impact these councils had on archdiocesan administration.     

Recordkeeping professionals’ understanding of and justification for functional classification: Finnish public sector organizational context

Today functional classification is the predominant approach to records organization. It is, however, apparent that the functional approach to records classification often involves methodological and conceptual confusion as well as usability issues. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how recordkeeping professionals perceive functional classification, what are the purposes the classification serves and how they justify this method in Finnish public sector organizations. The article presents the results of the study in which 22 recordkeeping professionals in three Finnish public sector organizations were interviewed. The data were analyzed with qualitative methods. The results show the integration of the functional approach in Finnish recordkeeping practices and records management tools. The results also describe various purposes served by functional classification in organizations. They illustrate various justifications for this method and the recordkeeping professionals’ lack of methodological alternatives.     

The German registry: The evolution of a recordkeeping model

The German registry system is unique in its approach to records management. By way of better understanding this approach, the historical development of this registry is portrayed in its characteristic phases: first the adoption of the practice of using registers in the Middle Ages; second the transposition of this practice into a complete recordkeeping system in the Prussian administrations of the 18th and 19th centuries; third the attempt to streamline this system in the early 20th century; and fourth the nature of the registry in modern German administrations, and in particular how it has adapted to the use of electronic records. Apart from the historical presentation, however, this study also aims to highlight central concepts of the German registry, including entries, action files, and the idea of registry itself being applied to the entire activity of keeping records. Finally, it is suggested that these concepts can provide new insights into various areas of archives as well as into current recordkeeping problems. This article is a completely revised version of the thesis which I submitted in 1997 (under the title “The German Registratur”) for the Master of Archival Studies degree at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of British Columbia. My thanks to Angelika Menne-Haritz and Wendy Duff for their comments during the writing of this revision.     

Recordkeeping research tools in a multi-disciplinary context for cross-jurisdictional health records systems

An Australian Research Council project, Electronic Health Records: Achieving an Effective and Ethical Legal and Recordkeeping Framework, brought together experts in recordkeeping, privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, torts, medical law and ethics to address concerns with a major networked Australian health record initiative. The research required developing innovative research tools and understandings, which provides an exemplar for methodologies to address multiple-disciplinary concerns and priorities that set a precedent for future inter-disciplinary collaborative projects concerned with the analysis and design of such systems. This article provides an analysis of the research design, methods, tools and findings of the project which operated within a records continuum framework.

Increasing the acceptance of functional requirements for electronic evidence

This article reports on a research study that tested the effect of statements of “ literary warrant ” on lawyers, auditors and information specialists’ evaluations of a set of functional requirements for electronic evidence. It found that legal statements can increase the rating of importance of some of the functional requirements. Its results also provided evidence that differences in subjects professional backgrounds and their computer knowledge can affect the ratings of importance the subjects gave to the functional requirements. This study was completed as part of the requirements for the author’s doctoral program. It has benefited immensely from the insightful comments received from members of her doctoral Committee: Richard Cox, Margaret Hedstrom, Edie Rasmussen, and Steven Hirtle. David Bearman first purposed the concept of “ literary warrant ”, and this study has also profited greatly from his wise advice.     

数据治理：大数据时代档案管理的新视角和新职能

数据治理是数据管理的核心职能。在多部门协同治理数据问题的大数据时代,档案部门应从全局、资产、融入、生态等视角出发,有效利用数据治理的机制、方法和工具,积极参与高层次数据管理活动,尤其关注数据治理格局中多主体协同关系的建立。建议国家档案局增补为促进大数据发展部际联席会议成员单位,并主导建立高层次电子档案治理协作组;基层档案部门以机构内容管理为职责定位;档案行业成为内容管理系统研发和实施的支撑行业。     

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.