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.     

Beyond “green buildings:” exploring the effects of Jevons’ Paradox on the sustainability of archival practices

The sustainability of archival institutions will be greatly affected by attempts to mitigate their carbon footprint to meet the challenges of global climate change. This paper explores how recordkeeping practices may enhance or undermine the sustainability of archives. To enhance sustainability, it is a common practice to increase the efficiency of recordkeeping practices. However, increases to efficiency may lead to a phenomenon known as Jevons’ Paradox. Jevons’ Paradox occurs when improvements in efficiency to a system or process result in an increase in use (instead of a decrease) of a resource. The failure of the paperless office demonstrates Jevons’ Paradox, and it has wide implications for the future sustainability of repositories. This paper advances the notion that “green” technologies alone are not enough to ensure sustainability. They must be deployed in concert with a systematic use of archival practices and theories for environmental sustainability to be ensured.     

一种新范式：文件连续体理论的发展及应用

针对目前学界存在的对文件连续体理论的一些误读,本文系统梳理和阐释了文件连续体理论的核心概念、产生背景、主要内容及其应用,指出文件连续体理论是在澳大利亚基于证据和连续体的文件管理思想、文件系列体系思想的基础上,借鉴后保管主义及结构化理论建构的后现代主义文件保管的新范式。它强调文件并非是中立物,文件的运动具有时空延伸性。该理论的终极诉求是建立一个自下而上的、可靠的文件保存体系,以完整保存集体记忆,促进社会民主发展。要实现这一诉求,文件的保存就需多方主体的参与和合作。文件连续体理论为文件管理提供了重要的理论框架,对建构完整的社会记忆具有重要的指导价值,同时也为对传统档案学的核心概念及理论进行批判性反思提供新的视角和工具。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Muniments and monuments: the dawn of archives as cultural patrimony

Around 1800 the “paradigm of patrimony” recognized archives as cultural and national patrimony. That paradigm was, however, not a new revolutionary invention. It had been fostered by a “patrimony consciousness” which had developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The value of archives as a patrimony to future generations was acknowledged first in the private sphere by families and then by cities—communities of memory becoming communities of archives.

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.

Investigating Information Culture: A Comparative Case Study Research Design and Methods

This paper reports on the research design and methods used to investigate the interactions of organisational culture, defined as encompassing layers of national, occupational and corporate culture, with information and its management. A central focus of the study was recordkeeping in organisations. Consideration is given to the key concepts involved, and the two theoretical frameworks which were used as analytical tools in the study are outlined— the information continuum model and Hofstede's dimensions of national culture. Use of a case study methodology, analysis of the data collected and comparative analysis of findings are all discussed.     

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.     

Moving past: probing the agency and affect of recordkeeping in individual and community lives in post-conflict Croatia

Reporting on ongoing research, this paper reviews stories, drawn from recent literature as well as gathered through ethnographic research, that people tell about records and recordkeeping during and since the Yugoslav Wars. It focuses on what these stories reveal of the agency and affect of recordkeeping in individual and community lives, particularly in Croatia. The paper concludes with a contemplation of what might be learned from such an approach for the development of recordkeeping infrastructures that can anticipate, avert or alleviate some of the ways in which records and recordkeeping continue to traumatize or target the vulnerable, and frustrate and prevent the human and societal need to “move forward,” if not “move past.”     

Meztizaje and remembering in Afro-Mexican communities of the Costa Chica: implications for archival education in Mexico

This paper summarizes some of the major themes of a larger study that used Afro-Mexicans of the Costa Chica as a case study to understand archival education in Mexico. This study seeks to provide insight on how absences of Mexicans of African descent from the official record and recordkeeping came into being in Mexico; to examine the role that education of archival professionals might play in addressing or contributing to these absences; and to produce recommendations for remedying this under-documentation—at least in part—through changes to what is currently taught in formal archival education at the university level.     

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.     

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.     

The development of recordkeeping systems in the British Empire and Commonwealth, 1870s–1960s

¹ 1. Use of the term ‘recordkeeping’ should not be taken as an endorsement of the Records Continuum as elaborated by Frank Upward and his collaborators. View all notesThis essay demonstrates that initiatives in the imperial periphery, not least in Western Australia, played a significant role in the development of recordkeeping systems in the British Empire and Commonwealth. Local circumstances, including the adequacy of local revenues and the availability of skilled staff, played their part in shaping the systems. Nonetheless, there are overarching patterns. The need to maintain security provided a potent driver for the creation of confidential registries. The need to carry out basic functions influenced the design of recordkeeping systems far more than any shared ‘imperial imaginary’. The diverging work patterns of colonial capitals and of district administrations tended to produce distinct recordkeeping systems. The development of integrated registry systems may have played a part in the development of the Secretariat as an institution of colonial government.     

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.     

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.     

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.