An educative intervention: assisting in the self-assessment of archival practice in 12 community service organisations

There is a need for systemic improvement in the management of care records in Australia. This has been highlighted by government inquiries, media coverage and research literature relating to the significance of records for those who experience out-of-home care. The Who Am I? project – an interdisciplinary collaboration between historians, social workers and archivists – sought to address this concern and support positive change in 12 participating community service organisations (CSOs) in Victoria. To provide a framework for practice improvement, research archivists on the Who Am I? team designed the Self-Assessment Tool for Archives. Based on an action research methodology and influenced by the Records Continuum, this was an ‘educative intervention’ for the CSOs, as well as the participating archivists.     

On Digitisation as a Preservation Measure

ABSTRACT

While access and engagement are usually the primary objectives of digitisation projects, they often also claim to benefit the long-term preservation of collection items due to reducing handling, one of the main risks to archival and library collections, making this a persuasive additional argument to invest in digitising a collection. Conservation intervention prior to digitisation, if done, is kept to minimum repair, cleaning and flattening of documents in order to achieve high-quality images, facilitate safe handling and ensure efficient workflow. Such preservation improvements may be negated by continued access to the physical records after digitisation has occurred. There is also a risk of damage during the digitisation process, especially for very fragile items, for which digitisation may nonetheless be the only way to provide future access. This paper assesses archival document request data before and after digitisation, and online access options, for a selection of digitisation projects from The National Archives, UK, in order to review of the effectiveness of a number of digitisation programmes in reducing demand for handling of originals. It identifies procedural improvements post-digitisation that would further reduce access to original documents.     

Principles for archival information services in the public domain

In 2010, in response to the Australian Government’s November 2009 apology to Forgotten Australians and former child migrants, a scoping study was undertaken by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) to assess the options for a national ‘Find and Connect’ service to allow people to locate and access relevant records and have recourse to support services. The scoping study noted that Pathways, a web-based public knowledge space and a product of the Victorian ‘Who Am I?’ research project, was a community-based information resource without equal in the out-of-home care sector in Australia or indeed internationally. The scoping team made the observation that Pathways, due to its quality of content and coherent structure, appeared to be based on a set of principles and wondered what they were. In response the research team set about articulating the principles that underpinned their approach to archival documentation and the use of digital technologies – principles that had emerged through more than two decades of public domain, archive-focussed projects. This paper presents those ten principles and discusses them within the context of Pathways and the ‘Who Am I?’ project. The principles played a key role in FaCHSIA adopting Pathways as the model for the national Find and Connect database and web resource, launched on 15 November 2011. The principles underpin community knowledge building in the fourth or pluralised dimension of the Records Continuum. The paper ultimately argues that all stakeholders (all people and organisations connected with records) should have the ability to contribute to the utilisation of those records through the improvement of documentation and that some archival systems do have a duty of care to ensure they can inter-operate with community-generated knowledge.     

Freedom of information and government records in Kenya,Uganda and Tanzania

James Lowry is the Deputy Director of the International Records Management Trust (IRMT). He was the lead researcher on the Aligning Records Management with ICT/e-Government and Freedom of Information in East Africa project, conducted by the IRMT from 2009 to 2011, with funding from the International Development Research Centre.

Freedom of Information (FOI) regimes can only be effective if government records are managed well. This article sets out the findings of research conducted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to establish the level of alignment between those governments’ FOI aspirations and their records management readiness for FOI. The article sets out a high-level regulatory framework for the effective management of government records in the ICT/e-government and FOI environments to highlight areas that could be addressed, in order to prepare for FOI in the three countries.     

文件的概念及其在数字环境中的演变:InterPARES观点

InterPARES是一个长达12年的致力于电子/数字文件研究的国际项目,其研究点之一的文件概念在这12年的研究中始终占据着一个主导和核心的地位。本文追溯该概念在快速变化的技术环境中的演变历史,并由此呈现由项目研究成果转化而来的概念深化及扩展。     

电子文件销毁研究综述

电子文件销毁是电子文件全程管理的一个重要方面,却往往是最容易被忽视的一个环节。本文主要对国内学者关于电子文件销毁的基础理论和实践成果进行分析和概述,指出电子文件销毁研究的必要性,旨在引起国家和学界对该领域的重视,加大对电子文件销毁及其相关问题的研究力度,提升研究水平。     

Enhancing Bibliographic Records with Tables of Contents Derived from OCR Technologies at the American Museum of Natural History Library

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a project undertaken at the American Museum of Natural History Library in 1997 and intended to enhance access to materials in the library's collection by using scanning and OCR software to digitize and add monograph tables of contents to the OPAC bibliographic records. Initially, conference proceedings already in the collection were used, but, as the project developed, other types of materials were also used. The rationale for the project is explained, the procedure developed is described, and the lessons learned from using this particular technology are outlined.     

Digital Broadsides

This article explores the ‘ontological rift’ between the digital and the material archive of political broadside ballads. It outlines the ways in which the ballad’s original diversity has been eroded and homogenised by multiple processes of remediation, including digitisation over time, and investigates the limitations of digitisation projects in delivering the multifarious and widely scattered broadside ballad archive online. Finally, it considers how far digitisation projects have unintentionally ‘concretised’ not only older interpretive practices in relation to the ballad as genre, but also outdated narratives regarding the ballad’s place in the news networks and political culture of seventeenth-century England.     

Lakota winter counts,pictographic records,and record making and remaking histories

Winter counts are pictographic calendars created and used by certain Native American communities as mnemonic devices for remembering the sequence of events that mark each year, and for retelling community stories. Drawing on resources from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives’ winter count collections and related literature, this study reviews and discusses the characteristics of pictographic records, traces their making and remaking histories, and revisits the pictorial tradition in the American history of records and record keeping.     

面向知识管理的国家科研项目文件管理体系：模式分析与模型构建

对与国家科研项目文件管理活动有关的文件生命期模式、业务连续体模式、知识生态模式和综合集成管理模式进行SWOT分析。基于综合集成管理最佳实践模式,提出面向知识管理的国家科研文件管理体系规划、实施、评估、改进的构建模型。对整合、优化和创新科研项目管理、科研项目文件管理和科研项目知识管理,管理主体联盟,管理过程联动和管理客体联合,解决国家科研项目文件管理中存在的失存、失信和失用问题,提升国家科研项目信息资源和知识资产的控制力、证据力和服务力具有理论和实践的指导意义。     

面向知识管理的国家科研项目集成化文件管理体系构建研究:背景、框架及模型

本文提出了开展面向知识管理的国家科研项目集成化文件管理体系构建研究的设想及其理论模型,以支持具有跨部门和跨系统管理特点,多元化和多层次服务特征的国家科研项目知识积累、共享、交流和创新：为科研项目全生命期的知识资产动态捕获、增值保存和有效复用,文件流、知识流和和科研工作流无缝集成提供理论与应用支持,以完善我国国家科技创新体系,提高基于证据的国家科研项目治理水平。     

Keepers of Ghosts: old signs,new media and the age of archival flux

The Keepers of Ghosts project began when 10,000 records from a former sign-painting company were rescued from a demolition site in Melbourne’s west. Beginning with the creation of an online archive, the project has since developed into an experimental research program of community outreach involving sign writers, shopkeepers, local history aficionados and people interested in ‘ghost signs’, or the remains of painted advertising signs. Here we discuss the project’s investigation of the use of digital media to informally document and share otherwise-forgotten aspects of urban memory, and the proposition that the interplay between digital and physical archival activities can be harnessed to involve and connect diverse groups with shared interests, both at local and global levels.     

Beyond chip monks and paper tigers: towards a new culture of archival format specialists

The emergence of the new format of electronic/digital records provides the opportunity for archivists to reconsider the presumed format-neutrality of professional practice. As research in electronic records has served to re-emphasise, without an understanding of the needs and forms of material, then the work of archivists can have a profound impact on the evidential value and long-term research potential of the material. This paper attempts to broaden the debate about the requirements of all archival formats, and to build a new regime of 21st-century format specialists.

从强制“双套制”到任意“单套制”——电子文件归档中理想和现实的互动与创新

随着社会数字转型的发展,电子文件归档"双套制"弊端日益凸显,"单套制"趋势越发明朗。通过对政策法规及标准的研究,梳理我国电子文件归档从强制"双套制"到任意"单套制"的演变历程,分析强制"双套制"与任意"单套制"之间的关系,指明任意"单套制"在当下的具体含义。从"单套制"理想与"双套制"现实两方面,分析我国电子文件归档问题中的分歧与共识,在此基础上,通过研究二者间互动与创新的关系,提出运用对立统一的思维来认识理想追求与现实考量在推动"单套制"发展中的相互作用,以更好地认识和把握电子文件"单套制"归档的发展方向。     

基于区块链技术的电子档案信任管理模式探析:英国ARCHANGEL项目的启示

英国ARCHANGEL是全球首个专门针对电子档案信任管理的区块链应用研究项目,旨在利用区块链存储电子档案内容证据,为档案利用者提供可靠的档案完整性认证服务。文章按照区块链的核心技术构成,对ARCHANGEL的技术逻辑和应用过程进行了剖析,并分析了其内在的电子档案信任管理模式及其与现有模式之间的关系。在此基础上,提出借助区块链技术建立档案信任基础设施,为多种类型档案及其档案保管机构提供信任管理支撑,档案行政管理部门也应针对档案信任区块链树立新的信任意识、制定管理规范、制定数据标准、建立统一平台。最后,文章从区块链技术应用对于档案信任管理的局限性、可持续问题及其对于档案价值属性、电子档案构成等基本理论问题的冲击三个方面对档案学界可能要应对的研究问题进行了论述。     

高校学生体质健康档案管理新路径分析

本文首先探讨了高校学生体质健康档案管理的重要性;其次探讨这项管理工作现存的不足之处,认为体质健康档案管理混乱、档案内容缺乏连贯性是最主要的问题;最后,笔者创新性地提出了高校学生体质健康档案管理的措施。建议信息化馆长指导体育活动、重点强调纠正错误思想、完善学生体质健康档案管理规范条例。     

Analyzing archives and finding facts: use and users of digital data records

This article focuses on use and users of data from the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), U.S. Who is using archival electronic records, and why are they using them? It describes the changes in use and consequently user groups over the last 30 years. The changes in use are related to the evolution of reference services for electronic records at NARA, as well as to growth in the types of electronic records accessioned by NARA. The first user group consisted mainly of researchers with a social science background, who usually expected to handle the data themselves. The user community expanded when electronic records with personal value, like casualty records, were transferred to NARA, and broadened yet again when a selection of NARA’s electronic records became available online. Archivists trying to develop user services for electronic records will find that the needs and expectations of fact or information seeking data users are different from those of researchers using and analyzing data files.     

乡土志研究综述

自清末推行教育改革,要求地方进行乡土爱国教育以来,全国各地编纂了大量的乡土志书。自民国初年开始,就有学者时乡土志给予关注和进行整理,直到新中国成立以后,仍有研究和整理活动,近年来有渐兴之势。论文回顾了国内外学者在不同时期对乡土志的研究和整理状况。     

电子文件分类方案的建立原则与方法研究

电子文件分类方案是指导电子文件分类的重要工具。本文通过对国际上典型的文件分类方案、指南、标准等进行深入分析,并结合相关实践经验,明确了电子文件分类的定位,提出了建立基于业务活动分析的电子文件分类方案应当遵循的原则,并对其建立方法进行了详细说明,以期对我国电子文件分类工作有所指导。