principles of records and archives
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Objectives
At the end of this section
students should be able to:
Define records and archives/
archives administration
Describe the role of archivist and
records manager in an organization
Critically discuss the variousprinciples of archives and records
care
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People and organizations create and userecords in the course of business
These records provide
Evidence of activities and interrelationship
Information about associated people,organizations, events and places
Some records of social and organizational
activity are preserved because they are ofcontinuing value to individuals,organizations or society.
Records of continuing value are called
archives.
Reco rds and A rch ives
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Records has been applied to the
products of current and ongoingactivities, where as
Archives has been defined as
referring to any records with longterm continuing value that have
been kept either because they may
be necessary for ongoingorganizational purposes to their
creating body or because they
have additional research value.
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ArchivesThey provide a reliable and
authentic knowledge base, enablingthe past to be reconstructed andunderstood.
Without archives, the past wouldremain largely unknown.
By documenting the significant
decisions, transactions and eventsof political, social and economic life,archives serve as the essential linkin the chain of human history.
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ArchivesArchives are preserved and managed by
specialist archival institutions where theyare safeguarded and made available foruse.
Archival Institution: the agency
responsible for selecting, acquiring,preserving, and making available archives.Also known as an archival agency or
archives.
Note: The term arch ivesis used to refer toan institution only in formal titles such asrecords and archives institution or NationalArchives.
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Archives Administration
Archives Administration - ensuresthe provision of research
information (non current
records/archives) to the generalpublic through acquisition,
preservation, control and
conservation of archives forposterity.
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Justification of an ArchiveArchives are preserved because of their
continuing value to an individual or
organization as well as society;
as long-term memory, enabling better quality
planning, decision making and action by providingfor continuity, access to past experience, expertise
and knowledge and a historical perspective.
as a way of accessing the experience of others
as evidence of continuing rights and obligations as a source of our understanding and identification
of ourselves, our organizations and our society
as vehicles for communicating political, social and
cultural values.
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The role of archivists
Both records managers and archivistsare involved in managing the records ofthe organization.
They are concerned with
The proper appraisal, arrangement andaccess and retrieval of information
The protection of their holdings withappropriate equipment and environmentally
sound storage areas.Security issues, with business continuity
planning in case of disaster and with the useof technology to support their function
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The role of archivists
Thus, the chief mission of the archivist
is: Identifying and preserving the small
percentage of records of enduring value
found amid the mass of records generatedin the course of daily affairs.
To fulfill this role, archivists must be directly
involved in the management of records
throughout their life, as part of a continuumof care.
Archivists must be involved in the design
and implementation of records
management systems to ensure that
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Principles
The care of records andarchives is governed by four
key concepts.
Life cycle
Continuum
Provenance
Original order
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Life cycle model
The life cycle is indicates that records arenot static, but have life similar tobiological organisms; they are born, livethrough youth and old age and then die.
The idea was developed in NorthAmerica by Schellenberg (1956), whowrote about the life span of records,which included their current use and finaldestiny.
Since the 1950s many variants on therecords lifecycle concept have been
modelled.
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Most models aim to show a
progression of action taken atdifferent times in the life of a
record: typically, its creation,
capture, storage, use and disposalThe life cycle model is useful
because it enables us to track, in a
sequential process, the progress ofa record and to ensure that the
right processes are undertaken at
each phase of its life
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Phases
Current records are regularly used in the
conduct of current business and aremaintained in their place of origin or in thefile tore of an associated records office.
Semi-current - records are still used, butonly infrequently, in the conduct of currentbusiness and maintained in a recordscentre.
Non-current records are no longer usedfor the conduct of current business and aretherefore destroyed unless they have acontinuing value for other purposes, which
for example merit their preservation as
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In recent years the lifecycleconcept has been subject to muchadverse criticism.
First, the life cycle represents aclear division between records and
archives.In practice, records managers have
traditionally been responsible for
managing the current and semi-current records and archivists havetaken the responsibility at the
archival stage.
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The division between the two
aspects can lead to disjointedpractice:
the records managerdescribes (file
plans, classification scheme) thecurrent/semi-current records for one
set of processes;
the archivist then re-describes thenwhen they are transferred to the
archives for a different set.
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Second, critics noted that somerecords do not die, but are retainedindefinitely because of theircontinuing value.Thus, the division between stages of
the lifecycle in the three agesmodel is seen as artificial: forexample, records which have beenthought to be noncurrent may havea renewed period of currency if theactivity which gave birth to them isrevived.
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Third, the lifecycle models also
suggest they are too focused onrecords as physical entities and on
operational tasks, especially those
associated with the custody of paper
records.
Advances in technology suggested
that the management of records in thetraditional environment is no longer
suitable for records in electronic
formats, which have their own distinct
characteristics.
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As technology changes, the
records are prone totransformation and conversion
Issues such as technological
obsolescence, the need tomigrate data to new platforms,
and safeguarding of the
authenticity of records, all have tobe dealt with at the outset.
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In the paper environment, recordshave theirbirth and definite death.
But electronic records are subject tohardware and software control.
The content of the information is onlyreadable by the use of electronicdevices, and the medium that holds theinformation is likely to change assystems mature.
Any incompatibility over time either inthe software structure or the hardwaresystem will result in records that are nolonger readable.
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Records continuum model wasdeveloped in the 1980s and 1990s in
response to criticisms of the life cycle
model.
Refers to a consistent and coherent
regime of management processes from
the time of creation of records (and
before creation, in the design of record
keeping systems) through to the
preservation and use of records as
archives.
Records continuum
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In a continuum model, there are no
separate steps.
The records continuum model de-emphasizes the time-bound stages ofthe life cycle model
The continuum combines therecordkeeping and archivingprocesses into integrated time-space
dimensionsManaging records is seen as a
continuous process where one
element of the continuum passes
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Records continuum
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The model emphasizes the overlappingcharacteristics of recordkeeping, evidence,transaction and the identity of the creator.
According to Upward (2000) the four majorthemes: Transactionalilty relates to records as products
of activities;
Authority (identity) relates to the authorities bywhich records are made and kept, including theirauthorship, establishing particularities of the actorsinvolved in the acts of records creation, theempowerment of the actors and their identityviewed from broader social and culturalperspectives;
Evidentiality relates to the records as evidence;and
Recordkeeping containers relates to the
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The themes are linked by concentric circlesrepresenting the dimensions or layers of thecontinuum joining the individual record to its
contexts. The dimensions include:
Create (document accountable acts) - wheredocuments are drawn up or received in the post;
Capture - where documents are added to the officefiling system that is records series;
Organize - where the series has been scheduledfor permanent preservation forming part of theorganizational memory; and
Pluralize (ensure societal memory) - wheredocuments as records schedules for permanentpreservation constituting evidence of theircreatorsoraccumulators activity, are consulted by internal
and external users.
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In contrast with the older view that
records are kept for organizational
purposes during early stages of their
lives, and only later come to meet the
needs of a wider society as archives,
The continuum model embraces the
view that records function
simultaneously as organizational and
collective memory from the time of theircreation.
Th t t i l li
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The create-capture-organize-pluralize
rhythm immediately sets up a
systematized approach to
recordkeeping and archiving tasks (e.g.appraisal starts to include
what documents to create,
what data and documents to capture asrecords,
what needs to be done to organize an archive
for corporate and through life retrieval,
what needs to be part of the plural environmentnow and through time i.e. an archives is built
out of the plurality of documents in the
individual or corporate archive.
A hi l i i l
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Archival principles Early archivists established two
interconnected principles which continue to
guide the management of archives today.i.e. Provenance and Original order.
Originally a French term, respect des fonds
is often definedsimply as respect for thecreator of the records.
These principles guide the processes which
document the records and their context,
and the development of systems for their
physical and intellectual control, including
their arrangement and description, storage
and preservation.
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The Principle of ProvenanceAccording to the principle of provenance
the link between archives and creatorshould be maintained in order topreserve the quality and context of theevidence that is contained.
Thus provenance relates to thepreservation of the context of therecords, that is their links to purpose,
function and activity, to the individual orparts of an organization which createdthem, and to other records created bythat individual or within that organization.
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Records created within an organizationusually comprise copies of documents made
and dispatched, originals of documentsreceived and both originals and copies ofdocuments circulating within theorganization.
Adherence to the principle were achieved bykeeping the body of records of continuingvalue of an organization or individualtogether physically following transfer to
archival custody. Thus, the archives of one organization
were not mixed or combined with that ofanother.
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Principle of Original OrderOriginal order means that records should
be maintained in the order in which theywere placed by the organization,individual or family that created them.
i.e It involves keeping records in the orderin which they were accumulated as theywere created, maintained or used, and notrearranging them according to someimposed subject, numerical, chronologicalor other order.
Such rearrangement may compromise theintegrity of the records and destroy or maskthe evidence provided by their originalarrangements.
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Principle of Original Order
Archivists restore and present to
researchers, the original order of therecords as evidence of how the records
were used by their creator.
A practical reason contributes toarchivists respect for original order: it is
the only way to gain control over large
collections.
The idea is that archivists restore thisoriginal order to present to the user an
unaltered view of how the records were
managed in the current use.
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Keeping records in their original order
facilitates access using their own
indexes and registers.
Provenance and Original order are the
basic principles of arrangement and
description.
Recommended readings
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Recommended readings Flynn, S. J. A. 2001. The records continuum model in
context and its implications for archival practice.
Journal of the Society of Archivists 22(1):79-93. McKemmish, S. 1997. Yesterday, today and
tomorrow: a continuum of responsibility.
Proceedings of the Records Management Association
of Australia 14th National Convention. RecordsManagement Association of Australia (RMAA) Perth.
September15-17, 1997.
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Upward, F. and McKemmish, S. 2006. Teachingrecordkeeping and archiving continuum style. Archival
Science 6:219230.