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.

Principles of Records and Archives

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