Concepts and principles for the management of electronic records, or records management theory is archival diplomatics
| Pages | 78-95 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09565691011039852 |
| Date | 30 March 2010 |
| Published date | 30 March 2010 |
| Author | Luciana Duranti |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Concepts and principles for the
management of electronic
records, or records management
theory is archival diplomatics
Luciana Duranti
School of Library, Archival and Information Studies,
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Abstract
Purpose – The greatest challenges which digital systems present are the creation and maintenance
of reliable records and the preservation of their authenticity over time. It is vital for every organisation
that its records should be able to stand for the facts which they concern, i.e. that their content is
trustworthy. To meet these challenges the international community of records professionals must
develop appropriate strategies, procedures and standards. This paper seeks to explore the concepts
and principles derived from archival diplomatics that should guide the management of electronic
records and therefore these developments, as well as drawing conclusions about the nature of the
research work required.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper looks at the problems presented by electronic
records, considers a definition of electronic records, and discusses the authenticity and reliability of
electronic records.
Findings – Research work needs to be carried out to formulate the principles that will guide the
development of international, national and organisational policies, strategies and standards, the
specific criteria for each type of policy, strategy and standard, and the procedural methods for their
implementation. The most important thing is to ensure that the policies, strategies and standards are
consistent with one another, and this is only possible when they are based on the same concepts and
inspired by the same principles.
Originality/value – Concepts, laws and models from various fields must be studied to foster useful
transfers from one field to another, to encourage the development of theory in emerging areas of
endeavour and investigation, to eliminate the duplication of theoretical efforts in different fields, and to
promote consistency of scientific knowledge. However, in order to develop the body of knowledge of
records management, concepts, laws and models of archival diplomatics must be brought to bear.
Keywords Records management, Information management, Archives management
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
In his article “Records management: confronting our professional issues”, J. Michael
Pemberton writes: “the theoretical roots of records management, archives, and
librarianship lie in information science, cognitive science, systems sciences, and at
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-5698.htm
This article is a revised English version of a talk given at the Annual Conference of the
Association of Catalan Archivists in Vic, Spain, in May 1999.
This article was originally published in Records Management Journal, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 149-71
(1999) and has been republished as part of the journal’s 20th anniversary commemorative issue.
RMJ
20,1
78
Records Management Journal
Vol. 20 No. 1, 2010
pp. 78-95
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/09565691011039852
conceptual intersections with fields cognate with our own”[1]. I strongly disagree with
this statement and firmly believe that the theoretical roots of records management lie
in diplomatics as it has developed over the centuries for archival purposes[2].
In order to support my assertion, I will discuss the concepts and principles for the
management of electronic records that have been developed by using archival
diplomatics theory and methodology[3]. They are among the findings of two research
projects directed by myself at the University of British Columbia (UBC) – the
UBC/Department of Defense project on the Preservation of the Integrity of Electronic
Records, carried out between 1994 and 1997, and the International Research on
Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES), begun in January
1999[4].
The primary contribution of diplomatics to an understanding of electronic records is
its analysis of the attributes of a record based on concepts and principles that have
evolved over centuries of detailed study of the documentary process. By
decontextualising and universalising those attributes, the original diplomatists were
able to recognise and evaluate records created over several centuries and juridical
systems. In the same way, diplomatic concepts and principles have proven useful in
identifying electronic records generated within many different hardware and software
environments and for developing standards. The contribution of archival science is its
analysis of aggregates of records in terms of their documentary and functional
relationships and the ways in which they are controlled and communicated. The
following discussion of the concepts and principles that should guide the management
of electronic records focuses on those that are derived directly from archival
diplomatics.
Overview of the problems presented by electronic records[5]
The last decade has generated more records than any previous decade of human
activity. The fact that the majority of them are less reliable, retrievable or accessible
than ever before is one of the ironies of the modern information age. Idiosyncratic
software systems generate, manage and store digital data using pro prietary
technologies and media that are not developed to segregate records from other types
of information, to prevent manipulation or tampering, or to establish and maintain an
intellectual order, and that are subject to the dynamism of the computer industry. This
digital information cannot be considered trustworthy and is easily lost in a
self-perpetuating and expensive cycle of obsolescence and incompatibility.
Moreover, organisations and individuals create records in a variety of media and
formats. It is quite common for records relevant to a single matter to exist partly in a
paper file, partly in an e-mail box, and partly in a spreadsheet application or in a
relational database. It is essential to establish explicit intellectual links among these
records as they are created, and maintain them while they are actively used. It is
equally important to preserve such links among inactive records, in particular those
that are destined to permanent preservation, so that, several decades from now,
researchers will be able to see the entire dossier relating to the matter they are
exploring. Ad hoc attempts have been made by individual organisations to either create
all records in a single medium or reduce them to one medium of choice. For example,
offices have established routines for printing out e-mail and inserting it in a paper file,
Management of
electronic
records
79
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