Correspondence as a documentary form, its persistent representation, and email management, preservation, and access
| Date | 16 March 2015 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-03-2014-0015 |
| Published date | 16 March 2015 |
| Pages | 78-95 |
| Author | Jane Zhang |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Correspondence as a
documentary form, its persistent
representation, and email
management, preservation,
and access
Jane Zhang
Department of Library and Information Science,
Catholic University of America, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to construct a systematic way of thinking about correspondence as
a documentary form and discuss the role its persistent representation features play in management,
preservation and access of email correspondence.
Design/methodology/approach – Using the method of diplomatic analysis as a guiding theory, the
paper conducts a historical review of correspondence recordkeeping and email systems in the American
context, analyzes the evolution of its persistent representation features and discusses the implications
on current email management and archival practices.
Findings – Correspondence as a document form and its persistent representation features have played
an important role in traditional correspondence recordkeeping and electronic mail management. The
design of systems to manage, preserve and access email records should reect the characteristics and
functionality of email records, capable of retaining email correspondence as a documentary form
supported by its persistent representation features.
Research limitations/implications – The research in this paper mostly covers secondary sources
with a regional focus. The analysis covers important historical developments in correspondence and
email recordkeeping and archival practices. The study uses examples of email archives available online,
and further research can be developed when more email archival collections are processed and
constructed.
Originality/value – A systematic analysis of persistent representation of traditional correspondence
and electronic mail provides a useful perspective to reect on the characteristics of correspondence as a
document form and offers some food for thought for records management and archival professionals
and assists them in developing systems to better manage, preserve and provide access to email
correspondence.
Keywords USA, Historical research, Record keeping, Correspondence, Digital archives,
Electronic mail
Paper type Research paper
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Digital Diplomatics 2013 in Paris, France.
The author would like to thank the conference for travel support and for comments on the paper.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0956-5698.htm
RMJ
25,1
78
Received 14 March 2014
Revised 13 October 2014
Accepted 3 November 2014
RecordsManagement Journal
Vol.25 No. 1, 2015
pp.78-95
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/RMJ-03-2014-0015
Introduction
In his article “Diplomatics and Archives” published in The American Archivist in
summer 1989, American archivist Don C. Skemer traced the tradition of “training in
diplomatics and related disciplines” in Europe which “has long allowed professional
archivists to understand and interpret the documents in their repositories in a way not
possible for mere records custodians” (Skemer, 1989, p. 379). Skemer argued that
archivists in the USA would benet from the use of the methods developed in
diplomatics to study “eighteenth-century legal documents, nineteenth-century business
records, or contemporary automated records” and “other distinctive forms of
record-keeping”. Understandably, such an approach would help them to “explain how
the form and function of particular types of American documents have evolved over
time” and “benet the archival profession not only by better-informed appraisal
decisions but by more effective understanding, promotion, and use of collections”
(Skemer, 1989, pp. 381-382).
Diplomatics appeals to American archivists because of its systematic approach, in
other words, its “systematic way of thinking about archival documents” (Duranti, 1998,
p. 158). One of the earliest archival documents in the history of American recordkeeping
and archives is correspondence. As a unique documentary form, correspondence
normally pertains to an individual, organization or place; covers a certain period of time;
relates to one subject or a few subjects; applies to a particular use purpose; and results in
a series of mutual communications (outgoing or incoming). Over the course of history,
correspondence as a documentary form has undergone dramatic changes in terms of its
creation form and delivery mode, but its functions and characteristics as described
earlier remain more or less the same. As a result, its persistent representation features
inherited over the centuries have transcended correspondence creation and
transmission technology and played an important role in the organization and
representation of correspondence in traditional and email recordkeeping as well as in the
research and practice of email management, preservation and access.
This article aims to construct a systematic way of thinking about correspondence as
a documentary form, and specically, its persistent representation features that have
been carried over for more than two centuries in the history of American recordkeeping
and archives. The article reviews the development of traditional correspondence and its
representation features in the USA and discusses how the evolution of the email system
has successfully incorporated experience of correspondence recordkeeping to achieve
the integrated functionality of email creation, transmission, storage and organization.
Drawing on major email preservation research and project documentation, it reviews
the role persistent representation features play in management, preservation and access
of email correspondence.
Records managers and archivists have made concerted efforts for many years to
contemplate and experiment on how to manage and preserve email correspondence.
Understanding electronic mail as a documentary form provides a useful perspective to
examine concepts and strategies developed so far in this endeavor. A review of
representation features persistently existing in traditional correspondence and email
systems can offer some food for thought for records management and archival
professionals and hopefully assist them in developing systems to better manage,
preserve and provide access to email correspondence.
79
Correspondence
as a
documentary
form
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