Electronic Records: the European Dimension

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/eb027112
Pages205-216
Date01 March 1997
Published date01 March 1997
AuthorGEORGE MACKENZIE
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management
Electronic Records: the European
Dimension
GEORGE MACKENZIE
Abstract
This article is based on two sets of sources: the work of the International
Congress on Archives (ICA) Electronic Records Committee, and a series of
European initiatives, most recently the DLM Forum on electronic records held
in Brussels in December 1996. The article concentrates largely on national
archives, because governments are the largest record creators and it is in the pub-
lic sector that the problems of electronic records are seen most clearly.
European diversity
The first point that must be made is that Europe is diverse. It consists of
a number of countries with different cultures and different recordkeep-
ing traditions, both of which affect the attitude to electronic records
issues. Michel Duchein analysed the development of archives in Europe,
distinguishing the different traditions, in a 1992 article in the American
Archivist1 and in the same issue David Bearman went on to identify
dif-
ferences between the American and the European attitude to the issues
arising from electronic records. One aspect of the difference lies in the
legal background: in countries including Germany and the Netherlands,
there are legal impediments to recognising the status of records in elec-
tronic form, while in Sweden, by contrast, electronic materials have,
since 1976, been given exactly the same status as paper-based records.
Another aspect lies in the approach to "records management" and
"archives". Although the French do not recognise the term records man-
agement in their language, they have the concept of "archives courantes"
and the French archivist does at least in part carry out records manage-
ment functions. In Germany, on the other hand, the archivist tradition-
ally deals only with historical archives, and not with the current or
semi-current records of agencies.
Records Management Journal,
vol 7. no 3,
December 1997,
pp.
205-216

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