Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: A Continuum of
Responsibility
Sue McKemmish
Introduction
Continuum:
A continuing thing, quantity, or substance; a continuous series of elements
passing into each other.
(The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary)
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In this paper I discuss records continuum thinking and practice as they have
evolved in Australia, with particular reference to the way they characterise the
relationship between records managers and archivists. I use the Records
Continuum Model developed by my colleague, Frank Upward, to explore the
continuum of responsibilities that relates to recordkeeping regimes that
capture, manage, preserve and re-present records as evidence of social and
business activity for business, social and cultural purposes for as long as they
are of value, whether that be for a nanosecond or a millenium. The model
provides a graphical tool for framing issues about the relationship between
records managers and archivists, past, present and future, and for thinking
strategically about working collaboratively and building partnerships with other
stakeholders.
A continuum is something continuous of which no separate parts are
discernible, a continuous series of elements passing into each other. A records
continuum perspective can be contrasted with the life cycle model. The life
cycle model argues that there are clearly definable stages in recordkeeping, and
creates a sharp distinction between current and historical recordkeeping. The
records continuum, on the other hand, has provided Australian records managers
and archivists with a way of thinking about the integration of recordkeeping
and archiving processes. The life cycle model sees records passing through
stages until they eventually 'die', except for the 'chosen ones' that are
reincarnated as archives. A continuum-based approach suggests integrated time-
space dimensions. Records are 'fixed' in time and space from the moment of
their creation, but recordkeeping regimes carry them forward and enable their
use for multiple purposes by delivering them to people living in different times
and spaces.
In Australia, the records continuum has provided a way of articulating a
mission that brings together records managers and archivists under the
recordkeeping umbrella. Records continuum thinking focuses on the unifying
purposes shared by all recordkeeping professionals, defined as to do with the
delivery of frameworks for accountable recordkeeping regimes that enable access
to essential, useable evidence of social and business activity in the business,
social and cultural domains.
Records continuum thinking and practice are underpinned by a concept of
records which is inclusive of, not exclusive to, records of continuing value
(archives):
The archival document [record] can be conceptualised as recorded information
arising from transactions. It is created as a by-product of social and
organisational activity in the course of transacting business of any kind,
whether by governments, businesses, community organisations or private
individuals. It is therefore defined by its contextuality and transactionality.
The documentation of transactions may be in any storage media and is
increasingly an electronic process. In Australia and North America, the use of
the terms 'records' and 'archives' to refer to current archival documents and
archival documents selected for preservation respectively has created a
distracting division within the recordkeeping profession between records
managers and archivists. The unifying concept of the archival document
encompasses both records and archives. It directs attention to the continuum of
processes involved in managing the record of a transaction so that it retains
its evidentiary quality. Archival documents first and foremost provide evidence
of the transactions of which they are a part - from this they derive their
meanings and informational value. The effective creation and management of
archival documents are critical to their use and the role they play in governing
relationships in society over time and space. Their effective creation and
management are also preconditions of an information-rich society and underpin
the public accountability of government and non-government organisations,
freedom of information and privacy legislation, protection of people's rights
and entitlements, and the quality of the archival heritage, made up of documents
of continuing value. The concept of the archival document can provide a
framework for a greater shared understanding of the nature of recorded
information, and of the importance of transactional records to the continuing
functioning of a society.
Records continuum thinking is concerned about ideas about the role of
recordkeeping which flow from this unifying concept - in five key areas.
Firstly there is the role records play in governance, in regulating
relationships between people and organisations, and as instruments of power and
authority. Secondly, there is the nexus between recordkeeping and
accountability in its broadest sense of accounting to each other for what we do
to each other, encompassing corporate, social, cultural, and historical
accountability. Thirdly, there is the role that recordkeeping plays in
constituting corporate and collective memory, especially insofar as records
capture experiential knowledge. Fourthly there is the way in which
recordkeeping can be understood as a kind of witnessing, providing evidence of
both personal and collective identity. And finally, there is the way records
function as sources of value-added information and can be exploited as assetts,
with new records being created in the process.
In The Constitution of society, sociologist Anthony Giddens spoke of
information as being both an allocative and an authoritative resource. As an
allocative resource, it can be 'a feature of the environment, a means of
production or a produced good'. As an authoritative resource, Giddens said
information is 'a means of control or governance of social time-space', ie a way
of governing and perpetuating relationships between people and organisations
through time and across space. With reference to the above outline of the
purposes of recordkeeping, records can also be usefully characterised in this
way. As sources of value-added information, they function as an allocative
resource; as evidence of activity and identity, as memory, and as instruments
of power and authority, they function as an authoritative resource.
Recordkeeping Places
Many archivists have been used to defining their place by locating the
archives and the archiving function within the walls of archival repositories.
In Australia this has been particularly the case for collecting archivists, for
government archivists in some of the State jurisdictions where the archiving
function has been closely linked with the library function, and for corporate
archivists whose programs originated in corporate history or commemorative
projects. Records managers meanwhile have often been preoccupied with managing
the records in central filing systems or records stores. For these archivists
and records managers, the walls of the repository, registry or records store
have formed the boundary of their respective places, and the basis for drawing
demarcation lines between the organisation's business processes, records
management and archival administration. Some have articulated their work with
reference to the US-NARA records life cycle model, with its paper mind-set and
conceptualisation of records management and archival work in terms of particular
custodial strategies and methods rather than purposes or outcomes. Others,
particularly collecting archivists, have described what they do in terms of the
manuscript library tradition which emphasises collection management and research
service delivery.
But, there has been another tradition in Australia, and records managers and
archivists who have worked within that tradition have developed over the years a
different sense of place, linked to the concept of the records continuum. This
is especially so for many who have worked for Australian Archives and in State
jurisdictions in which the archival authority is cast in the role of regulator
of accountable public recordkeeping to serve the ends of accountable public
administration, as well as keeper of the long-term corporate and collective
memory, for those corporate records managers and archivists whose records and
archives programs are closely integrated with the business processes of their
organisations, and for that hybrid group of Australian archivists/records
managers who identify themselves first and foremost as recordkeeping
professionals.
For recordkeeping professionals, the records continuum provides a descriptive
term referring to:
- establishing, managing and monitoring
coherent regimes of integrated recordkeeping and archiving processes
- the capture, maintenance and delivery of
records of social and business activity that satisfy
- business needs, social needs, cultural needs
for
essential, accessible, useable
EVIDENCE
- delivering recordkeeping frameworks
that
- facilitate governance
- underpin accountability
- constitute memory
- construct identity
- provide authoritative sources of value-added information.
To fulfil their mission recordkeeping professionals:
- nurture accountable recordkeeping
cultures
- establish integrated recordkeeping and
archival regimes to
- determine what is essential evidence and how long it is of value
- capture, manage and deliver evidence and its meaning over
time
- monitor and audit these regimes.
A unifying concept of records has underpinned the integration of the work of
records managers and archivists in Australia over many years, but it has been
given greater momentum by the specific challenge presented by electronic records
and the general experience of living through a major paradigm shift.
It is in the development of policies and strategies for electronic
recordkeeping around Australia, and the recent groundbreaking collaborative work
in standard setting that we see most clearly the characteristics of evolving
continuum-based professional practice.
The Life Cycle Concept
Before beginning to explore further the continuum of recordkeeping
responsibilities, I want to consider the life cycle concept and the way life
cycle thinking characterises the relationship between records managers and
archivists and defines their respective responsibilities in relation to
recordkeeping. Table 1 provides an explanation of the life cycle concept and a
number of different versions of the life cycle model drawn from the writings of
Frank Upward.
TABLE 1: THE LIFE CYCLE OF RECORDS
Introduction
A life cycle, in its origins in natural science, can be defined as the
entire series of processes constituting the life history of an organism.
Individual examples share the same life history as the species or genus to which
they belong, within a repetitive pattern which is observable over generations.
A frog goes from embryo to tadpole to young frog to mature frog to dead frog, if
it goes through a full life cycle.
In the social sciences this model was picked up to explain the rituals in the
human life cycle involved in going, for example, from birth to initiation into
adult society to marriage and to death. Usually the stages identified have a
strong association with rituals establishing rights and responsibilities within
a community. Like the natural science versions, the versions in sociology
provide a life to death generational pattern.
In recordkeeping a life cycle implies that there are recurring features over
the generations of records that can be described in specified stages. Its
premise is that the stages are observable over long periods of time for
individual records throughout that period of time. The pattern has to be
repetitive and applicable to individual records. In some theories, discussed
below, there is a ritualistic aspect to the way the life cycle of records is
discussed; in others there is an implication that we are dealing with a natural
life history.
Versions of the life cycle
'Natural' life history versions:
The records life cycle concept, at its most basic level in records management
literature, involves the processes for creation, maintenance, and disposal of
records. More often than not use is added, sometimes as a separate stage and
sometimes in conjunction with maintenance. Sometimes distribution is added. It
is possible to include further stages by looking at the stages a record is said
to go through on its way to an archival institution, and once it is safely
inside. These are usually expressed to include identification and appraisal,
acquisition, description, maintenance and access. This style of expression is
similar to the natural science model. All record items - supposedly - go
through the same cycle unless destruction cuts short the life of the record.
An example of the full life history approach to the life cycle of records was
the approach formally set out by the US National Archives in the 1940s. It was
developed as a way of conceptualising records creation, maintenance and
disposal processes in ways which coped with the increasing bulk of the records
that were being created. Models for records management and archival
administration were developed which broadly look like the following:
Records Management Archives Administration
CREATE
MAINTAIN
RETRIEVE
DISPOSE/APPRAISE
ACQUIRE
DOCUMENT
MAINTAIN
PROVIDE ACCESS
Within the United States National Archives approach the approval processes
for records "retention and disposal schedules" was one way the gap between the
archival institution and the creating agency could be bridged.
Social rituals versions:
The European version of the life cycle concentrates on rites of passage
associated with the physical relocation of records. For example the "three
ages of archives" approach is based upon the storage of active, semi-active and
inactive records. Certain occurrences are expected to take place during these
three major transitional stages as records are transferred from active storage
to intermediate records centres and then to archives. These stages correspond
with the rights and responsibilities of an archival institution to maintain the
records as authentic and reliable evidence of actions. The competencies of the
archival authority are explained and fixed by their stage in the recordkeeping
process.
Hybrid versions in records management and archival administration:
If you combine both the rites of passage and the life history versions of the
life cycle it is possible to produce models which can seem to cope with quite a
deal of complexity.
For example a model presented in the Edith Cowan University video series on
archives and records management describes an eight stage model in which the
"three ages of archives" were added to five life history elements. Shown in pie
chart form, the stages were: CREATION, DISTRIBUTION, UTILIZATION, ACTIVE
STORAGE, TRANSFER, INACTIVE STORAGE, DISPOSITION, AND PERMANENT
STORAGE (ARCHIVES).
Frank Upward
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All versions of the life cycle concept share a demarcated view of the work of
records managers and archivists. The competencies and responsibilities of
records managers and archivists are represented as being concerned exclusively
with different stages in the life cycle, and with the different recordkeeping
purposes associated with these stages. It is this worldview that is
fundamentally challenged by records continuum thinking and practice.
Records Continuum Thinking and Practice
The key characteristics of records continuum thinking and practice, including
a critique of the life cycle concept, are set out in Table 2.
TABLE 2: CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTINUUM-BASED THINKING/ PRACTICE
It goes back to fundamentals to define the record and the role of
recordkeeping in society, informed by a unifying concept of records inclusive of
records of continuing value (= archives), one that stresses their evidentiary
and transactional nature.
It is particularly concerned with records as logical entities, with the
dynamic relationships and associations amongst records, and between records and
their contexts of creation and use.
It rejects the records life cycle model, which it characterises as:
- records-centred
- concerned with records as physical entities
- locked into custodial roles and strategies
- operationally focussed and concerned with records management tasks (things done to the records
in fixed stages) rather than the integration of business and recordkeeping
processes
- distinguishing in a dysfunctional way between 'records' and 'archives' according to the
Schellenbergian criteria of currency, the act of selection or transfer, and
research value
- demarcating as a consequence the work of records managers and archivists, the baton being handed
over at the point when 'dead records' or at least the 'chosen ones' are
reincarnated as archives and find themselves in the archival version of heaven,
the repository.
It associates three phenomena with records life cycle thinking and
approaches: the 'historical shunt', which saw archivists mainly concerned with
managing collections for historical research purposes; the essentially
paraprofessional nature of the records management community; and the narrow
client bases of traditional records management and archival services - corporate
operational staff and historians respectively.
It sees records managers and archivists as belonging to the broader
profession of recordkeeping specialists, and allows for further specialisations
relating to current, regulatory and historical recordkeeping purposes.
It strongly links the mission of recordkeeping professionals in Australian
society to corporate, democratic and historical accountability, and more broadly
to the role of recordkeeping in society (the sociology of recordkeeping).
It draws from Australian traditions relating to
- the role of the registry and registrar in public recordkeeping
- mandating archival
authorities to regulate current recordkeeping as well as to preserve the
archival heritage (which is informed by the view that the archival authority has
a dual role - to provide for public accountability as well as to assure the
quality of the archives)
- the imperatives and thinking driving the development of the series system.
It draws from the work and writings of international and Australian
'postcustodialists'.
It distinguishes between steering and operational roles and emphasises the
steering role of recordkeeping professionals as
- recordkeeping policy makers
- standard setters
- designers of recordkeeping systems and implementation strategies
- consultants
- educators/trainers
- advocates
- auditors.
It aims to redefine and reinvent recordkeeping practice, including appraisal,
control, storage and access.
It identifies a broad range of stakeholders and clients, positing multiple
uses for records over time.
It builds partnerships with business, accountability, information and
cultural players.
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The records continuum is not simply an alternative to the life cycle way of
viewing the creation, maintenance and disposition of records. Nor is it merely a
metaphor for the integrated approaches to management that are needed, although
it can serve this purpose. It is a concept which enables us to view
recordkeeping processes in an integrated fashion. Like any concept, however, it
can be approached from different perspectives. Indeed, in a continuum the
elements are by definition indeterminate, so to view them for management
purposes you have to set up a perspective - in the way that a refraction device
can provide a view of a band of light that enables us to perceive its
constituent colours.
Three such perspectives explored by Frank Upward are those provided by a
focus upon
- current recordkeeping
- regulatory recordkeeping
- historical recordkeeping.
A current recordkeeping perspective involves looking at recordkeeping
processes from the viewpoint of what needs to be done to capture a record and
fix it in its context of creation so that it can be recalled, re-presented and
distributed for as long as it is of continuing value. A historical
recordkeeping perspective focuses attention on what has to be done to maintain
this record and manage its meaning over time, whether that be for a nanosecond
or a millenium. A regulatory recordkeeping perspective involves looking at
recordkeeping processes from the viewpoint of how they can be standardised,
controlled and monitored. All of these perspectives relate to the multiple
purposes that records serve - for the benefit of the organisation that created
them, an organisational successor, or the broader society - contemporaneously or
over time.
The Records Continuum Model
The Records Continuum Model provides a useful framework for the exploration
of the continuum of responsibilities that relate to recordkeeping. (Note that
copyright and all rights in the following presentation of the Model is held by
Frank Upward.)
Figure 1 - Records Continuum Diagram
The Model provides a way of conceptualising the records continuum, of
thinking about recordkeeping in our organisations and in our society. The
Model:
- identifies key evidential, recordkeeping and
contextual features of the continuum and places them in relationship to each
other
- represents the multidimensional nature of the
recordkeeping function
- maps the evidential, recordkeeping and
contextual features of the continuum against the dimensions of the recordkeeping
function
- is itself placed in a broader socio-legal and
technological environment.
A Dimensional Reading of the Continuum
The continuum is holistic yet multidimensional - like a band of light, it can
be 'refracted', separated out into its constituent layers. Table 3 provides a
dimensional reading of the Continuum Model.
TABLE 3: THE DIMENSIONS OF THE RECORDS CONTINUUM
1D Create
The first dimension encompasses the actors who carry out the act
(decisions, communications, acts), the acts themselves, the documents which
record the acts, and the trace, the representation of the acts.
2D Capture
The second dimension encompasses the personal and corporate
recordkeeping systems which capture documents in context in ways which support
their capacity to act as evidence of the social and business activities of the
units responsible for the activities.
One way to think about 1D and 2D might be as the implementation
dimensions where the players might be desktop operators and managers, and
recordkeeping professionals with operational roles. When operating in these
dimensions, we're concerned with taking the trace and ensuring that it can
function as evidence.
3D Organise
The third dimension encompasses the organisation of recordkeeping
processes. It is concerned with the manner in which a corporate body or
individual defines its recordkeeping regime and in so doing constitutes/forms
the archive as memory of its business or social functions.
4D Pluralise
The fourth dimension concerns the manner in which the archives are
brought into an encompassing (ambient) framework in order to provide a
collective social, historical and cultural memory of the institutionalised
social purposes and roles of individuals and corporate bodies.
3D and 4D can be thought of as the control, regulation, standardisation
and auditing dimensions - where recordkeeping professionals with steering roles
operate. In the third dimension, we are concerned with 'insider' issues to do
with forming, managing and providing access to the corporate memory. In the
fourth dimension, we're essentially on the 'outside' looking in, concerned with
the constitution of collective memory in a way that crosses organisational and
jurisdictional boundaries.
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The dimensions of the continuum are not time-based. Records are both current
and historical from the moment of their creation. By definition they are
'frozen' in time, fixed in a documentary form and linked to their context of
creation. They are thus time and space bound, perpetually connected to events
in the past. Yet they are also disembedded, carried forward through time and
space, and re-presented in the contexts of their use.
As characterised in Table 2, records continuum thinking and practice focuses
on logical records and their relationships with other records and their contexts
of creation and use. Thus the Model is a map of a dynamic, virtual place - a
place of 'logical, or virtual or multiple realities' - and it always has been,
even in the paper world.
When we're thinking in fourth dimensional ways, we're concerned
with:
- identifying or inventing social and cultural
mandates for essential evidence to function as collective memory
- establishing recordkeeping regimes that can
carry records beyond the life of an an organisation or person
- developing knowledge bases and classification
schemes that represent the broadest structural and functional contexts of
recordkeeping
- putting in place storage and migration
strategies that carry records beyond the life of an organisation or a
person
- developing access strategies that manage
access across jurisdictions.
When we're thinking in third dimensional ways, we're concerned with:
- identifying personal and corporate
requirements for essential evidence to function as personal/corporate memory
- establishing recordkeeping regimes in the
personal or corporate domain
- developing organisational knowledge bases and
classification schemes that represent the personal and corporate contexts of
recordkeeping
- putting in place storage and migration
strategies that carry records through the life of an organisation or a
person
- developing access strategies that manage
access according to the rules of a particular personal or corporate domain.
In the first and second dimensions, processes and systems are established in
accordance with the regimes set up in the third and fourth dimensions, and
informed by their concerns.
In the second dimension, recordkeeping processes and systems are implemented
in accordance with the design requirements, standards and best practice models
set up in the third and fourth dimensions. Implemented processes and
systems:
- capture records at specified points in
business processes (when predetermined 'boundaries' are crossed)
- capture and maintain the metadata required to
assure their quality as records of business and social activity (ie metadata
that places them in relation to other records and links them to their context of
activity), and to manage their useability (completeness, accuracy and
reliability) and accessibility through time
- deliver records for use through time
according to relevant access permissions, and user views
- store and secure records through time.
In the first dimension, acts, communications and decisions are documented.
Document creation and control processes are implemented which:
- capture content
- capture structure (documentary form)
- order and place documents in their immediate
context of action and facilitate their retrieval
- store documents and provide for their
security.
Integrated Recordkeeping Responsibilities
Fulfilling organisational needs for records is what used to be called the
'primary' use of records. Once the primary use of records as evidence for
organisational purposes has ceased, institutions have traditionally been seen to
be interested in them as evidence of the institution itself - collective memory.
This interest represents what used to be called the 'secondary' use of records.
This way of looking at issues associated with corporate and collective memory is
linked to the life cycle concept.
The Records Continuum Model supports a distinction between collective and
organisational memory. In the records continuum, societal needs are
characterised as fourth dimension issues, whereas organisational needs are
associated with the third dimension. However, unlike life cycle formulations
that suggest that records in the early stages of their lives serve
organisational memory purposes, and later come to serve collective memory
purposes, the Records Continuum Model embraces the view that records function
simultaneously as organisational and collective memory from the time of their
creation. The organisation has a particular interest in the way they function
as corporate memory (a third dimension perspective); while societal interests
relate to the way they function as collective memory (a fourth dimension
perspective).
Definitions of the role of records managers and archivists associated with
life cycle and 'the three ages of archives' thinking suggest that records
managers are concerned with corporate memory, while archivists are concerned
with collective memory. This is not the philosophical position taken by
continuum thinkers. They see the recordkeeping profession as being concerned
with the multiple purposes of records. They take current, regulatory and
historical perspectives on recordkeeping simultaneously not sequentially. As
Chris Hurley has remarked about historical recordkeeping perspectives:
What electronic recordkeeping has forced us to confront is that archival
methods must be applied throughout the life of the record. No new problems
arise as records age. All of the technical issues involved in keeping
electronic records arise at the moment of their creation. An agency has to have
an archival program in place in order to keep electronic records for any length
of time - be it a second or a millenium.
According to the continuum view, the role of recordkeeping professionals
relates to setting up recordkeeping regimes that can ensure that from their
creation, records are managed in ways that enable them to fulfil their
multiple purposes contemporaneously and over time. Setting up such
regimes involves integrating records and archives competencies and
responsibilities.
A Continuum of Responsibility: Building Partnerships in the Past, Present and
Future
Building Partnerships
Recordkeeping professionals need to build partnerships with a broad range of
stakeholders in order to achieve their continuum-based objectives. The Records
Continuum Model can be used to stimulate ideas about building partnerships with
players who operate in the different dimensions, eg:
4D Pluralise
cultural heritage players
sociologists
historiographers
other information professionals, eg librarians
IT shapers
law makers
other standard setters and regulatory authorities
watchdogs
the public
3D Organise
information managers
IT managers
corporate librarians
FOI officers
auditors
corporate lawyers
CEOs/senior managers
financial controllers
work process re-engineers
1D/2D Create/Capture
operational managers
IT operational staff
systems administrators
supervisors
desktop operators
It can also help clarify potential strategic alliances in relation to
activities associated with the different dimensions, eg
3D/4D Organise/Pluralise
Working with FOI officers, auditors, legal officers, senior managers,
watchdogs and regulatory authorities to ensure recordkeeping supports corporate
and democratic accountability requirements
Working with information managers, IT professionals and librarians to develop
coherent information architecture and metadata specifications within or across
organisations or jurisdictions to support document discovery and delivery in
electronic networked environments
3D Organise
Working with policy makers, managers and business process designers to
integrate recordkeeping and business processes
Working with IT managers to promote the development and takeup of information
and communication technology supportive of recordkeeping requirements in the
organisation
Yesterday and Today
In recent years highly successful collaborative partnerships have been
built in the records continuum in Australia, particularly in the areas of
electronic recordkeeping, standards development, and professional and continuing
education. Two outstanding examples of standards development are provided by
the Australian Records Management Standard, and the National Records and
Archives Competency Standards. Australian Standard AS 4390, the first national
records management standard in the world, now under development as an
international standard, resulted from collaborative work by records managers,
archivists and standard setters. Cast in a records continuum framework, AS 4390
provides a voluntary code of practice for recordkeeping. The Records and
Archives Competency Standards were also developed within a continuum framework.
Like the Australian Records Management Standard, the Competency Standards
recognise that recordkeeping is a critical function performed through the
collective action of employees and systems throughout all organisations.
According to this scenario, everyone is a recordkeeper, while records managers
and archivists are society's recordkeeping specialists:
Of the 8.38 million people currently in work in Australia, it is safe to say
that almost all of them are required to keep records of some sort. There are,
however, a group of people and organisations for whom working with records and
archives is core business.
The Project therefore sought and was granted cross-industry status, which
means that the competency standards developed apply to all recordkeeping work,
regardless of who performs it. Thus they attempt to define not only the
competencies of records managers and archives, but what constitutes
recordkeeping in our society.
These two initiatives have built a strong foundation for continuing
collaborative action in relation to standard setting that brings together in a
coherent way current, historical and regulatory perspectives on
recordkeeping.
Tomorrow
The phenomenal proliferation of document-like information objects (DIOs) on
the Internet and other global networks has caught the information professions,
and almost everyone else napping. Within a scant three years (1993-1996), the
Internet has expanded exponentially, inspired clones of itself and evolved from
being an arena dominated by the IT elite to become a 'no limits' Information
Smorgasbord where anyone can create and make a DIO instantly available to
billions of consumers. Once created and posted on the Net, an individual DIO
becomes a free-floating commodity. In the absence of a regime of standards and
protocols guaranteeing its provenance, quality, integrity, transparency and
accessibility, its retrievability, reliability and value can not be assured,
and it can be used, copied, cannibalised and/or exploited without acknowledging
or compensating its originator.
(Ann Pederson, April 1997)
A high priority area for the immediate future is to work with IT
professionals, librarians, information managers, cultural heritage players and
other stakeholders in the development of coherent information architecture and
metadata specifications within or across organisations or jurisdictions to
support document management, discovery and delivery in electronic networked
environments. In particular the Australian recordkeeping profession needs to
engage in international efforts to build an infrastructure of rules and
standards in the virtual world equivalent to the regimes which manage recorded
information of all kinds in the paper world. As in other standard setting
endeavours, the records continuum provides a powerful framework for developing
appropriate input from the recordkeeping profession.
In today's electronic networked environments, records are managed along with
an expanding array of other information resources. In networked environments
information resources need to be adequately identified, authenticated, and
quality rated. They need to be readily accessible and retrievable for as long
as they are required, then to be disposed of in a systematic way. Terms and
conditions of access and disposition need to be managed and monitored.
Effective control of all of these document-like information objects or DIOs
depends upon authoritative metadata -accurate information which specifies
their structure, content, context and essential management requirements - being
embedded within, wrapped around or otherwise persistently linked to each
individual DIO to attest to its nature and quality. Accurate metadata is
increasingly seen as the tool which enables users to discover, distinguish,
select and use authentic, authoritative information resources and records.
At present, the virtual world lacks an adequate infrastructure of rules and
standards. The need to devise metadata-based regimes to authenticate, protect,
manage and make accessible DIOs in networked environments is urgent.
Information management and IT professionals, cultural heritage workers,
librarians and standard setting authorities world-wide are beginning to work
collaboratively to:
- identify and reach agreement on generic or
core sets of metadata elements for attribution to all document-like objects
available in networked environments, particularly through the Internet, eg
title, originator, date, subject, links to other information resources,
intellectual property status
- map existing metadata specifications for
particular types of DIOs against these core sets, eg the MARC standard for
library cataloguing records, the objective being to identify equivalent metadata
in sector specific sets and standardise them against the generic specification
- standardise sector specific sets of metadata
elements and ensure their interoperability with the generic sets.
In this context, the recordkeeping profession is responsible for managing a
commercially, socially and culturally significant body of information resources,
an important sub-set of the information in networked environments, and it needs
to get more involved in national and worldwide initiatives in these areas. We
must develop and extend our methods, standards and protocols to facilitate the
description, organisation and discovery of records in networked environments. In
particular records managers and archivists urgently need to work together in the
following three areas.
Recordkeeping sector specific metadata specifications
Many of the things we need to do to manage electronic records of action and
other DIOs and to make them accessible over time need to be resolvable by the
metadata they carry with them or that is inextricably linked to them. We need
standardised, specialised sets of recordkeeping metadata that can be attributed
to records and, where relevant, to other DIOs at their point of creation,
eg by embedding, encapsulation or linking to metadata stores. Our sector
specific sets of metadata need to be developed within frameworks that support
their interoperability with generic metadata standards like the Dublin Core, and
with other sector-specific specialised sets. There are a range of international
initiatives that are relevant to this initiative, including the Reference Model
for Business Acceptable Communications developed by David Bearman, the work on
document templates at the University of British Columbia, and various national
and international standards for archival description. But Australians have a
valuable continuum-based contribution to make in this area, particularly through
standardisation, codification and integration of existing metadata schemes, such
as those used in registry systems, automated records management packages and the
Australian series system.
Generic core sets of metadata
We also need to monitor closely and influence international initiatives to
develop standard universal sets of metadata elements. This is essential to
ensure that the development of any core set of metadata elements takes into
account recordkeeping requirements.
Initiatives like the Dublin Core and the Warwick Framework aim to establish
generic metadata sets and cross-sectoral frameworks in which generic and sector-
specific sets can be applied. The Dublin Core, for example, provides a minimal
set of 15 metadata elements or descriptors to be applied to all DIOs on the
Internet. This core set is designed to be embedded or persistently linked to
document-like objects on the Internet, and is aimed specifically at improving
search capability. It is also deliberately designed to be 'extensible', ie
each of its 15 elements can be extended by adopting a specialised set of
metadata elements to provide more information about the DIO, eg the basic
subject descriptor in the Dublin Core could be enhanced by using Library of
Congress-like subject headings, or a functional classification descriptor from a
recordkeeping metadata specification, provided these were standardised in such a
way that they were interoperable with the Dublin Core specification.
Information locator and filtering initiatives
We also need to find ways to work collaboratively within the recordkeeping
community in Australia to monitor and contribute to initiatives in relation to
information locator and filtering systems, for example AusGILS and PICS.
Information locator systems provide knowledge structures for representing and
locating information resources, while information filtering systems enable
filtering in or out of information at the point of receipt.
The AusGILS initiative stems from the work of the Commonwealth Government's
Information Management Steering Committee (chaired by Eric Wainwright of the
National Library) and its Information Technology Task Force (chaired by Dagmar
Parer of Australian Archives). AusGILS, modelled on the US Government's
system, would provide knowledge structures for representing and locating
information resources in government. Recommendations of the IMSC relating to
AusGILS propose that Australian Archives be the lead agency in developing the
metadata specifications for AusGILS. If the project proceeds, it will have far-
reaching implications for the wider information and recordkeeping community in
both the government and private sector, and input will be needed from that
constituency.
PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) is an example of a system for
filtering information or web sites in or out at the point of reception. It is
being developed by the W3 Consortium. Although initially conceived as a
censorship tool, the system and related research can equally well support
discriminating information discovery, privacy protection, information
authentication, and intellectual property right regulation. In PICS-like
initiatives, filtering is based on labelling information resources (labels may
be embedded, transmitted with the object or provided by a third party), and
metadata standards will be essential to the development of labelling schema.
Conclusion
Building partnerships and collaborative work in all of the areas referenced
above has and will contribute to:
- improving access through common user
interfaces to records of action in networked environments for government,
commercial, social accountability and cultural purposes, contemporaneously and
over time
- underpinning government information goals
relating to the visibility and accessibility of government information to
support citizens' rights and entitlements, accountable public administration and
democracy
- supporting electronic commerce
- assuring the authenticity, reliability,
quality, and persistence of records in networked environments for as long as
required
- resolving terms and conditions of access, and
disposition for records in networked environments.
Such action also enables us to share our expertise in relation to issues of
information resource integrity, authenticity, reliability, transparency and
persistence with the broader information, corporate and democratic
accountability and cultural heritage communities.
Records continuum thinking supports the view that the realisation of the kind
of visionary goals outlined above is dependent on us working together under the
recordkeeping umbrella. In this way we can bring current, historical and
regulatory perspectives to bear on the continuum of responsibility for
recordkeeping in our society, building on yesterday and today towards a shared
tomorrow.
© 1997-1998 Sue McKemmish. All Rights Reserved. Licence: Limited to on-line viewing and the making of
one (1) printout for off-line reading purposes only.
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