Effective Approaches for Managing Electronic Records and Archives

Citation

Bogstad, J.M. (2008), "Effective Approaches for Managing Electronic Records and Archives", Collection Building, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 174-174. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950810913742

The eight articles in this collection vary greatly in their rigor as well as their applicability to the work of a practicing archivist. Designed for practical use by today's archivists and records managers as they interact with many different institutional frameworks, this collection of essays will provoke as many avenues of investigation as they will offer solutions.

Essays such as Barry's “Technology and the Transformation of the Workplace: Lessons Learned through Traveling down the Garden Path,” Turnbaugh's “What is an Electronic Record,” Slavin's “Implementing Requirements for Recordkeeping: Moving from Theory to Practice,” and “Horton's “Obstacles and Opportunities: A Strategic Approach to Electronic Records,” offer strategies for coping with the practical side of electronic records management. McDonald's “Government On‐Line and Electronic Records: The Role of the National Archives of Canada,” Kollwitz's “Playing the Electronic Angles and Working the Digital Seams: The Challenge and Opportunities,” and Strickland's “The Law of Electronic Information: Burgeoning Mandates and Issues” address specific instances where both electronic records and the parameters and rules of their handling have been exemplified, giving the reader an idea of the current climate and decision‐making procedures on the archives and archivist's changing roles.

Like any such collection of distinct essays, it leaves some ground unaddressed, but the collection as a whole both identifies some major current issues, such as the difference between electronic information and electronic public records, the difference in responsibilities for maintaining records that occur with the advent of an electronic environment where storage and access can be achieved without a central physical site, and a range of other differences which archivists and administrators continue to confront on a regular basis.

What is most clear is the evolving complexity of determining how to define levels of responsibility for preservation as well as the objects worthy of preservation in a climate that fosters proliferation of information objects as well as many issues of security and access. Especially interesting is the difference between preservation issues in the legal context as distinct from those, which are of importance to scholars. To illustrate, one might consider the historian Maitland, whose work on medieval court records revolutionized medieval historical practice, but which was rendered both possible and vulnerable by being based on records that were preserved by the Public Record Office in London. Reflections on the legal versus the researcher's use of records can help us to understand the importance of decisions being made on a regular basis which will have a long‐term effect on the future understanding of our era, thus further vitalizing the importance of archivists in their theoretical and practical roles.

Some readers will respond well to Dearstyne's own attempt to summarize the major issues in managing changes brought about by the many electronic records created by government institutions at both the federal and state level. His penultimate article, “Riding the Lightening: Strategies for Electronic Records and Archives Programs,” is aimed at articulating the many areas in which traditional thinking on the responsibilities of records and archive management must change as a result of the change from paper‐based to electronic‐based government records.

The core of his essay is a list of nine strategies: the first of which (sharing ownership of electronic records issues and problems) is applicable to the whole field as well as individual programs. The next two (“Clearer Sense of Objectives” and “Research and Development Agenda”) address the field as a whole, and the last six apply more succinctly to individual programs: “Stronger Program Leadership”; “New Knowledge/Skills/Abilities”; “Operational Style of Partnering, Teaching and Learning”; “Selecting Points for Encounter, Engagement and Intervention”; “Adaptive Customized Programs”; and “Monitoring and Enlightenment”.

Dearstyne provides subsequent lists and narratives for each of these areas, which sometimes bleed from one category to the other, especially as they illuminate his thinking on the differences between the paper‐and electronic‐based environments. Readers may especially appreciate the extensive, systematized suggestions under Items 8 and 9, as Dearstyne seeks venues to prepare traditional archival thinking for the vast array of electronic records, which have only begun to come our way. He uses the example of the Kansas State Historical Society and the solution that “electronic archival records were to remain with the agencies of origin – unless the agency is discontinued.” This provides a workable solution in an electronic‐based environment, as both storage space and indexing are resolved by the fact that the method of creation, storage and access can, with planning, be ensured at the same time, an eventuality not available in paper format. The fact that most records are now electronic at some stage in their history provides the context for maintaining them as such, something which is acknowledged by this particular decision of a particular state. Is it applicable to electronic records in other states or federally? Will it be a practical decision down the road? These are the kinds of questions that Dearstyne lists and charts.

Readers will most likely pick essays on subjects of immediate interest as this work is not organized around a single theoretical center but a series of practical encounters with real‐life situations.