Recordkeeping Cultures

Recordkeeping Cultures explores how an understanding of organisational information culture provides the insight necessary for the development and promotion of sound recordkeeping practices.

This book explores how an understanding of organisational information culture provides the insight necessary for the development and promotion of sound recordkeeping practices. It details an innovative framework for analysing and assessing information culture, and indicates how to use this knowledge to change behaviour and develop recordkeeping practices that are aligned with the specific characteristics of any workplace. This framework addresses the widely recognised problem of improving organisation-wide compliance with a records management programme by tackling the different aspects that make up the organisation’s information culture. Discussion of topics at each level of the framework includes strategies and guidelines for assessment, followed by suggestions for next steps: appropriate actions and strategies to influence behavioural change. Key topics covered include: background and context; the value accorded to records; information preferences; language considerations and regional technological infrastructure; information-related competencies; awareness of environmental requirements relating to records; corporate information technology governance; trust in recordkeeping systems; bringing it all together. Archivists, records managers and information technology specialists will find this an invaluable guide to improving their practice and solving the ‘people problem’ of non-compliance with records management programmes. LIS students taking archives and records management modules will also benefit from the application of theory into practice. Records management and information management educators will find the ideas and approaches discussed in this book useful to add an information culture perspective to their curricula.

Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies provides a concise and up-to-date survey of early record-making and record-keeping practices across the world. It investigates the ways in which human activities have been recorded in different settings using different methods and technologies. Based on an in-depth analysis of literature from a wide range of disciplines, including prehistory, archaeology, Assyriology, Egyptology, and Chinese and Mesoamerican studies, the book reflects the latest and most relevant historical scholarship. Drawing upon the author’s experience as a practitioner and scholar of records and archives and his extensive knowledge of archival theory and practice, the book embeds its account of the beginnings of recording practices in a conceptual framework largely derived from archival science. Unique both in its breadth of coverage and in its distinctive perspective on early record-making and record-keeping, the book provides the only updated and synoptic overview of early recording practices available worldwide. Record-Making and Record-Keeping in Early Societies will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students engaged in the study of archival science, archival history, and the early history of human culture. The book will also appeal to practitioners of archives and records management interested in learning more about the origins of their profession.

Archives: Recordkeeping in Society introduces the significance of archives and the results of local and international research in archival science. It explores the role of recordkeeping in various cultural, organisational and historical contexts. Its themes include archives as a web of recorded information: new information technologies have presented dilemmas, but also potentialities for managing of the interconnectedness of archives. Another theme is the relationship between evidence and memory in archives and in archival discourse. It also explores recordkeeping and accountability, memory, societal power and juridical power, along with an examination of issues raised by globalisation and interntionalisation.The chapter authors are researchers, practitioners and educators from leading Australian and international recordkeeping organisations, each contributing previously unpublished research in and reflections on their field of expertise. They include Adrian Cunningham, Don Schauder, Hans Hofman, Chris Hurley, Livia Iacovino, Eric Ketelaar and Ann Pederson.The book reflects broad Australian and international perspectives making it relevant worldwide. It will be a particularly valuable resource for students of archives and records, researchers from realted knowledge disciplines, sociology and history, practitioners wanting to reflect further on their work, and all those with an interest in archives and their role in shaping human activity and community culture.

This dynamic book considers whether and how the management of records (and archives) differs from the management of information (and data). Can archives and records management still make a distinctive contribution in the 21st century, or are they now being dissolved into a wider world of information governance? What should be our conceptual understanding of records in the digital era? What are the practical implications of the information revolution for the work of archivists and records managers? Geoffrey Yeo, a distinguished expert in the global field, explores concepts of 'records' and 'archives' and sets today's record-keeping and archival practices in their historical context. He examines changing perceptions of records management and archival work, and asks whether and how far understandings derived from the fields of information management and data administration can enhance our knowledge of how records function. He argues that concepts of information and data cannot provide a fully adequate basis for reflective professional thinking about records and that record-keeping practices still have distinct and important roles to play in contemporary society. This thought-provoking and timely book is primarily intended for records managers and archivists, but should also be of interest to professionals in a range of information-related disciplines. It aims to provide a balance of theory and practice that will appeal to practitioners as well as students and academics around the world.

Archiving Cultures defines and models the concept of cultural archives, focusing on how diverse communities express and record their heritage and collective memory and why and how these often-intangible expressions are archival records. Analysis of oral traditions, memory texts and performance arts demonstrate their relevance as records of their communities. Key features of this book include definitions of cultural heritage and archival heritage with an emphasis on intangible cultural heritage. Aspects of cultural heritage such as oral traditions, performance arts, memory texts and collective memory are placed within the context of records and archives. It presents strategies for reconciling intangible and tangible cultural expressions with traditional archival theory and practice and offers both analog and digital models for constructing cultural archives through examples and vignettes. The audience includes archivists and other information workers who challenge Western archival theory and scholars concerned with interdisciplinary perspectives on tangible and intangible cultural heritage. This book is relevant to scholars involved with non-textual materials and will appeal to a range of academic disciplines engaging with "the archive".

This groundbreaking text demystifies archival and recordkeeping theory and its role in modern day practice. The book's great strength is in articulating some of the core principles and issues that shape the discipline and the impact and relevance they have for the 21st century professional. Using an accessible approach, it outlines and explores key literature and concepts and the role they can play in practice. Leading international thinkers and practitioners from the archives and records management world, Jeannette Bastian, Alan Bell, Anne Gilliland, Rachel Hardiman, Eric Ketelaar, Jennifer Meehan and Caroline Williams, consider the concepts and ideas behind the practicalities of archives and records management to draw out their importance and relevance. Key topics covered include: • Concepts, roles and definitions of records and archives • Archival appraisal • Arrangement and description • Ethics for archivists and records managers • Archives, memories and identities • The impact of philosophy on archives and records management • Does technological change marginalize recordkeeping theory? Readership: This is essential reading for students and educators in archives and recordkeeping and invaluable as a guide for practitioners who want to better understand and inform their day-to-day work. It is also a useful guide across related disciplines in the information sciences and humanities.

This dynamic book considers whether and how the management of records (and archives) differs from the management of information (and data).

Archives are considered to be collections of administrative, legal, commercial and other records or the actual place where they are located. They have become ubiquitous in the modern world, but emerged not much later than the invention of writing. Following Foucault, who first used the word archive in a metaphorical sense as "the general system of the formation and transformation of statements" in his "Archaeology of Knowledge" (1969), postmodern theorists have tried to exploit the potential of this concept and initiated the "archival turn". In recent years, however, archives have attracted the attention of anthropologists and historians of different denominations regarding them as historical objects and "grounding" them again in real institutions. The papers in this volume explore the complex topic of the archive in a historical, systematic and comparative context and view it in the broader context of manuscript cultures by addressing questions like how, by whom and for which purpose were archival records produced, and if they differ from literary manuscripts regarding materials, formats, and producers (scribes).

Recordkeeping in International Organizations offers an important treatment of international organizations from a recordkeeping perspective, while also illustrating how recordkeeping can play a vital role in our efforts to improve global social conditions. Demonstrating that organizations have both a responsibility and an incentive to effectively manage their records in order to make informed decisions, remain accountable to stakeholders, and preserve institutional history, the book offers practical insights and critical reflections on the effective management, protection, and archiving of records. Through policy advice, surveys, mind mapping, case studies, and strategic reflections, the book provides guidance in the areas of archives, records, and information management for the future. Among the topics addressed are educational requirements for recordkeeping professionals, communication policies, data protection and privacy, cloud computing, classification and declassification policies, artificial intelligence, risk management, enterprise architecture, and the concepts of extraterritoriality and inviolability of archives. The book also offers perspectives on how digital recordkeeping can support the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the accompanying Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Recordkeeping in International Organizations will be essential reading for records and archives professionals, information technology, legal, security, management, and leadership staff, including chief information officers. The book should also be of interest to students and scholars engaged in the study of records, archives, and information management, information technology, information security, and law. Chapters 7 and 9 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 license