A Chinese view of Records Continuum methodology and implications for managing Electronic Records

Abstract

This paper was written for the author’s presentation at an international symposium on “OA System and the Management of Archival Electronic Records: Theory and Practice" held in Hangzhou, south east China, from November 11 to 13, 2001. It examines concepts of the records continuum theory in three phases of usage, mechanisms for best practice behind the model in contrast to the life cycle mode and a best practice framework for managing electronic records. A Mandarin Chinese version was due to be published in Archives Science Bulletin in China in 2002.

1. Introduction

To provide coherent and consistent service to satisfying the needs of users has long been a challenge to records managers and archivists throughout the world. It is particularly so when we meet such needs in digital world.

Timely access of accurate, reliable, authentic, complete and readable records over time is always a difficult for both users and the custodians. Archivists have tried hard to find appropriate approaches for managing electronic records in recent years.

This paper promotes the internationally recommended records continuum model as a best practice model for managing electronic records and archives within a broader context of archival science. (Flynn 2001, pp.79-93, Pucknell 2000, pp.12-13). The paper first analyses the concepts of the records continuum in its three periods of development, then explores the best practice mechanisms behind the records continuum model in contrast to life cycle model, finally it deduces and proposes a best practice framework for managing electronic records based on the mechanisms introduced.

2. Concepts of the Records Continuum Model

A definition of the records continuum is given in the Australia Records Management Standard AS4390 that refers to “…a consistent and coherent regime of management processes from the time of the creation of records (and before creation, in the design of recordkeeping system) through to the preservation and use of records as archives.” (AS4390 1996, part 1: clause 4.22)

It can be observed that the definition suggests an ideal of integration for documents, records and archives management.

The evolution of the concepts of records continuum can be seen in three periods: origins of the continuum concept; wide use of the word ‘continuum’; and the formulation and implementation of records continuum model to the electronic and paper records management.

In the first period, the earliest view of the continuum concept came from the national archivist, Ian Maclean in the 1950’s. He declared that records managers were the true archivists, and that archival science should be directed towards the study of the characteristics of recorded information, recordkeeping systems and classification processes (Upward 2000, p.118). His view promoted the search for continuity between archives and records management.

In the second period, the word continuum was not widely used in Australian recordkeeping in the mid of 1980s until Canadian archivist Jay Atherton made it explicit at the annual conference of the Association of Canadian Archivists in 1985. According to Atherton, all stages of records are interrelated, forming a continuum in which both records managers and archivists are involved, to varying degrees, in the ongoing management of recorded information. He showed how the life cycle stages that records supposedly underwent were in fact a series of recurring and reverberating activities within both archives and records management.

The underlying unifying or linking factor in this continuum was the function of service to the records’ creators and all their users (Flynn 2001, p.80). This view pointed out the weakness of the separation of records management and archives administration under the lifecycle model.

Frank Upward

In the third period, records continuum as a model way of thinking was formulated in the 1990s by Australian archival theorists, Frank Upward (See Figure1. The Upward’s records continuum model). He states four principles of the records continuum model.

1. A concept of ‘record’ which is inclusive of records of continuing value (archives), which stresses their uses for transactional, evidentiary and memory purposes, and which unifies approaches to archiving/recordkeeping whether records are kept for a split second or a millennium...

2. A focus on records as logical rather than physical entities, regardless of whether they are in paper or electronic form…

3. Institutionalisation of the recordkeeping profession’s role requires a particular emphasis on the need to integrate recordkeeping into business and societal processes and purposes…

4. Archival science is the foundation for organising knowledge about recordkeeping… Such knowledge in revisable but can be structured and can be explored in terms of the operation of principles for action in the past, the present and the future…

(Upward 1996, pp.275-277)

The model has four axes dealing with archivists’ concerns on four major themes in archival science: evidentiality, transactionality, identity, and recordkeeping containers.

Four dimensions of the continuum are identified: document creation, records capture, the organisation of corporate and personal memory, and the pluralisation of collective memory.

“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.” (McKemmish 1998, p.2)

Pederson (1999) stated that such a model has four basic recordkeeping functions: CADS

Control: Capture, identification, organisation and control.

Accessibility: Ensuring access and usability.

Disposal: Setting up provisions (appraisal criteria and disposal policies or procedures) for “capturing” appropriate records and for “cleansing” the regime of records that are no longer needed, whether for business, regulation or cultural/historical purposes.

Storage: Maintaining record authenticity, integrity and usability over time.

Figure 1. The Records Continuum Model (Upward 2000, p.123)

Pedersen pointed out that the continuum-based recordkeeping model as depicted in the general graphic model articulates a framework which identifies and manages documentary relationships, processes, systems and their outputs (records) at four levels of perspective (Pederson, 1999). Kennedy and Schauder (1998) further explained the four dimensions that Upward used in his concept of the continuum model. Their views can be brought together as:

· At level one, the model applies itself to identifying accountable acts and ensures that reliable evidence of them is created by capturing records of the related/supporting transactions. Records of business activities are created as part of business communication processes within the organisations (e.g. through e-mail, document management software, or other software applications)

· At level two, recordkeeping systems manage “families” of transactions and records series documenting processes at the work unit or single function scope of complexity. Records that have been created or received in an organisation are tagged with information (metadata) about them, including the ways they link to other records.

· At level three, a seamless recordkeeping regime embraces the multiple systems and families of records that service the entire documentary needs (business, regulatory & cultural/ educational/ historical) of a single juridical entity. Records become part of a formal system of storage and retrieval that constitutes the corporate memory of the organisation.

· At level four, one comprehends a regime that services the needs of the total society and its constituent functions and entities that carry them out. It takes the form of a collaborative recordkeeping establishment, under the guidance of a suitably empowered public recordkeeping authority, that services the documentary needs of many juridical entities within its jurisdiction and ensures the accountability and the cultural memory of the society as a whole. Records that are required for purposes of societal accountability (e.g., by corporate law) or other forms of collective memory become part of wider archival systems which comprise records from a range organisations.

(Kennedy and Scharder 1998 and Pederson 1999)

Flynn (2001) gave a conclusion of the work done by Atherton and Upward. She analysed that the records continuum model has 6 characteristics as follows:

· A unified and homogenous system for the management of records (including archives) in any format throughout their lifetime, however long or short that life time is;

· The synchronic existence of a record or an accumulation of records in more than one “dimension” of context and use, rather than the diachronic movement of a record or accumulation of records through one discrete and compartmentalised lifecycle stage after another;

· An engagement with the establishment and design of record-keeping systems, even before records have been created;

· Co-operation and sharing of responsibility for records (including archives) and record-keeping systems, particularly between records managers and archivist;

· The concept of service to the users of records, whether internal or external to the creating organisation, throughout the lifetime of those records;

· A sense of the provenance, organisational and social context in which records are created and maintained.

(Flynn 2001, pp.83-84)

3. Mechanisms of Best Practice Behind Records Continuum Model

Flynn (2001) pointed out the records continuum model is significant for three important reasons, among others.

· Firstly, it widens the possibilities of interpretation of records and recordkeeping systems offered by the lifecycle model, widening which is helpful given the variety of current contexts in which archivists and records managers operate, and in which archives and records are used.

· Secondly, it reminds us the fact that records (including archives) are created and maintained for their uses, as a result of business and administrative functions and processes, rather than as an end in themselves.

· Lastly, it emphasises co-operation beyond the walls of our repositories, especially between the closely related if occasionally estranged professions of archives administration and records management-a co-operation which is more important than ever in the contemporary climate of outsourcing and cross-sector working.

(Flynn 2001, p.90)

The best practice mechanisms behind the records continuum model may be explored by a comparative study of the difference between the records continuum model and life cycle model, seen in Figure 2. It can be observed that the records continuum model differ from life cycle model in 10 aspects.

· Origins of the model,

· Elements of records definition,

· Major concerns in records management,

· Records movement patterns,

· Recordkeeping perspectives,

· Recordkeeping process,

· Criteria for selecting archives,

· Time of appraisal,

· Role of recordkeeping managers,

· Undertaking records management tasks.

Variables in perspectives	Lifecycle Model	Records Continuum Model
· 1. Origins of the model	· Evolved from the need to effectively control and manage physical records after Second World War II (half a century ago)