Records and Information Management

Patricia C. Franks

• Publisher: ALA Neal-Schuman
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780838917169
• eBook ISBN:
  9780838917565
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

As Information Management put it, "On the strength of its currency and coverage alone, Franks' book is poised to take over as the recommended go-to reference for both students and RIM professionals for many years to come." The new second edition cements this work's status as an up-to-date classic, its content updated and expanded to address emerging technologies, most notably blockchain, and evolving standards and practices. Inside, Franks presents complete coverage of the records and information lifecycle model, encompassing paper, electronic (databases, office suites, email), and new media records (blogs, chat messages, and software as a service). Informed by an advisory board of experts in the field and with contributions by noted authorities, the text addresses such key topics as

• the origins and development of records and information;
• the discipline of information governance and developing a strategic records management plan;
• creation/capture and classification;
• retention strategies, inactive records management, archives, and long-term preservation;
• access, storage, and retrieval;
• electronic records and electronic records management systems;
• the latest on rapidly evolving technologies such as web records, social media, and mobile devices;
• vital records, disaster preparedness and recovery, and business continuity;
• monitoring, auditing, and risk management; and
• education and training.

This book's authoritative blend of theory and practice makes it a matchless resource for everyone in the archives and records management field. Instructor/trainer extras include a set of ready-to-go, customizable PowerPoint slides to accompany the text.

CHAPTER 1

The Origins and Development of Records and Information Management

INTRODUCTION

From the days of the early cave dwellers who painted symbols onto stone walls through today when social media-savvy citizens post their own digital messages on Facebook time lines, three factors remain constant: human beings are compelled to record their experiences, using the tools and technologies available to them, with the intent to share that information with others. Before we can develop a strategic approach to records and information management for today and tomorrow, we should look to the past at the custom of recordkeeping and the conventions that developed around it. As Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest and the US government has carved on the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, “What’s past is prologue.”1

RECORDS AND RECORDKEEPING IN SOCIETY

Long before the invention of the alphabet and the written word, stories and sagas were shared by those who mastered the skill of rote memorization. Memory aids were used, especially as evidence of an activity. A brief glimpse at recordkeeping practices from 15,000 BCE to the present day demonstrates that no matter how much civilization develops, our desire to remember and document remains the same.

Recordkeeping and Ancient Civilizations

Between 15,000 and 13,000 BCE, human beings documented the animals involved in their hunt for food through mural paintings on the walls of caves found in the “sole region of Paleolithic mural paintings” in Europe.2 Abbe Breuil, an explorer and scientist who studied the paintings on the walls of the caverns of Lascaux, describes the caves not as dwellings for humans but as “places [that] could have served only as specially chosen repositories for the secrets of a civilization.”3

Tangible and portable memory aids were needed to document transactions. In Mesopotamia as far back as 8000 BCE, plain clay tokens were utilized for recordkeeping, probably to count agricultural items such as grain or cereal. By 4000 BCE, tokens decorated with markings thought to record manufactured goods appeared in settlements in southern Mesopotamia. Similar tokens were used to record animals, with wedge-like shapes engraved into the clay to represent quantity followed by a sign that indicated the type of animal.4 This method of recordkeeping is considered the precursor to the cuneiform writing system created by the Sumerians. The evolution of recordkeeping from tokens to the written word is illustrated in figure 1.1.

FIGURE 1.1 Engraved clay tokens, evolution to cuneiform writing, and English equivalent.

SOURCE: Denise Schmandt-Besserat, “Reckoning Before Writing,” Escola Finalay, accessed September 27, 2017, http://​en.finaly.org/​index.php/​Reckoning_​before_​writing. ©Denise Schmandt-Besserat, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

By 3200 BCE, hieroglyphics were developed in Egypt by a people who saw literacy as the most valued skill. Recordkeeping was used for commercial and religious purposes. Records of land holdings, crop yields, and taxes were made. Religious texts were written and copied by scribes in temples and were inscribed on funerary equipment and papyrus.

As writing skills became more widespread, the volume of information to be organized and stored grew. The archives of Ebla (modern Tell Mardikh, Syria) ultimately contained an estimated 20,000 clay tablets written in Sumerian script that dated from approximately 2250 BCE.5 The archives are believed to have been a repository for records about economic matters, such as accounts of the state revenues, but they also contained royal letters, law cases, and diplomatic and trade contracts—all organized on shelves according to subject. The information contained in these tablets provided a glimpse into the everyday lives of the citizens of Ebla.

Papyrus scrolls were used as a recording medium throughout the known world until circa 170 BCE when Egypt cut off its supply of papyrus to Pergamum, an ancient Greek city located in Anatolia (now modern Turkish town of Bergama). In response, the people of Pergamum produced parchment made out of a thin sheet of sheepskin or goatskin. This innovative recording medium allowed for increased information to be recorded and its use spread throughout Europe and Asia.6

Recordkeeping: First Millennium through the Early Twentieth Century

The second century CE brought with it the development of a papermaking process in China by Ts’ai Lun, known to the Chinese as the patron saint of papermaking.7 The paper was thin, strong, and flexible. In the third century, the secret art of papermaking made its way to Vietnam and Tibet. Over the next several centuries, it spread to the rest of the civilized world. By the ninth century, papyrus had been replaced by parchment in Europe. Paper was not used as a practical medium in Europe until Johann Gutenberg perfected moveable type and printed the Gutenberg Bible in 1456. This sparked a revolution in mass communication and ushered in the age of modern paper and the printing industry.

Just as we’re experiencing today, past advancements in technologies and tools required new, often bureaucratic, solutions to managing records, such as:

• • The fourteenth century saw the first office of the clerk of the rolls, register, and council, later known as the Lord Clerk Register, appear in Scotland. This office assumed responsibility for keeping the national archives.8
• • The town clerk of the city of London was made responsible for the safekeeping of the city corporation’s records in 1462.9
• • In 1540, the Emperor Charles V transferred his most important records to a tower in the castle of Simancas in Spain, and Jacob von Rammingen, considered the father of archival science, wrote the manuscript of the earliest known archival manual. Rammingen’s archival manual was printed in Germany along with a more detailed book on the same subject in 1571.10
• • In 1681, Jean Mabillon, a Benedictine monk, published De Re Diplomatica (Study of Documents). This six-volume treatise produced the name of a new science—diplomatics—that attempts to establish the provenance of a written text through systematic analysis of the material on which the text is written, the scripts and penmanship used to write the text, and the language usage within the text.11
• • On January 7, 1714, Queen Anne of England granted the first known patent for a machine or method for the impressing or transcribing of letters “so neat and exact as not to be distinguished from print.”12 The machine was useful in settlements and public records because the impression would be more lasting than writing and could not be erased or counterfeited without discovery.
• • In 1772, the General Register House in Edinburgh was designed by Robert Adam to serve as a repository for the public records of Scotland.13

The nineteenth century saw the establishment of a number of national archives, including those in the Netherlands, Portugal, Argentina, Italy, Spain, Canada, France, India, Ireland, and the Philippines. In the United States, several archives and historical societies were established, including those in New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Maryland, Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado.

The nineteenth century also produced new technology that automated the task of writing and editing—the first modern manual typewriter, invented by Christopher Latham Sholes and two colleagues in 1867. E. Remington and Sons marketed the typewriter commercially in 1874. This technology allowed records and correspondence to be produced more quickly and easily. Businesses purchased “type writing machines” and hired women as “typewriters” at salaries higher than for schoolteachers or nurses.

Corporate Archives Adapt to Capture and Preserve the History of the Organization

In 1922, the former American Telephone and Telegraph Company established its Historical Collection in New York City. Renamed the AT&T Historical Library in 1933, and later called the AT&T Corporate Archives in 1982, this collection was consolidated in 1987 with the Bell System Museum and the archives of Bell Labs and Western Electric, in Warren, New Jersey. Following the 2005 acquisition of AT&T Corporation by Texas-based SBC Communications, the AT&T Archives merged operationally with the SBC Archives to form the AT&T Archives and History Center with two locations: San Antonio, Texas, and Warren, New Jersey. Total archival holdings of materials dating from 1869 through 2017 include 45,000 cubic feet of books, periodicals, photographs, moving images, sound recordings, and microforms as well as 15,000 three-dimensional objects.

SOURCE: Courtesy of the AT&T Archives and History Center.

The population grew so rapidly in the United States that the 1880 census took seven and one-half years to complete. In a search for a method to streamline the process, the US Census Bureau offered a prize for an inventor to help with the 1890 census. The winner, Herman Hollerith, used Joseph Marie Jacquard’s punched cards for the computation. The 1890 census was completed in three years and saved the government five million dollars. Hollerith built a company th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Origins and Development of Records and Information Management
• 2 Building an Information Governance Program on a Solid RIM Foundation
• 3 Records and Information Creation and Capture, Classification, and File Plan Development
• 4 Records Retention Strategies: Inventory, Appraisal, Retention, and Disposition
• 5 Records and Information Access, Storage, and Retrieval
• 6 Electronic Records and Electronic Records Management Systems
• 7 Developing and Emerging Technologies and Records Management
• 8 Vital (Essential) Records, Disaster Preparedness and Recovery, and Business Continuity
• 9 Monitoring, Auditing, and Risk Management
• 10 Information Economics, Privacy, and Security
• 11 Inactive Records Management: Records Centers and Archives
• 12 Long-Term Digital Preservation and Trusted Digital Repositories
• 13 Lifelong Learning: Education, Training, and Professional Development
• 14 From Records Management to Information Governance: An Evolution
• Appendix: A Sampling of Records Management Laws and Regulations Outside of the United States
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• About the Author and Contributors
• Index