Managing Archives

Foundations, Principles and Practice

Caroline Williams

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9781780630892

Managing Archives provides a practical guide to archives management. It has three main target audiences: those who have been tasked by their organization to manage its archives but who have no prior training; those who are starting out as professionals or para-professionals in a record keeping environment and need basic guidance; and students who are currently studying for a professional qualification. Basic guidance is supplemented by comprehensive references to professional literature, standards, web sites etc. to enable the reader to further their studies at their own pace. The text includes a range of optional activities that enable the reader to translate principles into practice and feel greater 'ownership' with the guidance. - There is no similar book on the market - There is known demand both from practitioners and students - The book offers guidance in the implementation of archival processes in a range of institutional contexts, and enables a universal application

1

Introduction

Records are indispensable for the efficient management of our lives, of organisations and of government but are often undervalued, ignored or misunderstood. Yet they help support the rights and responsibilities of every individual and enable the smooth running of all organisations – from governments to golf clubs and multi-nationals to mosques. At the same time archives, the small subset of records selected for permanent preservation, provide individuals with a sense of identity and preserve the culture and history of a people.

Between them, archives and records provide an infrastructure for both personal and public activity. But for the real potential of archives and records to be realised they need to be managed in a professional manner. Records managers are concerned with the administration of the current records of an organisation and archivists with those records that have been selected to be kept permanently. Both groups have principles and practices in common and have close ties with other disciplines, both in the information sector – knowledge, document and information management – and in the cultural sector – museums and library management.

The purpose of this book is first to provide an introduction to the common theory and principles that underpin both records and archives management. Secondly, it offers practical guidance to those working specifically with archives. It is aimed at those who are starting out as archive professionals and need a basic handbook; at students on archives, records, museums, library and information programmes who are seeking an introduction to the discipline; and to anyone who has taken responsibility for archives but without any prior experience.

Chapter 2 looks at general principles and approaches. Chapters 3–6 focus on specific aspects of archive work. These chapters briefly describe the underlying theory, principles and standards upon which practice is founded, suggesting possible techniques, and using real-life examples alongside suggested reading and websites for further study. The final chapter introduces some of the management techniques necessary for running an archive service. Although the guidance is aimed primarily at a UK audience it draws on examples of international practice when appropriate.

2

Principles and purposes of records and archives

Before you can get down to practical work on archives you need have some appreciation of the concepts and principles that underpin all basic archival practices. Knowledge and understanding of these will give you the confidence to use the appropriate procedures and techniques in specific situations. This chapter aims to set the context for archives; subsequent chapters give more detailed practical guidance.

This chapter:

■ defines records and archives and principles and concepts;

■ identifies their similarities to and differences from other information sources;

■ explains how people and organisations use records and archives;

■ describes the core functions of archives management;

■ describes the role of the archivist and records manager; and

■ identifies the historical and institutional environments in which archives are found

Defining archives. What is the difference between records and archives?

Definitions are often vexing, and nuances of language can lead to a number of interpretations. We need to be clear about definitions, however, in order to:

■ explain precisely and confidently to colleagues, managers, customers and friends what it is we do;

■ recognise the boundaries of our professional activity as well as commonalities with other disciplines; and

■ understand our own professional roles and carry out our responsibilities.

An understanding of archives cannot be separated from an understanding of records: although processes for dealing with them might vary, they are inextricably linked. However the words ‘archives’ and ‘records’ mean different things to different people. Anything that is old and/or needs saving can be ‘archived’. A random search of the term reveals the University of Virginia’s hypertext archive of British poetry and a weather archive at the National Climatic Data Center in north Colorado; the University of Liverpool’s library catalogue includes such titles as the Archives of Mathematics and Archives of the Peat Bogs. And ‘records’ are not just written – they might be musical, criminal or broken!

Archivists and records managers must work to more specific definitions than these. For them records comprise information generated by organisations and individuals in their daily business and personal transactions. Archives are a subset of these: they are those records kept for their continuing value. Archivists and records managers might also use the word ‘archives’ to refer to a building where archives are stored or as part of the title of the service or agency that manages them.

The generally accepted difference between records and archives, at least for most anglophones, is that the term

■ ‘records’ has been applied to the products of current and ongoing activity, whereas

■ ‘archives’ has been defined as referring to any records with long-term continuing value that have been kept either because they may be necessary for ongoing organisational purposes to their creating body or because they have additional research value.

However, in many European languages the word ‘archives’ is taken to mean both records in use for current purposes and those maintained for their continuing long-term value: in France last week’s email and a ninth-century Carolingian charter may both be ‘archives’. In England the first archival theorist, Sir Hilary Jenkinson, did not differentiate either: to him archives were created as part of any transaction, and subsequently preserved. To Sir Hilary a ‘record’ was a transaction resulting in a legal document produced by a court ‘of record’.

In America in the mid-twentieth century Theodore Schellenberg, of the National Archives and Records Service in Washington, was the first person to articulate a difference and division between records and archives. He perceived ‘records’ as created and maintained for current organisational purposes and ‘archives’ as records set aside and used for purposes other than those they had been created for, such as historical research. (Americans also identify a distinction between ‘archives’ as being generated by organisations or institutions and ‘manuscripts’ as being generated by individuals or families.)

Australian archivists were early critics of the idea of a rigid division between records and archives. They developed a holistic, ‘continuum-based’ approach that argues that there is no one point when a record suddenly becomes an archive in some sort of linear progression; and that in any case it is possible to use records/archives as a record or archive at the same time. Yesterday’s ‘archive’, for example a nineteenth-century map used by the local historian to trace field boundaries, can become today’s ‘record’ when it is required as evidence of public rights of way, in current court proceedings.

These diverse approaches are reflected in the different national and international definitions of archives shown below. The most recent and most authoritative is that provided by an international standard, published in 2001.

Definitions of records and archives

United Kingdom

Archives (including records)

‘A document which may be said to belong to the class of Archives is one which was drawn up or used in the course of an administrative or executive transaction … of which itself formed a part; and subsequently preserved in their own custody … by the person or persons responsible for that transaction and their legitimate successors.’ Sir Hilary Jenkinson, Manual of Archive Administration, 1st edn, 1922.

United States

Records

All books, papers, maps … made or received by any … institution in pursuance of its legal obligations or in the transaction of its proper business and preserved … by that institution or its legitimate successor as evidence of its functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or other activities or because of the informational value of the data contained therein.

Archives

Those records … adjudged worthy of preservation for reference and research purposes and which have been deposited or have been selected for deposit in an archival institution. T. R Schellenberg, Modern Archives, 1956, p. 56.

Australia

Records

Recorded information, in any form, including data in computer systems, created or received and maintained by an organisation or person in the transaction of business or the conduct of affairs and kept as evidence of such activity.

Archives

The whole body of records of continuing value of an organisation or individual … sometimes called the ‘corporate memory’. Australian Standard AS 4390:1996.

International definition

Records (and archives?)

Information created, received and maintained as evidence and information by an organisation or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business. ISO 15489:2001.

(The international standard does not explicitly define archives.)

I shall return to the practical effects of these definitions later. Increasingly the distinction in definition between reco...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• About the author
• 1: Introduction
• 2: Principles and purposes of records and archives
• 3: Selection, appraisal and acquisition
• 4: Archival arrangement and description
• 5: Access, reference and advocacy
• 6: Preservation
• 7: Managing an archive service
• Bibliography
• Index