Schellenberg in cyberspace

American Archivist

Volumn 61, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 309-327

  Henry, Linda ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0039085320     PISSN: 03609081     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17723/aarc.61.2.f493110467x38701     Document Type: Review

References (105)

1. ' Ole Kolsrud, "The Evolution of Basic Appraisal Principles," American Archivist 55 (Winter 1992): 35- 36;
2. Donald R. McCoy, The National Archives: America's Ministry of Documents, 1934-1968 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978), 179-82;
3. Jane Smith, "Theodore R. Schellenberg: Americanizer and Popularizer," American Archivist 44 (Fall 1991): 316, 322-25.
4. Schellenberg's major works are: Modem Archives: Principles and Techniques (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956);
5. Modern Archives; The Management of Archives (New York: Columbia University Press 1965);
6. and The Appraisal of Modern Public Records, National Archives Bulletin 8 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1956).
7. When I refer to Schellenberg in this article, I am also including the other U.S. National Archives pioneers with whom he developed his concepts. See, for example, Philip C. Brooks, ' 'The Selection of Records for Preservation," American Archivist 3 (October 1940): 221-34.
8. and G. Philip Bauer, The Appraisal of Current and Recent Records, Staff Information Circular #13 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives, 1946), 1-25. The National Archives in this article refers to the National Archives of the United States. The National Archives was established in 1934. In 1949 it became the National Archives and Records Service, part of the General Services Administration. In 1985 it became an independent agency again, the National Archives and Records Administration.
9. Robert M. Warner and Francis X. Blouin, Jr., "Some Implications of Records in Machine-Readable Form for Traditional Archival Practice," in Archivists and Machine-Readable Records: Proceedings of the Conference on Archival Management of Machine-Readable Records, February 7-10, 1979, Ann Arbor, Michigan, edited by Carolyn L. Geda, Erik W. Austin and Francis X. Blouin, Jr. (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1980): 245, 243-44.
10. See also in the same publication Thomas E. Mills, "Archival Considerations in the Management of Machine-Readable Records in New York State Government", 104;
11. Carolyn L. Geda, Erik W. Austin and Francis X. Blouin, Jr., "Introduction," 9;
12. William F. Rofes, "The Archival Snare: Mass and Manipulation," 112, 114-15;
13. and Jerome M. Clubb, "Archival Implications of Technological and Social Change", 233-34.
14. Harold Naugler, The Archival Appraisal of Machine-Readable Records: A RAMP Study with Guidelines (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, General Information Programme and UNISIST, 1984): 37-41, 57-82.
15. Geda et al., "Introduction," 9;
16. and Geda et al., "Introduction to Chapter 4," Archivists and Machine- Readable Records, 147;
17. Thomas Elton Brown, "The Society of American Archivists Confronts the Computer," American Archivist Al (Fall 1984): 366-82.
18. Terry Cook, "Easy to Byte, Harder to Chew: The Second Generation of Electronic Records Archives," Archivaria 33 (Winter 1991-92): 202-16;
19. Thomas Elton Brown, "Myth or Reality: Is There a Generation Gap Among Electronic Records Archivists?" Archivaria 41 (Spring 1996): 234-38.
20. Report of the Working Meeting: Research Issues in Electronic Records, published for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Washington, D.C. (St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society, 1991), 20-21, discusses some of the reasons why so few programs existed.
21. 'Ann Pederson, "Empowering Archival Effectiveness: Archival Strategies As Innovation," American Archivist 58 (Fall 1995)
22. discusses Bearman's influence and his establishment of Archives & Museum Informatics (AMI) in 1986. During its first three years, "75-80 percent of the content of AMI publications [were] attributable to Bearman," Ann Pederson, "Do Real Archivists Need Archives & Museum Informatics?" American Archivist 53 (Fall 1990): 667-68. The percentage appears to be the same for later years. With volume 11, no. 1 (1997), Kluwer Academic Publishers became the publisher of the journal and announced that it would be peer-reviewed. For the term "new paradigm,"
23. see Terry Cook, "Electronic Records, Paper Minds: The Revolution in Information Management and Archives in the Post-Custodial and Post-Modern World," Archives and Manuscripts 22 (November 1994): 305-15.
24. In this article I mainly discuss David Bearman's writings and some of the writings of Richard Cox, Margaret Hedstrom, Terry Cook, and Charles Dollar as being representative of the writers who call for a new paradigm for electronic records, although there are other such writers, particularly in Australia. Cook's writings present a problem. In the same 1997 SAA annual meeting session in which I gave the paper now revised and expanded as this article, a paper by Terry Cook presented some of the same criticisms of Bearman as mine, "Who Will Do It If We Don't: The Cultural Mission of Archives vis-a-vis Electronic Records." His criticisms reflected the second part of an article he published just before the SAA meeting
25. ' 'The Impact of David Bearman on Modern Archival Thinking: An Essay of Personal Reflection and Critique," Archives and Museum Informatics 11, no. 1 (1997): 15-37
26. The emphasis on recordkeeping is reflected in several research projects. The "Functional Requirements for Recordkeeping" project of the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, led by David Bearman and Richard Cox, and projects at Indiana University and the City of Philadelphia to test the Pittsburgh model all fall more within what archivists regard as records management rather than archival work. Discussion of these projects is, therefore, outside the scope of this article. Since all three were funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, links to information about them are included on the NHPRC's website, .
27. Another project focusing upon recordkeeping but with a more archival framework, also excluded from this article, is at the University of British Columbia School of Library, Archives and Information Science, .
28. Paul Marsden, "Counterpoint: When is the Future? Comparative Notes on the Electronic Record-Keeping Project of the University of Pittsburgh and the University of British Columbia," ArchivariaVi (Spring 1997): 158-73, compares the Pittsburgh and UBC projects and provides citations to numerous articles about these projects.
29. Richard Cox, "The Record: Is It Evolving?" Records & Retrieval Report 10 (March 1994): 12, (emphasis in original);
30. David Bearman, Electronic Evidence Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations (Pittsburgh: Archives & Museum Informatics, 1994), 285, 2.
31. Cox, "The Record," 10-11;
32. Schellenberg, Modem Archives, 139.
33. Michael Fox coined the unpublished phrase "footprints of bureaucrats;" Ian E. Wilson, "Reflections on Archival Strategies," American Archivist 58 (Fall 1995) 422, 424, 426-27;
34. Roy C.Turnbaugh, "Records and Evidence: From Theory to Reality" (Paper delivered at the annual meeting of the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, Sacramento, California, 19 July 1997),2-3, 6
35. After supporting a new definition of a record, Cook later wrote that this definition was too narrow. He then made the point about personal papers and private-sector archives in The Impact of David Bearman, 29-30.
36. Schellenberg, Modern Archives, 146;
37. Kenneth Thibodeau, "Evidential Values and Archival Functions: Fundamental Challenges" (Paper delivered at the Annual meeting of the Association of Canadian Archivists, Ottawa, 6 May 1997): 6.
38. Kenneth Thibodeau, "Managing Archival Records in the Electronic Age," in Federal Information Policies in the 1990s: Views and Perspectives, edited by Peter Hernon, Charles R. McClure and Harold C. Relyea (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1996), 284-85.
39. David H. Thomas, "Business Functions: Toward a Methodology," 3, (accessed 26 July 1997).
40. Maynard J. Brichford, Archives and Manuscripts: Appraisal and Accessioning (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1977), 4-5;
41. F. Gerald Ham, Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1993), 51-53.
42. Bearman, Electronic Evidence, 36;
43. David Bearman, "Archival Strategies," American Archivist 58 (Fall 1995): 383;
44. Charles M. Dollar, Archival Theory and Information Technologies: The Impact of Information Technologies on Archival Principles and Methods (Macerata, Italy: University of Macerata, 1992), 58, 76;
45. Terry Cook, "Archives in the Post-Custodial World: Interaction of Archival Theory and Practice Since the Publication of the Dutch Manual in 1898" (Paper delivered at the XIII International Congress on Archives, Beijing, 1996), 13, 22-23.
46. Cook later wrote that archivists do need to look at records in, "The Impact of David Bearman", 33-34.
47. Michael L. Miller, "Is the Past Prologue? Appraisal and the New Technologies," in Archival Management of Electronic Records, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report No. 13, part II (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1991), 39-40, discusses the appraisal of PTO patent systems. I was the appraisal archivist for the fifty-four databases.
48. David Bearman and Margaret Hedstrom, "Re-inventing Archives for Electronic Records: Alternative Service Delivery Options," in Electronic Records Management Program Strategies, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report No. 18, edited by Margaret Hedstrom (Pittsburgh: Archives & Museum Informatics, 1993), 86.
49. McCoy, The National Archives, 157;
50. "Introduction to the General Records Schedules," General Records Schedules, Transmittal No. 7 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1995), 1;
51. Ham, Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts, 29.
52. Bearman and Hedstrom, "Re-inventing Archives", 86;
53. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Part 1228, section 26(a)(2);
54. Brooks, "The Selection of Records for Preservation," 226;
55. Schellenberg, Modern Archives, 26, 109.
56. Bearman, "Archival Strategies," 399.
57. David Bearman, "Managing the Records Continuum," Archives and Museum Informatics 10, no. 2 (1996): 133-36.
58. Cook, "Archives in the Post-Custodial World," footnote 73.
59. Thibodeau, "Evidential Values and Archival Functions," 12;
60. Luciana Duranti and Heather McNeil, "The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records: An Overview of the UBC-MAS Research Project," Archivaria 42 (Fall 1996): 60-62;
61. In this article, Cook apparently rethought the desirability of mending the split and wrote that archivists shouldn't become records managers. Turnbaugh, "Records and Evidence", 4.
62. Dollar, Archival Theory and Information Technology, 54, 75;
63. David Bearman, "An Indefensible Bastion Archives as Repositories in the Electronic Age," in Archival Management of Electronic Records, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report No. 13, part I, (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1991), 14-24;
64. Thibodeau, "Managing Electronic Records," 282;
65. Kenneth Thibodeau, "To Be or Not To Be: Archives for Electronic Records," in Archival Management of Electronic Records, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report No. 13, part I (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1991), 3, 11-12;
66. Luciana Duranti, "Archives as a Place," Archives and Manuscripts 24 (November 1996): 250-53.
67. Theodore J. Hull, "Reference Services for Electronic Records in Archives," in Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts, edited by Laura B. Cohen (Binghamton, New York: Haworth Press, 1997), 152-57
68. Terry Eastwood, "Should Creating Agencies Keep Electronic Records Indefinitely?" Archives and Manuscripts 24 (November 1996): 265.
69. In this article, Eastwood dissects Bearman's arguments against custody and writes that, "Bearman is wrong on every score", 259 (emphasis in original).
70. Mark Conrad, "To Have and to Hold?: Archival Responsibility in the Electronic Age," Irish Archives 37 (Spring 1996): 37;
71. Ken Hannigan, "A Summary on Electronic Records Management in the EU Member States: Relations Between Public Administrations and Archives Services," in INSAR Supplement II: The Proceedings of the DLM-Forum on Electronic Records, Brussels, 18-20 December 1996 (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1997), 230.
72. Lewis J. and Lynn Lady Bellardo, comp., A Glossary for Archivists, Manuscript Curators and Records Managers (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1992), 3-4;
73. Pederson, "Empowering Archival Effectiveness, 442.
74. Wilson, "Reflections on Archival Strategies," 427, points out that "the trend in government is strongly away from further control and regulation."
75. Smith, "Schellenberg," 324;
76. Kolsrud, "The Evolution of Basic Appraisal Principles," 36;
77. Schellenberg, Modem Archives, 67-71, 133-39, 169-79, 195-203;
78. T.R. Schellenberg, The Management of Archives (New York: Columbia University Press, 1965), 20-60.
79. Richard Cox, "The Documentation Strategy and Archival Principles: A Different Perspective," Archivaria 38 (Fall 1994): 11-36
80. and, "The Record", 1-33
81. David Bearman, "Documenting Documentation," Archivaria 34 (Summer 1992): 33-49;
82. Cook, "Electronic Records, Paper Minds", 300-26;
83. Margaret Hedstrom, "Teaching Archivists About Electronic Records and Automated Techniques: A Needs Assessment," American Archivist 56 (Summer 1993): 425 and footnote 8.
84. Schellenberg, Management of Archives, 20-60;
85. OT Cook, quoted in Alf Erlandsson, Electronic Records Management: A Literature Review (Paris: International Council on Archives, December, 1996), footnote 259;
86. Adrian Cunningham, "Journey to the End of the Night: Custody and the Dawning of a New Era on the Archival Threshold," Archives and Manuscripts 24 (November 1996): 317;
87. Alan Kowlowitz, "Appraising in a Vacuum: Electronic Records Appraisal Issues - A View From the Trenches," in Archival Management of Electronic Records, Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report No. 13, part II (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1991), 32, 35;
88. Margaret Hedstrom, "Electronic Records Research: What Have Archivists Learned From the Mistakes of the Past?" Archives and Museum Informatics 10, no. 4 (1996): 319 (emphasis added).
89. Thomas E. Brown, "Myth or Reality" counters writings of Cook and Cox about the electronic records experiences of the National Archives. For a list of writings and presentations of National Archives staff about electronic records
90. see >www.nara.gov/nara/electronic/selpub.html>
91. David Bearman, "The Implications of Armstrong v. Executive Office of the President for the Archival Management of Electronic Records," American Archivist 56 (Fall 1993): 689.
92. Bearman's article contains factual errors. For example, NARA has never claimed that changes in practice were unnecessary to cope with electronic records (p. 689). In attributing this position to Acting Archivist Trudy Petersen, Bearman contradicts her published views, see footnote 45. Also contrary to Bearman's undocumented assertions, NARA did have both experience and competence in processing electronic records (p. 680), and has never based electronic records retention on "software utilities" (p. 689). Because the Armstrong case was still under litigation at the time that Bearman's article was published, NARA could not respond. Neither the author nor the editor noted that Bearman was a consultant to the plaintiffs in the court case. Nor did they note that Bearman was a consultant to the Pittsburgh Project, whose functional requirements he endorsed in the article. Finally, they also failed to note that the principal investigator of the Pittsburgh Project, Richard Cox, was the editor of the American Archivist at that time.
93. "John Roberts, "Archival Theory: Myth or Banality?" American Archivist 53 (Winter 1990): 119;
94. Hedstrom,"Electronic Records Research," 323.
95. David Bearman, "Archival Methods," Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report 3, no. 1 (Spring 1989): 10;
96. David Bearman, "Item Level Control and Electronic Recordkeeping," Archives & Museum Informatics 10, No. 3 (1996): 214-17;
97. Edith Cowen University, quoted in Erlandsson, Electronic Records Management, 26;
98. David Bearman, "Virtual Archives," (Paper delivered at the ICA meeting, Beijing, 1996): 2, 4. (accessed 2 August 1997).
99. Pederson, "EmpoweringArchival Effectiveness," 433-34, 437.
100. Conrad, "Archival Responsibility in the Electronic Age," 37;
101. Margaret Hedstrom, Electronic Records Research and Development: Final Report of the 1996 Conference held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, June 28-29, 1996 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan School of Information, 1997), 6;
102. Cook, "Impact of David Bearman," 36.
103. Trudy Huskamp Peterson, "Machine-Readable Records as Archival Materials," XI International Congress of Archives (Paris: International Congress of Archives, 1988): 13.
104. This article is similar to an earlier one Peterson wrote, "Archival Principles and Records of the New Technology," American Archivist 47 (Fall 1984): 383-93. Supporters of the new paradigm do not cite or discuss Peterson or the other first writers about electronic records whom I noted earlier.
105. Kolsrud, "The Evolution of Basic Appraisal Principles," vol 37.