Myth or reality: Is there a generation gap among electronic records archivists?

Archivaria

Volumn 41, Issue , 1996, Pages 234-243

  Elton Brown, Thomas ^a  

^a United States National Archives and Records Administration   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 35148878040     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Note

References (34)

1. Terry Cook, "Easy to Byte, Harder to Chew: The Second Generation of Electronic Records Archives, " Archivclricl 33 (Winter 1991-92), pp. 202.16.
2. Richard J. Cox, The First Genera/ion of Electronic. record. Archivists in the United States: A Study in Pr(fessiona1izution (New York, 1994).
3. Cook, "Easy to Byte, " p. 205.
4. Prior to 1 April 1995, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was the National Archives and Records Service (NARS), a service within the General Services Administration. While this article refers to practices prior to 1995, NARA is used throughout for the sake of consistency.
5. Operations Analysis System (OPSANAL): Vietnam Data Base (VNDBA), 1963-1969 [Enemy Initiated Incidents and Friendly Operations].
6. Combat Activities File (CACTA), 1965-1970 [Combat Air Mission Data].
7. Combat Naval Gunfire Support File (CONGA), 1966-1973.
8. Mine Warfare Operations File (MINEA), 1972-1973 [Naval Mine Warfare Against North Vietnam].
9. Hamlet Evaluation System (HES), 1969-1974.
10. Territorial Reporting System (TFARS), 1972-1974 [Effectiveness and Readiness of the South Vietnam Temtorial Forces Units at the District Level].
11. Operations Analysis System (OPSANAL): Enemy Base Area File, 1966-1971 [Communist Base Area Locations by Geographical Coordinates and By Administrative Areas].
12. Situation Report Amy File (SITRA), 1966-1973 [Ground Combat Data].
13. Cook, "Easy to Byte, " p. 203. The above citations are only a partial representation of the electronic records which document the Vietnam conflict and which are in the National Archives of the United States. For a more complete discussion of the content and context of these records, see Margaret O'Neill Adams, "Vietnam Records in the National Archives: Electronic Records, " Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives (Spring 1991), pp. 76-84.
14. Registration Offering Statistics (ROS), 1971-1988.
15. Monthly Final History Data on Savings and Loans, 1966-1969, Semi-Annual Reports on Savings and Loan, 1965-197 1.
16. Theodore J. Hull, "The FDGC and NARA: Partners in Providing Access to Historical Geographic Data Files, " Presentation at the Association of American Geographers, 91st Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, 14-18 March 1995.
17. Watergate Special Prosecution Force (WSPF): File 73, Records from the Senate Select Committee.
18. Case Dispositions, Computer Programs, and Demographic Survey of the Presidential Clemency Board (Audit Data Base.
19. House Select Committee on Assassinations Computer Enhancements of Assassination Photographs, 1976-1979.
20. Cook, "Easy to Byte, " p. 206.
21. Luciana Duranti, "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science. (Part IV), " Archivaria 31 (Winter 1990). p. 14.
22. Alan Calmes, "Practical Realities of Computer-Based Finding Aids: The NARS A-1 Experience, " American Archivist 42 (1979), pp. 167-77.
23. Report on the Conference on Cataloguing and lnfornzation Services for Machine-Readable Data Files, Airlie House, Warrenron, Wrginia, March 29-31, 1978 (Arlington, VA).
24. The data elements of the MRDF and AMC formats continue today in NARA's internal descriptive standards for all records. More interesting, the latest incarnation of the MRDF and AMC formats appears in the mandatory core elements required by the Government Information Locator Service (GILS). As will be reported later this year, NARA archivists were heavily involved in the development of the GILS core elements and ensured compatibility with the archival descriptive standards which emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s. Because of the evolution over the past twenty years from archival descriptive standards, the GILS records provide an opportunity for electronic records management by archivists and for access to current records by researchers.
25. This influence is all the more telling when one realizes that, according to a promotional flyer from the publisher, the original title of the monograph was Electronic Archives: The Challenges to Archival Education and Research.
26. Cox, The First Generation, p. 4.
27. Ten years ago at the conclusion of a history of SAA's early involvement with the computer, I concluded, "[Ilt would be premature to propose reconstituting SAA as the Society of Atari Archivists. " I am no more optimistic today as I look at the technical nai'vett which leads some to embrace simplistic solutions to complex problems. Thomas Elton Brown, "The Society of American Archivists Confronts the Computer, " American Archivist 47 (Fall 1984), p. 382.
28. Cox, The First Generation, p. 82.
29. Cook, "Easier to Byte, " p. 205.
30. Cox, The First Generation, p. 81.
31. Luciana Duranti, "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science. (Part IV), " Archivaria 31 (Winter 1990). p. 14.
32. Robert M. Warner to Norbert S. Baer, 22 October 1984. Copy available from author.
33. Cox, The First Generation, p. 25.
34. The terminology comes from Cook, "Easier to Byte" p. 206.