Placing records continuum theory and practice

Archival Science

Volumn 1, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 333-359

  McKemmish, Sue ^a  

^a MONASH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Archival metatext; Recordkeeping; Records continuum

Indexed keywords

EID: 42649140349     PISSN: 13890166     EISSN: 15737519     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/BF02438901     Document Type: Article

References (110)

1. Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).
2. One of the strongest challenges to traditional practice came from David Bearman in Archival Methods (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1989).
3. Frank Upward, "Structuring the Records Continuum Part One: Post-custodial Principles and Properties", Archives and Manuscripts 24(2) (Nov 1996): 268-285;
4. Frank Upward, "Structuring the Records Continuum Part Two: Structuration Theory and Recordkeeping", Archives and Manuscripts 25(1) (May 1997): 10-35.
5. Sue McKemmish, "Are Records Ever Actual?", in Sue McKemmish and Michael Piggott (eds.), The Records Continuum: Ian Maclean and Australian Archives First Fifty Years (Clayton: Ancora Press in association with Australian Archives, 1994), p. 200.
6. Discourse analysis involves examining how narrative or rhetorical tropes are used in documents to "tell stories", or advance particular perspectives or arguments. It may include historical analysis of ideas by looking at what are the principal aspects of the discourse in terms of the context of the time. The sources are the literature of the discipline under analysis. The literature of the discipline is the major source from which theory building emerges. This method assumes a constant evolution of ideas and identifies when radical changes occur and their impact on existing concepts. The literary warrant for professional practice is made up of authoritative sources, which are recognised and valued by practitioners. Such authoritative sources may be found in the law, codes of ethics, standards, the professional and scholarly literature, and literary texts. Analysis of the literary warrant for professional practice establishes the "mandates" for best practice, and identifies its conceptual and theoretical frames of reference. Case studies involve the in-depth analysis of an individual situation, institution or process in order to understand it in complex detail. Historical analysis involves a critical examination of primary and secondary sources. For more information on these research methods, see the following works. Anne Gilliland-Swetland, "Archival Research: A 'New' Issue for Graduate Education", The American Archivist 63(2) (Fall 2000): 258-270: for explanations of narrative analysis, ethnography, case studies, and historiography as used in archival research;
7. Kirsty Williamson, Research Methods for Students and Professionals: Information Management and Systems (Wagga Wagga NSW: CSU, 2000): for extended discussion of ethnography, case studies, and historiography in information management research;
8. Eivia lacovino, The Ethical-Legal Context of Recordkeeping: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives, PhD thesis, Monash University (in-progress): for definition of discourse analysis;
9. Wendy Duff, "Harnessing the Power of Warrant", The American Archivist 61 (Spring 1998): 88-105: for definition of literary warrant analysis.
10. Frank Upward, "Modelling the Continuum as Paradigm Shift in Recordkeeping and Archiving Processes, and Beyond - A Personal Reflection", Records Management Journal (December 2000).
11. Sue McKemmish, Glenda Acland, Nigel Ward and Barbara Reed, "Describing Records in Context in the Continuum: The Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema", Archivaria 48 (Fall 1999): 6.
12. An example of the misunderstandings that can arise is provided by Verne Harris' use of the term "record-keeping" in his critique of what he labels the "record-keeping paradigm" in the broader "record-keeping discourse" in his paper at the ICA Congress in Seville in September 2000. As is evident from discussion of his paper during December 2000 on the Aus-archivists Listserv, many Australian readers interpreted the term as referring to the whole of what in Australia is identified as recordkeeping theory and practice, including the records continuum model. A clarification from Harris, posted to the Listserv on 12 December, indicates that he was using the term much more narrowly. Unfortunately, the paper itself did not directly address records continuum concepts or the records continuum model - a significant omission given its subject matter. See: Verne Harris, "Law, Evidence and Electronic Records: A Strategic Perspective from the Global Periphery", available via http://www.archivists.org.au/. The Aus-archivists Listserv archive is available at http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/asa.
13. "Lvidence of Me ..." raised a range of issues relating to personal recordkeeping and the personal archive - the "evidence of me". The term "evidence of me" was drawn from the writing of novelist Graham Swift (in Ever After) and it is used in the article as a synonym for the personal archive in the broadest sense, akin to that ascribed to "evidence" by Derrida (who refers in Archives Fever (University of Chicago Press, 1996) to what he terms "dramatic evidence" as "dramatic proof, mark, clue, dramatic testimony, in the broad sense of the word 'testimony', one could even say archive"). "Evidence of Me ..." uses the then still evolving records continuum model to structure its exploration of issues relating to personal recordkeeping, identity, and memory, and the role of archivists in transforming "evidence of me" into "evidence of us", collective identity and memory. Sue McKemmish, "Evidence of Me . . .", Archives and Manuscripts 24(1) (May 1996): 28-415.
14. Sue McKemmish, "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: A Continuum of Responsibility", in P.J. Horsman, F.C.J. Ketelaar, and T.H.P.M. Thomassen (eds.), Naareen Nieuw Paradigma in de Archivistiek ('s-Gravenhage: Stichting Archiefpublicaties, 1999), pp. 195-210.
15. Standards Australia, AS 4390-1996 Australian Standard: Records Management (Homebush: Standards Australia, 1996).
16. For a discussion of the strategy involved, see: David Roberts, "Building a Recordkeeping Regime Across Government", in Preserving Yesterday, Managing Today and Challenging Tomorrow: Proceedings 14th National Convention RMAA, 1997 (Perth: Records Management Association of Australia, 1997); available though the Publications link at http://www.records.nsw.gov.au.
17. See, for example: Archives Authority of NSW, Records and Recordkeeping: Introducing New Concepts (November 1995);
18. available via the NSW Public Sector and Government Recordkeeping Manual and Records and Recordkeeping link at http://www.records.nsw. gov.au.
19. Jay Atherton, "From Life Cycle to Continuum: Some Thoughts on the Records Management-Archives Relationship", Archivaria 21 (Winter 1985-1986): 43-51.
20. Frank Upward, "Modelling the Continuum as Paradigm Shift in Recordkeeping and Archiving Processes, and Beyond - A Personal Reflection", Records Management Journal (December 2000).
21. For example: Glenda Acland, "Archivist - Keeper, Undertaker or Auditor?", Archives and Manuscripts 19(1) (May 1991): 9-15;
22. Glenda Acland, "Managing the Record Rather than the Relic", Archives and Manuscripts 20(1) (May 1992): 57-63;
23. Australian Society of Archivists and Australian Council of Archives, Managing Electronic Records (Canberra: ASA and ACA, 1993);
24. Information Exchange Steering Committee, Management of Electronic Documents in the Australian Public Service (Canberra: ESC, 1993);
25. Sue McKemmish and Frank Upward (eds.), Archival Documents: Providing Accountability Through Recordkeeping (Clayton, Victoria: Ancora Press, 1993);
26. Sue McKemmish and Michael Piggott (eds.), The Records Continuum: lan Maclean and Australian Archives First Fifty Years (Clayton: Ancora Press in association with Australian Archives, 1994)
27. ; Greg O'Shea and David Roberts, "Living in a Digital World: Recognizing the Electronic and Post-custodial Realities", Archives and Manuscripts 24(2) (November 1996): 286-311;
28. Barbara Reed, "Electronic Records Management in Australia", Records Management Journal (UK) 7(2) (August 1997)
29. ; Barbara Reed, "Electronic Records Management in Transition", Archives and Manuscripts 22(1) (May 1994): 164-171;
30. David Roberts, "Defining Electronic Records, Documents and Data", Archives and Manuscripts 22(1) (May 1994): 14-27
31. ; Steve Stuckey, "Keepers of the Fame? The Custodial Role of Australian Archives - Its History and Its Future", in McKemmish and Piggott, op. cit., pp. 35-48;
32. Frank Upward and Sue McKemmish, "Somewhere Beyond Custody", Archives and Manuscripts 22(1) (May 1994): 138-149.
33. Bearman and Hedstrom were key proponents of "reinventing archives" strategies. See, for example: David Bearman and Margaret Hedstrom, "Reinventing Archives for Electronic Records: Alternative Service Delivery Options", in Margaret Hedstrom (ed.), Electronic Records Management Program Strategies (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1993), pp. 82-98.
34. This aspect of the international metatext is analysed in detail in: Terry Cook, "What Is Past Is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift", Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 38-39.
35. David Bearman first put forward this formulation in: David Bearman, "Electronic Records Guidelines: A Manual for Policy Development and Implementation", in David Bearman (ed.), Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1994), pp. 72-116;
36. David Bearman (ed.), Archival Management of Electronic Records (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1991).
37. In later articles, he elaborated on and refined this formulation: David Bearman, "Archival Principles and the Electronic Office", in David Bearman (ed.), Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations (Pitts-burgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1994), pp. 146-175;
38. David Bearman, "RecordKeeping Systems", Archivaria 36 (Autumn 1993): 16-37;
39. David Bearman, "Archival Data Management to Achieve Organizational Accountability for Electronic Records", Archives and Manuscripts 21(1) (May 1993): 14-28;
40. David Bearman, "Managing Electronic Mail", Archives and Manuscripts 22(1) (May 1994): 28-50;
41. David Bearman, "Archival Issues in a Computing Environment", presentation and submitted paper, Playing For Keeps: The Proceedings of an Electronic Records Management Conference hosted by the Australian Archives, Canberra, Australia, 8-10 November 1994 (Canberra: Australian Archives, 1995), pp. 233-255.
42. Euciana Duranti, "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science (Part V)", Archivaria 32 (Summer 1991): 6-24;
43. "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science (Part IV)", Archivaria 31 (Winter 1990-1991): 10-25;
44. "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science (Part III)", Archivaria 30 (Summer 1990): 4-20;
45. "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science (Part II)", Archivaria 29 (Winter 1989-1990): 4-17;
46. "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science (Part I)", Archivaria 28 (Summer 1989): 7-27.
47. New York, State Archives and Records Administration et al., Strategic Plan for Managing and Preserving Electronic Records in New York State Government: Final Report of the Special Media Records Project (Albany, New York: SARA, 1988);
48. New York, State Archives and Records Administration, Status Report and Evaluation (Albany New York: SARA, 1992);
49. Margaret Hedstrom (ed.), Electronic Records Management Program Strategies (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1993);
50. Margaret Hedstrom, "Finders Keepers, Eosers Weepers: Alternative Program Models for Identifying and Keeping Electronic Records", in Playing For Keeps: The Proceedings of an Electronic Records Management Conference hosted by the Australian Archives, Canberra, Australia, 8-10 November 1994 (Canberra: Australian Archives, 1995), pp. 21-33;
51. Margaret Hedstrom, "Closing Address", in Playing For Keeps: The Proceedings of an Electronic Records Management Conference hosted by the Australian Archives, Canberra, Australia, 8-10 November 1994 (Canberra: Australian Archives, 1995), pp. 331-336.
52. John McDonald, "Managing Records in the Modern Office: Taming the Wild Frontier", Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995): 70-79;
53. John McDonald, "Managing Records in the Modern Office: The Experience of the National Archives of Canada", in Playing For Keeps: The Proceedings of an International Electronic Records Management Conference hosted by the Australian Archives, Canberra, Australia, 8-10 November 1994 (Canberra: Australian Archives, 1995), pp. 84-92
54. ; John McDonald, "Activities of the Electronic Records Committee of the International Council of Archives", in Playing For Keeps: The Proceedings of an Electronic Records Management Conference hosted by the Australian Archives, Canberra, Australia, 8-10 November 1994 (Canberra: Australian Archives, 1995), pp. 93-96.
55. Hans Hofman, "Off the BeatenTrack: The Archivist Exploring the Outback of Electronic Records", in Playing For Keeps: The Proceedings of an Electronic Records Management Conference hosted by the Australian Archives, Canberra, Australia, 8-10 November 1994 (Canberra: Australian Archives, 1995), pp. 68-83.
56. Terry Cook, "Mind Over Matter: Towards a New Theory of Archival Appraisal", in Barbara Craig (ed.), The Archival Imagination: Essays in Honour of Hugh A. Taylor (Ottawa: Association of Canadian Archivists, 1992), pp. 38-70;
57. Terry Cook, "Electronic Records, Paper Minds: The Revolution in Information Management and Archives in the Post-custodial and Post-modern Era", Archives and Manuscript 22(2) (November 1994): 300-329
58. ; Terry Cook, "It's 10 O'clock: Do You Know Where Your Data Are?", Technology Review 98 (January 1995): 48-53.
59. On macro-appraisal in the National Archives of Canada: Catherine Bailey, "From the Top Down: The Practice of Macro-Appraisal", Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 89-128.
60. On PIVOT: R.C. Hoi and A.G. de Vries, "PIVOT Down Under: A Report", Archives and Manuscripts 26(1) (May 1998): 78-101. As in other areas, the synergy on functional appraisal was largely a product of the interaction between the metatext and pre-existing, evolving aspects of Australian recordkeeping and archiving thinking and practice. Prior to engagement with the Canadian and Dutch models, Australian experiences of, and experiments with, functional analysis included pioneering efforts in the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) where a large-scale and rigorous functional analysis was conducted of all colonial and state government functions dating from the 1820s. It formed the basis for the adaptation of the series systems at PROV in the late 1980s and early 1990s to incorporate functional and activities entities. The Public Record Office Victoria was also pioneering the use of functional analysis in the development of General Disposal Schedules from 1983.
61. Glenda Acland, "Managing the Record Rather than the Relic", op. cit., pp. 58-59 and 62.
62. For an early manifestation of the custody vs distributed custody position, see: David Bearman, "An Indefensible Bastion: Archives as a Repository in the Electronic Age"; and Kenneth Thibodeau, "To Be or Not to Be: Archives for Electronic Records"; both in David Bearman (ed.), Archival Management of Electronic Records (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1991), pp. 14-24 and 1-13 respectively.
63. For a later manifestation, with Duranti and Eastwood arguing for custody as a fundamental archival tenet, and Roberts and O' Shea putting a postcustodial position, see the following articles in Archives and Manuscripts 24(2) (November 1996): Euciana Duranti, "Archives as a Place", pp. 242-255;
64. Terry Eastwood, "Should Creating Agencies Keep Electronic Records Indefinitely", pp. 256-267;
65. Greg O'Shea and David Roberts, "Eiving in a Digital World: Recognizing the Electronic and Postcustodial Realities", pp. 286-311
66. ; Adrian Cunningham, "Commentary: Journey to the End of the Night: Custody and the Dawning of a New Era on the Archival Threshold", pp. 312-321. 27 As referenced in endnote 3, Verne Harris recently launched a major critique of what he terms the "record-keeping paradigm", a stream in the broader "record-keeping discourse". He refers in particular to: • definitions of records that "begin and end at evidence of process" and exclude the possibility that records are kept for any other purpose, or have qualities or attributes other than "evidence" • approaches to record-keeping exclusively concerned with "keeping evidence for accountability purposes" ... an embracing of the rational and the global, and a rejection of the local and the indigenous • a blindness to the wonders and mysteries of the record • an "either/or view" of the world that first sets up an evidence vs memory dichotomy, then exclusively focuses on "evidence", hostile to insights and understandings about society's remembering and forgetting, and the role records, archives, records and archives systems, records and archives professionals play in the forms, structures and politics of remembering and forgetting • a blindness to inclusive, pluralist "both/and" views which attempt to "balance apparent opposites in creative tension", and provide a vision for those who "reach out" to the archival heartland. Although in his Seville paper, Harris appears to equate this "record-keeping paradigm" with records continuum thinking, a later clarification in his posting to the Aus-archivists listserv of 12 December 2000 states that he in fact did not intend this, and that his critique does not refer to the records continuum model (which was not directly discussed in the paper). Terry Cook has also pointed to what he sees as dangers in aspects of the recordkeeping discourse in which an emphasis on electronic recordkeeping, accountability, and public recordkeeping/archiving overshadows, and at worst excludes, engagement with personal/private/group archives, and the cultural, heritage and social memory purposes of recordkeeping/archiving, and an absence of societal and cultural perspectives in the appraisal framework in AS 4390. (See his conference paper, "Beyond the Screen: The Records Continuum and Archival Cultural Heritage", presented at the Australian Society of Archivists National Conference, Beyond the Screen: Capturing Corporate and Social Memory, Melbourne, August 2000, available via http://www.archivists.org.au/.)
67. Frank Upward, "Structuring the Records Continuum: Part Two Structuration Theory and Recordkeeping", Archives and Manuscripts 25(1) (May 1997): 10-35;
68. Frank Upward, "Structuring the Records Continuum: Part One", Archives and Manuscripts 24(2) (November 1996): 268-285;
69. Frank Upward, "In Search of the Continuum: lanMaclean's 'Australian Experience' Essays on Recordkeeping", in McKemmish and Piggott, op. cit., pp. 110-130 .
70. Thomas Kühn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).
71. Upward, "Modelling the Continuum as Paradigm Shift in Recordkeeping and Archiving Processes, and Beyond - A Personal Reflection", op. cit.
72. Ibid. The starting point for the model referenced in the quote can be found in: David Bearman, Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations (Pittsburgh: Archives and Museum Informatics, 1994), p. 43.
73. Eric Ketelaar, "The Difference Best Postponed? Cultures and Comparative Archivai Science", Archivaria 44 (Fall 1997): 142-147.
74. Tom Nesmith, "Still Fuzzy, But More Accurate: Some Thoughts on the 'Ghosts' of Archival Theory", Archivaria 47 (Spring 1999): 136-150, points in particular to writings of the post-modernists on information, the "archaeology of knowledge", the "archive", and communication processes ("inscription, transmission, contextualization, and interpretation"), and to the influence of their ideas on the thinking of Brien Brothman, Richard Brown, and Theresa Rowat (p. 143 and endnote 7, p. 149). He could have added Bernadine Dodge, Verne Harris, and, with particular reference to evolving records continuum thinking, Frank Upward. Brown identified the relevance of European structuration theory, especially Giddens' writings, to recordkeeping in: "Modelling Acquisition Strategy at the National Archives of Canada: Issues and Perspectives for Government Records", paper delivered at the Association of Canadian Archivists Annual Conference, Banff, 24 May 1991. According to Giddens, structuration is concerned with "conditions governing the continuity of transmutation of structures and therefore the reproduction of social systems"; see: The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984).
75. Terry Cook, "What Is Past Is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift", Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 20.
76. For extended discussion of positivist, post-positivist, and interpretivist research paradigms, see Kirsty Williamson, Research Methods for Students and Professionals: Information Management and Systems (Wagga Wagga NSW: CSU, 2000), especially Chapter 2, "The Two Traditions of Research" (Kirsty Williamson with Frada Burstein and Sue McKemmish), and Chapter 9, "Ethnography" (Solveiga Saule).
77. The quote from Geertz (cited on p. 167 of the Williamson text) comes from: Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic, 1973). In pursuing Geertz' goal, ethnographers have focused on interpreting events, communities, social groupings, and behaviours in their rich and varied contexts. Interpretivists also have a very different approach from that of the positivists to the interpretation and meanings of documentary evidence. The positivist vs interpretivist dichotomy is itself being challenged in evolving worldviews which move beyond the notion that positivism and interpretivism are in binary opposition, and seek to balance the creative tension between them, as suggested by Verne Harris in his paper to the ICA Congress in Seville, "Law, Evidence and Electronic Records: A Strategic Perspective from the Global Periphery" (September 2000), available via http://www.archivists,org.au: ... there is extreme danger in a reason which gives no space to mystery, in the archon unchallenged by the anarchontic, in a globalising allowed to destroy the local, the indigenous. Equally there is a danger in the mystery which gives no space to reason, the anarchontic without archontic rein, in the local excluding the global. In other words, I am arguing against the binary opposition and the either/or. It is in the both/and, the holding of these apparent opposites in creative tension, that there is liberation. For instance, a liberation for the indigenous in being open to engagement with the dynamics of globalisation. A liberation for the global in respecting the indigenous.
78. Preben Mortensen, "The Place of Theory in Archival Practice", Archivaria 47 (Spring 1999): 1-26;
79. quote from p. 2. Mortensen's article argues that: "when the positivist conception of science is abandoned, new forms of archival theory emerge" (p. 1). Mortensen discusses criticisms of positivism, particularly by Hanson, Rose, Kühn, and other writers in the field of the history and philosophy of science, and Kuhn's insights into the nature of paradigms and paradigm shifts. He goes on to explore the symbiotic relationship between theory and practice, and puts forward the view that theories are better understood as "reflections on or criticism of practice" that display "sensitivity to context and history" (pp. 20 and 21).
80. For discussion of the records continuum as a "spacetime" model, and a critique of the life cycle's separation of space and time, and the imposition thereby of a "temporally linear view" of recordkeeping and archiving, see: Frank Upward, "Modelling the Continuum as Paradigm Shift in Recordkeeping and Archiving Processes, and Beyond - A Personal Reflection", July 2000 draft of Records Management Journal article. In this draft, Upward argues that the theoretical shift between life cycle models and continuum ones represents a true paradigm shift: In life cycle models there is a theoretical assumption that the best approach to the management of records is a stage based one, and that the stages match recurring events in the life history of the records. The stages might be as elementary as creation, maintenance and disposition. Records endure through these stages as if each one is sharing a common, natural and recurring pattern. In the continuum approach, records continue through spacetime and the stages blur and relate to each other according to the contingencies of the situation. In the process records are stretched into new shapes and forms. Note: This paragraph does not appear in the final version of the article.
81. Cook, op. cit., p. 46.
82. Margaret Hedstrom, "Interfaces with Time", Keynote Address to the Australian Society of Archivists 1998 Conference, Place, Interface and Cyberspace: Archives at the Edge, Proceedings of the 1998 Conference of the Australian Society of Archivists, Fremantle 6-8 August 1998 (Canberra: Australian Society of Archivists, 1998), pp. 11-22. Nesmith, op. cit. has also written eloquently about the "ghostly" interventions of archivists, Geary's "phantoms of remembrance", in creating and shaping the record - through their role in appraisal, description, and access - often invisible, or at least unacknowledged, participants in societal and organisational processes of remembering and forgetting.
83. The Patrick Geary reference, quoted by Nesmith, is from Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium (New York: Princeton, 1994).
84. Upward, "Structuring the Records Continuum: Part One", op. cit., p. 278.
85. Terry Cook, "What Is Past Is Prologue: A History of Archival Ideas Since 1898, and the Future Paradigm Shift", Archivaria 43 (Spring 1997): 38-39.
86. The quotation also references the following writings of Chris Hurley relating to the functional context of records: "What, If Anything, Is a Function?" Archives and Manuscripts 21(2) (November 1993): 208-220; and
87. "Ambient Functions: Abandoned Children to Zoos" Archivaria 40 (Fall 1995): 21-39.
88. For a reading of Derrida's ideas on archiving of particular relevance to the way in which archival descriptive practice involves acts "which essentially impose limits on possibilities, are a form of exclusion or forgetting", see Brian Brothman, "Declining Derrida: Integrity, Tensegrity, and the Preservation of Archives from Deconstruction", Archivaria 48 (Fall 1999): 64-88.
89. Terry Cook, "Beyond the Screen: The Records Continuum and Archival Cultural Heritage", presented at the Australian Society of Archivists National Conference, Beyond the Screen: Capturing Corporate and Social Memory, Melbourne, August 2000, available via http://www.archivists.org.au/.
90. Nesmith, op. cit., pp. 145 and 146.
91. Chris Hurley, "The Making and Keeping of Records: (1) What Are Finding Aids For?" Archives and Manuscripts 26(1) (May 1998): 57-77.
92. Luc Santé, "The Contents of Pockets", Granta 41 (Autumn 1992): 140.
93. There are parallels here with the major shift in the way historians view their role in constructing collective memory. For example, Australian historian Paula Hamilton has written insightfully about the role of historians in helping to organise and later dismantle "structures of forgetting": One of the most powerful myths that dominates the Australian historical landscape is that this is a new country (the corollary of Britain as the old country) and that we have a short history. Indeed, travellers to Australia from the nineteenth century onwards would often comment that they perceived it as a place without history. The idea of an historical tabula rasa is of course a settler story, a British migrant story, told by several generations of English and European migrants to each other. Memories of invasion and death of indigenous peoples could more easily be erased, or at least attenuated, by the migrant experience ... But in the last thirty years there has been a huge shift in our understanding of what constitutes an Australian past, aspects of which are now fairly well outlined. We have begun to perceive organised structures of forgetting in relation to the Aboriginal people, structures which the historians both helped to erect, and many years later, to break down. (P. Hamilton, "The Knife Edge: Debates About Memory and History", in K. Darian-Smith and P. Hamilton (eds)., Memory and History in Twentieth-century Australia (Melbourne: OUP, 1994), pp. 13-14.)
94. Hamilton could equally well be referring to the role of records managers, archivists and other information management professionals. As in other areas of Australian life, the reconciliation movement is profoundly challenging our ideas about who we are and what we do. Archival practice in Australia has been questioned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, in particular in relation to the accessibility of records that contain essential evidence of identity, family links, and land claims (see for example, R. Baird, "Researching the Displaced Children", in Archives at the Centre: Proceedings of the Australian Society of Archivists Conference, Alice Springs, 24-25 May 1996 (Canberra: ASA, 1997), pp. 1419).
95. There have been some significant responses, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives, and Information Services (compiled by Alex Byrne, Alana Garwood, Heather Moorcroft, and Alan Barnes for the ATSI Eibrary and Information Resource Network, 1995), the National Archives of Australia exhibition, Between Two Worlds, and a number of projects to re-describe and re-index records relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Reflecting the predominant view of the time - and neatly encapsulating the aims of the Australian government policy which removed children of white fathers from their Aboriginal mothers and extended families in order to assimilate them into the white community - the name indexing schemes in records and archives systems have used the European names of Aboriginal children and places, thus masking identity and kinship/country ties, and limiting access to these vital records. Reflecting the reconciliation movement of our time, iterative descriptive practices add context and build new structures of remembering and forgetting. However, the response of the archival community in Australia has largely been a strategic, policy driven one. Potentially the Protocols and the issues that underlie them profoundly challenge aspects of archival principles and practice, including archival collection, description, and access policies, but as yet, this has not been widely recognised or addressed in the literature. The development of the Protocols was driven by the need to access essential evidence of identity and family links, native title claims, and Aboriginal culture, history and languages. They only begin to address accessibility, use, description, and classification practices, as well as policies on intellectual property, the treatment of secret and sacred materials, the management of archival materials relating to ATSI peoples in culturally sensitive ways, the education and training of ATSI peoples for professional practice, and the repatriation of records to ATSI communities. For a review of the Protocols, see Judy EnglishEllis, "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Archives: A Review Commentary", Archives and Manuscripts 24(1) (May 1996): 146-153.
96. Terry Cook, "Beyond the Screen", op. cit.
97. For example: Brien Brothman, "Declining Derrida: Integrity, Tensegrity, and the Preservation of Archives from Deconstruction", Archivaria 48 (Fall 1999): 64-89;
98. Brien Brothman, "The Limits of Limits: Derridean Deconstruction and the Archival Institution", Archivaria 36 (Autumn 1993): 205-220
99. ; Brien Brothman, "Orders of Value: Probing the Theoretical Terms of Archival Practice", Archivaria 32 (Summer 1991): 78-100;
100. Richard Brown, "Death of a Renaissance Record-Keeper: The Murder of Tomasso da Tortona in Ferrara, 1385", Archivaria 44 (Fall 1997): 1-4-3
101. ; Richard Brown, "The Value of 'Narrativity' in the Appraisal of Historical Documents: Foundation for a Theory of Archival Hermeneutics", Archivaria 32 (Summer 1991);
102. Cook, "What Is Past Is Prologue", op. cit.;
103. Harris, "Law, Evidence and Electronic Recordkeeping", op. cit.
104. ; Verne Harris, "Claiming Less, Delivering More: A Critique of Positivist Formulations on Archives in South Africa", Archivaria 44 (Fall 1997): 132141;
105. Eric Ketelaar, "Archivalisation and Archiving", Archives and Manuscripts 27(1) (May 1999): 54-61;
106. Eric Ketelaar, "The Difference Best Postponed? Cultures and Comparative Archival Science", Archivaria 44 (Fall 1997): 142-147
107. ; Tom Nesmith, "Still Fuzzy, But More Accurate", op. cit., and his series of conference papers referenced in endnote 11 of that article;
108. Upward, "Structuring the Records Continuum: Part One", and "Structuring the Records Continuum: Part Two", op. cit.
109. Cook, "Beyond the Screen", op. cit.
110. Harris' notion of the archival heartland, explored in "Law, Evidence and Electronic Recordkeeping", op. cit., has many resonances with this view of the records continuum as place.