The impact of digital technology on archival science

Archival Science

Volumn 1, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 39-55

  Duranti, Luciana ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Archival science; Diplomatics; Electronic records; Paradigm shift; System theory

Indexed keywords

EID: 4644316679     PISSN: 13890166     EISSN: 15737519     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/BF02435638     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. This article presupposes that the archival discipline is also a "science." Many have argued against the idea on the basis of a common perception that a science is a type of study entirely objective by virtue of the rigorous manner in which it is carried out and the restricted range of topics to which it applies. In fact, the activity of science is based upon a complex framework of assumptions that make it possible for the landscape of the scientific endeavour to be redrawn over time, and, while striving towards objectivity, considers it to be an unattainable ideal.
2. Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory: Foundation, Development, Applications, rev. ed. (New York: George Brazillier, Inc., 1968), p. 75.
3. General System Theory: Foundation, Development, Applications, Rev. Ed. Ibid., 66-79.
4. Fritiof Capra, The Web of Life (New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1996), p. 42.
5. For this entire discussion of systems I am indebted to Diane Rogers, Archives as Systems (MAS thesis, University of British Columbia, 2000).
6. Hugh Taylor discussed the concept of paradigm shift in archives in the keynote address entitled "Transformation in the Archives: Technological Adjustment or Paradigm Shift?" delivered in 1987 at the Association of Canadian Archivists annual meeting.
7. Heather MacNeil, "Archival Theory and Practice: Between Two Paradigms," Archivaria 37 (Spring 1994): 17.
8. Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, "The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records: An Overview of the UBC-MAS Research Project," Archivaria 42 (1996): 46-67.
9. Data were defined as the smallest indivisible facts. Information was defined as intelligence given, or a message meant for communication. Document was defined as recorded information. Accordingly, records are a special kind of documents: all records are documents, and contain therefore information and data, but not all documents are records.
10. Among them were (1) embedding access privileges, that is, assigning to each person who has access to the electronic system, on the basis of his or her specific competence, the authority to compile, classify, annotate, read, retrieve, transfer, or destroy only specific groups of records; (2) embedding in the system "workflow rules" according to which the system will present only the person competent for each action with the related records and will solicit the making of the appropriate record at the proper time in the automatic development of the procedure; (3) limiting physical access to the technology or to parts of it by means of magnetic cards, passwords, finger prints, etc.; (4) designing within the electronic system an "audit trail", so that any access to the system can be documented as it occurs, whether it is a modification made to a record, a deletion, an addition or a simple viewing of a record.
11. According to traditional methods, there are elements of the record that can be lost without compromising its substance and the ability to verify its authenticity overtime, and others the loss of which would be equivalent to the loss of the record. These elements, as already pointed out, vary from a type of record to another. For example, color is a meaningful part of the message in a map or a chart, columns in a table, highlight in a hypertext, etc. This accumulated knowledge is not readily applicable to electronic records. Thus, it is essential, first, to identify for each type of electronic record the components that allow to verify its authenticity over time; second, to assess whether those that are not visible to the user can be made visible by adding them to the presentation features of the record; third, to determine whether, in the cases in which this operation were not doable, it would be possible and advisable to move the records in question to a non-digital form (e.g., microfilm).
12. The direction of the research and its infrastructure are funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC), and by the Hampton Fund of the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the UBC Vice President Research Fund and Dean of Arts Fund. The national and multinational research teams are funded by national granting agencies and institutional and organizational contributions. For example, the Canadian team is funded by SSHRCC and the American team by the National Historical Publication and Records Commission (NHPRC). See the project web site http://www.interpares.org/.
13. The national teams are the Canadian, American, Australian and Italian research teams. The multinational teams are the European, Asian and Global Industry research teams. In the course of this first year of the research, multinational teams are still open to the participation of additional members. For example, the Asian team may be joined by Japan and Korea.
14. "Archival diplomatics" is a term used in the Master of Archival Studies program at the University of British Columbia to refer to a diplomatics that is integrated with the theory and the methods of archival science, but the focus of which is still the individual record.
15. See Elio Lodolini, Lineamenti di Storia dell'Archivistica Italiana (Roma: La Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1991), p. 44.
16. Glaser, Barney G. and Anselm L. Strauss, The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research (Chicago: Aldine Atherton, 1997), pp. 6-7, 46.
17. Taylor, Steven J., and Robert Bogden, Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: The Search For Meanings, 2nd ed. (New York: Wiley, 1984), p. 126.
18. Glaser and Strauss, p. 45.
19. From the preliminary report to the research project's Director by the Chair of the Preservation Task Force, Ken Thibodeau, March 31, 2000.
20. Taylor, Steven J., and Robert Bogden, Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: The Search For Meanings, 2nd ed. Ibidem.
21. I am not mentioning here either the second domain, appraisal, because the research in it is especially focused on archival science, notwithstanding the use of modeling, or the fourth domain, policies, strategies, and standards, because its findings will derive directly from the analysis of the findings of the three domains of research.
22. Von Bertalanffy, Ludwig, General System Theory, pp. 33-34.
23. See Checkland, Peter, System Thinking. Systems Practice (Toronto: John Wiley & Sons, 1981), p. 93.