When is the future? Comparative notes on the electronic record-keeping projects of the University of Pittsburgh and the University of British Columbia

Archivaria

Volumn 43, Issue , 1996, Pages 158-173

  Marsden, Paul ^a  

^a National Archives of Canada   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 52849083401     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. This article represents two presentations by the author, one at the Association of Canadian Archivists Annual Conference in Regina, 1995, and the other delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Society of American-rchivistsin San Diego, 1996. The author wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Richard Brown, Brien Brothman, and Terry Cook, with whom he discussed many of these issues.
2. Teny Cook, "Electronic Records, Paper Minds: The Revolution in Information Management and Archives in the Post-Custodial and Post-Modern Era, "Archives and Manuscripts 22, no. 2 (1996), pp. 302-28.
3. Both projects have produced a considerable output of articles and documentation. The most convenient overview of the Pittsburgh Project is David Bearman, Electronic Evidence (Pittsburgh, 1994). Since the publication of this collection of previously published articles a number of pieces elaborating on the model have been published:including wendy Duff, "Ensuring the Presevewation of Reliable Evidence: A Research Proiect Funded bv the NHPRC. " Archivaria 42 (Fall 1996), pp. 28-45 and David Wallace, "Managing the Present: Metadata as Archival Description, " Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995), pp. 11-21. The UBC Project has published three progress reports on their work, all of which are found in Archivi & Computer, issues 3 (1995), 1 (1996), and (5) 1996. An overview of the project's findings is provided in Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, "The Protection of the Integrity of Electronic Records: An Overview of the UBC-MAS Research Project, " Archivaria 42 (Fall 1996). pp. 46-67. Both projects have produced web pages for the purpose of disseminating information, which contain excellent documentation, including bibliographies and links to implementations and related projects. The University of Pittsburgh's project homepage can be found at www.sis.Pittsburgh.edul-nhprcl and the University of British Columbia Project is at www.slais.ubc.ca/userslduranti/index.html. Hereafter the projects are referred to as Pittsburgh and UBC.
4. Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, "Protecting Electronic Evidence: A Third Progress Report on a Research Study and its Methodology, " Archivi & Computer 5 (1996) and David Bearman, Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations (Pittsburgh, 1994), pp. 2-3.
5. The debate over the applicability of these two terms to describe the life of a record can be found in Archives and Manuscripts 23, no. 4 (November 1996).
6. Luciana Duranti "The Concept of Appraisal and Archival Theory, " American Archivist 57 (Spring 1994). pp. 328-44.
7. Luciana Duranti "The UBC Research Project on Electronic Records, " a presentation to National Archives of Canada staff, November 1996.
8. See David Bearman, "Archival Methods" and "Archival Strategies, " both published by Archives and Museum Informatics on the failure of current archival theory and practice to accommodate both existing paper records and the emerging electronic record.
9. In addition to the issues confronted in the above-cited "Archival Strategies" and "Archival Methods, " this also involved a direct challenge to the "custodial approach" of traditional archives. This debate will not be directly confronted here, but readers should consult Archives and Manuscripts 24, no. 2 (1996), which includes a number of papers from a 1996 Australian conference dealing with custodial debate. For the extended unexpurgated version of the debate users can refer to the archive of the Australian listsen "aus. archivists@asap. unimelb. edu. au. "
10. David Bearman, Electronic Evidence, pp. 16-17.
11. Luciana Duranti, "Diplomatics: New Uses for an Old Science. (Part IV), " Archivaria 31 (Winter 1990). p. 14.
12. Richard Cox, "What is an Archival Record, and Why Should We Care?'AmericanArchivist 57 (Fall 1994) Editorial, pp. 592-94.
13. Electronic Evidence, p. 36.
14. In contrast to Pittsburgh, UBC advocates a far less intrusive role for archivists in the design of systems and the creation of records. The form and content of records are driven by operational and evidential purposes, according to Luciana Duranti, and the role of archivists in systems design is not to determine record form, but to set and monitor standards which will allow records to cross the archival boundary.
15. Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, "Protecting Electronic Evidence: A Third Progress Report on a Research Study and its Methodology, " in Archivi & Computer 5 (1996).
16. From Entity Relationship drawing in annex to Second Progress Report, Archivi & Computers 1 (1996).
17. See "Guidelines on Managing Electronic Messages as Records, " available at www.aa.gov.au. This definition is almost verbatim from the Pittsburgh Project, the influence of which has been acknowledged by many Australian archivists. See "State of Electronic Records Management Worldwide, Spring 1996, "Archives and Museum Informatics 10, no. 1 (Spring 1996) for some other international examples of the adoption of this definition and the concepts of the Pittsburgh Project. One should note that Australian Archives does not disregard records not controlled by a record-keeping system, as they indicate that "Stored messages in uncontrolled environments are, nonetheless, records or parts thereof, and are subject to discovery and subpoena and need authorization for destruction."
18. David Wallace has been the most active author in describing the encapsulation of metadata objects in record-keeping systems design. In particular see "Metadata and the Archival Management of Electronic Records: A Review, "Archivaria 36 (Autumn 1993), pp. 87-110
19. "Managing the Present: Metadata as Archival Description, " Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995), pp. 11-21.
20. The limitations of metadata as an alternative to archival description are forcefully laid out by Heather MacNeil in "Metadata Strategies and Archival Description: Comparing Apples and Oranges, " Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995), pp. 22-32.
21. David Roberts, "Defining Electronic Records, " Archives and Manuscripts 22, no. 1 (May 1995), p. 14-16.
22. In broadening this discussion, one should also be mindful of smaller organizations and private records. Terry Cook brought up this important issue in his commentary on a session of the 1995 ACA Annual Conference, where Wendy Duff presented a report on the Pittsburgh Project and Luciana Duranti did the same for UBC.
23. "Ons nationale geheugenverlies, " in NRC Handelsblad, weededitie, 13 August 1996. The situation created by PIVOT is, in fact, far more defensible than a categoric retreat from certain types of information because it lacks certain requirements of form, content, and context. PIVOT does provide a clear appraisal methodology and the reaction of archival users has still been scathing. I thank Bob McIntosh for drawing my attention to the article.
24. Margaret Hedstrom described the need for this shift in a paper given at the Association of Canadian Archivists Annual Meeting in Ottawa, 1994.
25. David Bearman, "State of Electronic Records Management Worldwide, " Archives and Museum Informatics 10, no. 1, (Spring 1996).
26. "Working Papers of Federal Policy Makers: Our Vanishing Public History, " The Public Historian 16, no. 4 (Fall 1994).
27. Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, "Protecting Electronic Evidence: A Third Progress Report on a Research Study and its Methodology, " Archivi & Computer 5 (1996).
28. The most readily accessible and current copies of these templates is at www.slais.ubc/usersl duranti1teml.htm.
29. National Archives of Canada, "Functional Requirements for Formal Records Management in Electronic Office System Technology, " 1991. The recent initiative by the Treasury Board Secretariat and Public Works and Government Services Canada to identify system requirements for EDMSRM software incorporates many such features, and a number of companies with off-the-shelf packages or suites were able to respond to a request for proposal.
30. Luciana Duranti "The UBC Research Project on Electronic Records, " A presentation to the staff of the National Archives of Canada, November 1996.
31. Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, "Protecting Electronic Evidence: A Third Progress Report on a Research Study and its Methodology, "Archivi & Computer 5 (1996). See Maintain Archival Framework in the IDEF diagrams, Node Al, number 3, Sub Node A14.
32. Wendy Duff, "Ensuring the Preservation of Reliable Evidence: A Research Ptoject Funded by the NHPRC, " Archivaria 42 (Fall 1996), pp. 38-39 and pp. 41-42.
33. John McDonald, "Managing Records in the Modem Office: Taming the Wild Frontier, " Archivaria 39 (Spring 1995), pp. 75-76.
34. Luciana Duranti and Heather MacNeil, "Protecting Electronic Evidence: A Third Progress Report on a Research Study and its Methodology. " See endnote number 4.
35. William Underwood, "Artificial Intelligence and Records Management, " paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Society of American Archivists, August 1996, San Diego.
36. Information on the Philadelphia Electronic Records Project can be obtained at www.phila.govl records/.
37. Duranti and MacNeil, "Third Progress Report, " and Heather MacNeil, "Implications of the UBC Research Results for Archival Description in General and the Canadian Rules for Archival Description in Particular, " Archivi & Computer 3-4 (1996).