Week I: The Nature of Records

January 26, 2011

What is a Record?
 Organic by-product of human activity created to
capture meaningful information preserved for long
value…
 A written or printed work of a legal or official nature
that may be used as evidence or proof…
 Data or information in a fixed form that is created or
received in the course of individual or institutional
activity and set aside (preserved) as evidence of that
activity for future reference
 A record has fixed content, structure and context.

***Last three are from

the Society of American Archivists website
Understanding Archives &
Manuscripts
 Record – Latin Roots
◦ “Heart” (cor) with verb “to give” (dare)
◦ To give back to the heart and mind after the passage
of time
 The Oral World
 The Rise and Spread of Literacy
 Reasons for Recording Information
 The Impulse to Save
 Technology of Record Making
 Characteristics of Recorded Info in the Modern
Age
 The Usefulness of Archives
The Oral World/
The Rise of Literacy
 Humans are natural speakers.
 Oral communication “exists only as it is
going out of existence.”
 Inescapable fallibility of human memory.
 Techniques had to be developed.
 Writing is external and technological.
 In a “fixed” form.
 “Words are fleeting, written letters remain”
 Reliability, legality and proof depended on
writing
Reasons for Recording
Information
 Personal
 Social
 Economic
 Legal
 Instrumental
 Symbolic
The Impulse to Save
 Why do we save records after the original
usefulness has ceased?
◦ They might be useful in the future?
◦ Information might be needed again?
◦ Unpredictability of the future makes us want
to save?
◦ Saved because they are a form of individual or
collective memory?
◦ “Relics” – personal or symbolic meaning?
Technology of
Record Making
 Paper
 Writing Materials
 Printing
 Mechanical Record Making
 Copying Machines
 Filing Systems
 Photographic Records
 Altered Record Formats
 Recording Sound
 Computerized Information
 Unrecorded Information
Discussion Question???
(Ashley Staley)
 Has the introduction of technology weakened
the archival profession? Can materials created
with technological innovations be fully acquired,
accessed, and made available for public use?
How does the cost of maintaining a
technologically enhanced collection influence
the archives capability of caring for it?
Discussion Question???
(Rachel Morris)
 When confronted with the “core of archival
knowledge,” do advancements in the
technology of record making, such as copy
machines and altered record formats, make
the concept of the “original” obsolete? If so,
does it make authentication unnecessary? If
an “original” is obsolete in the sense of being
useful (for research or public purposes),
could this make the concept of an archive
obsolete?
Characteristics of Recorded
Information in the Modern Age
 Abundance rather than Scarcity
 Collective rather than Individual
 More Decentralized and Democratic
 Interrelatedness of Records More
Apparent & Real
 Shifting Usefulness
Growth of Websites on the Internet
 06/1993 – 130  06/1998 – 2,410,067
 12/1993 – 623  06/1999 – 6,177,453
 06/1994 – 2,738  06/2000 – 17,119,262
 12/1994 – 10,022  06/2001 – 29,302,656
 06/1995 – 23,500  06/2002 – 38,807,788
 01/1996 – 100,000  06/2003 – 40,936,076
 06/1996 – 252,000  06/2004 – 51,636,284
 06/1997 – 1,117,259  11/2006 – 101,435,253
(Number of Stats By MIT
Unique Hosts)
Growth of Traffic on the Internet
Petabyte = 1 Million (Estimates are per
GB month)
 1990 = .001 Petabyte  1999 = 10 to 16
 1991 = .002  2000 = 20 to 35
 1993 = .008  2001 = 40 to 70
 1994 = .016  2002 = 80 to 140
 1995 = .15  2003 = 130 to 210
 1996 = 1.5  2004 = 200 to 300
 1997 = 2.5 to 4.0  2005 = 300 to 500
 1998 = 5.0 to 8.0  2006 = 450 to 800
The Usefulness of Archives
 Large Numbers of People with a Great
Range of Interests…
 Source of Personal, Individual Identity
 Larger Society Benefits
 Corporate & Legal Benefits
 Advertising & Promotional Efforts
 “Pure” Research
 Inform, Entertain, Enlighten, Educate…
 “No Archives, No History”
Archives??? Meaning???
 Materials
 Place
 Agency
 How also is this term used by others
outside of the archival profession?
The Archival Mission
 To Identify Records and Papers of
Enduring Value
 To Preserve Them
 To Make Them Available to Patrons
Cyclical Expression of the Archival
Mission
Reappraisal

Conducting Outreach &

Surveys Promotion

Access &
Appraisal
Reference

Make
Identify
Available

Acquisitions Description

Preserve

Accessioning Security

Arrangement Preservation
Discussion Question???
(Dallas Hanbury)
 How has the massive amount of records
generated by the technological revolution made
the archivist’s job of evaluating records for long
term informational value harder? How is it
possible to really determine what records will
have great informational value over a period of
time when there is so many records to evaluate,
even if the archivist views the records
collectively?
Libraries
 Published
 Items judged individually
 Items collected are also
Collected by other libraries
 Multiple creator (different
individuals and
organizations)
 Explicitly created
 Open access for patrons
Some Differences…
Archives
 Largely unpublished
 Judged as a collection or a
whole
 Collect groups of items and
are generally unique
 Generally records
generated by parent
organization or institution
 Grow Organically
 Closed stacks…items do
not circulate
Brief History of Archives…
 Ancient World
 Athens and Rome
 Modern Archives (1543) at Simancas in Spain
 French Revolution
 English Public Records Office (1838)
 U.S. National Archival Repository (1934)
 Manuscript Collecting
◦ Rome
◦ Medieval Period – Monks
◦ Vatican Library & Bibliotheque Nationale in Frnace
◦ Harvard
◦ Massachusetts Historical Society
◦ Editor-Collector
◦ Autograph Collector
 Website (http://tinyurl.com/sqgtl)
The Archivists Perspective
 They see the big picture (compared to creators and record
users)
 Knowledge of Individuals, Organizations & Institutions
◦ Experience Unfamiliar Places & Events
◦ Expand Their Sense of the Possible
 Knowledge of Records
◦ Scholars of Records & Recordkeeping
◦ Life Cycle of Records
◦ Creation, Use, Storage & Disposition
◦ Records Continuum – archival records never really disposed of
 Knowledge of the Uses of Records
 Knowledge of Archival Principles
◦ Provenance
◦ Original Order
Discussion Question???
(Brigitte Eubank)
 James O’Toole and Richard Cox, in
Chapter 3, explain the elements that
make up an archivist’s perspective
(knowledge & values). In what ways would
an archivist’s perspective differ from that
of an historian or librarian? What
similarities do they share?
Values
 Archival records exist to be USED and NOT merely saved for
their own sake
 Some records ought to be preserved long term even after
their immediate usefulness has passed.
 Archival records ought to be preserved as completely and
coherently as possible (with critical info about context and
connections preserved)
 Archival Records ought to be organized properly and in a
timely way/fashion
 Sensitive info should be protected from use as long as that
sensitivity remains
 Archivists should administer their collections equitably and
impartially
 Archival repositories ought to cooperate in preserving
historical records.
Discussion Question???
(Crickett Harmer)
 What is missing from the list of values
mention by O’Toole and Cox in the
chapter “The Archivist’s Perspective:
Knowledge and Value?”
Differences in the Authors
 Discussion Questions (Rachel Drayton)
◦ Does the reader gain more from an
interdisciplinary look into archives than a
step-by-step guide?
◦ Are the two books targeting different
audiences?