Thirty Years of Electronic Records

Citation

du Preez, M. (2004), "Thirty Years of Electronic Records", The Electronic Library, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 189-190. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470410533489

The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the institution with the oldest, largest, and most actively managed program for archival electronic records in the world. Thirty Years of Electronic Records is a celebratory volume, recognising NARA's accomplishments as well as the contributions of the scores of men and women who have laboured to ensure the continuing preservation and management of electronic records. Admittedly it is a biased volume as each of the authors participated in the NARA programme. Most of the authors also relied on their experience inventorying, scheduling, appraising, preserving, providing access to electronic records, and participating in efforts to advance the development of archival theory on electronic records.

A chronology and “recollections of an electronic records pioneer” precede a collection of eight essays that discuss the application of archival theory and practice in NARA's development of these functions and trace how they evolved over time.

The “Recollections” by Meyer Fishbein is a personal, brief history of both institutional and professional archival concerns for electronic records into the 1980s. It also focuses on the parallel development of an awareness of the archival value of electronic records within the national and international archival and records management communities.

Chapter one relates the history of NARA's Custodial Program for Electronic Records and focuses on both the Data Archives Staff and the Centre for Electronic Records for the period 1968‐1998, showing how the electronic records programs have been directly affected by the larger presidential priorities.

A discussion of the background for appraisal in the National Archives receives attention in Chapter two. The appraisal themes that are explored include:

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  determining the record character of computerised records;

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  applying traditional archival appraisal principles; and

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  innovation, trying new approaches with appraisal projects.

The evolution of processing procedures for electronic records, a discussion on three decades of description and reference services for electronic records and the future of the Electronic Records Archives Program receives attention in chapters three to five. This is followed by a summary of the Armstrong litigation and its progenity. Then it briefly looks at what was at stake during the litigation, whether the PROFS litigation succeeded or failed, and how are archivists to assess the dimension of the litigation as it has played out against other changes brought about by the Internet, and digital signature technology.

Chapter 7 gives the views of the various managers of the National Archives of the United States in which they give a managerial perspective on the Electronic Records Program. The volume concludes with a reflection on the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) – a statutory body affiliated with NARA that support a wide range of activities to preserve, publish and encourage the use of documentary sources relating to the history of the USA.

An index would have contributed much to this fascinating volume containing an awesome amalgam of achievement, anecdote and aspiration.