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Rising to the level of a record? Some thoughts on records and documents

Rising to the level of a record? Some thoughts on records and documents Purpose – This paper seeks to suggest ways of understanding the relationships between records and documents. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews some of the statements made about records and documents in professional literature. It also offers some thoughts on the connections between records and documents in digital and pre‐digital environments and their intersections with other concepts such as “data”. Findings – Although professionals have often seen records and documents as closely intertwined, this paper argues that the record and the document follow different logics. Documents are characterised by their format, records by their relation to activities, events or other temporal occurrents. Records need not be in documentary form, and can exist at multiple levels of aggregation. The notion that documents become records when they are “declared” is problematic. Capture and declaration do not determine record status, but if capture systems are robust they allow the power of the record to be harnessed to the fullest possible extent. Originality/value – The paper seeks to explicate some basic concepts of the professional discipline. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Records Management Journal Emerald Publishing

Rising to the level of a record? Some thoughts on records and documents

Records Management Journal , Volume 21 (1): 20 – Mar 29, 2011

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References (71)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0956-5698
DOI
10.1108/09565691111125071
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This paper seeks to suggest ways of understanding the relationships between records and documents. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews some of the statements made about records and documents in professional literature. It also offers some thoughts on the connections between records and documents in digital and pre‐digital environments and their intersections with other concepts such as “data”. Findings – Although professionals have often seen records and documents as closely intertwined, this paper argues that the record and the document follow different logics. Documents are characterised by their format, records by their relation to activities, events or other temporal occurrents. Records need not be in documentary form, and can exist at multiple levels of aggregation. The notion that documents become records when they are “declared” is problematic. Capture and declaration do not determine record status, but if capture systems are robust they allow the power of the record to be harnessed to the fullest possible extent. Originality/value – The paper seeks to explicate some basic concepts of the professional discipline.

Journal

Records Management JournalEmerald Publishing

Published: Mar 29, 2011

Keywords: Data analysis; Classification; Information management

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