Yesterday, today and tomorrow
a continuum of responsibility1
verklaarde Peter Horsman zich in zijn bijdrage over archiveringssystemen een
principieel tegenstander.4 Hij bepleitte een duidelijke scheiding van verantwoor
delijkheden tussen de records manager en de archivaris. Ik denk dat Horsman
gelijk had. Archivarissen moeten zich niet bemoeien met de taken van records
managers, dat wil zeggen: ze moeten bemoeienis hebben en willen hebben met
het implementeren en beheren van archiveringseisen in bedrijfsapplicaties van
archiveringssystemen. Of archieven nu van papier zijn of van nullen en enen, of
records managers nu integreren of niet, de records manager zal altijd met het
archief in de eerste plaats het bedrijfsbelang moeten dienen. Archivarissen
hebben een ander perspectief en een andere verantwoordelijkheid. Willen zij hun
rol goed spelen, dan moeten ze onpartijdig blijven en onafhankelijk ten opzichte
van degene die het archiveringssysteem ontwerpt en inricht.
Introduction
Continuum:
A continuing thing, quantity, or substance; a continuous series of elements
passing into each other. (The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary)
In this paper I discuss records continuum thinking and practice as they have
evolved in Australia, with particular reference to the way they characterise the
relationship between records managers and archivists. I use the Records
Continuum model developed by my colleague, Frank Upward, to explore the
continuum of responsibilities that relates to recordkeeping regimes that capture,
manage, preserve and re-present records as evidence of social and business
activity for business, social and cultural purposes for as long as they are of value,
whether that be for a nanosecond or a millennium. The model provides a graphi
cal tool for framing issues about the relationship between records managers and
archivists, past, present and future, and for thinking strategically about working
collaboratively and building partnerships with other stakeholders.
A continuum is something continuous of which no separate parts are
discernible, a continuous series of elements passing into each other. A records
continuum perspective can be contrasted with the life cycle model. The life cycle
model argues that there are clearly definable stages in recordkeeping, and creates
a sharp distinction between current and historical recordkeeping. The records
continuum, on the other hand, has provided Australian records managers and
archivists with a way of thinking about the integration of recordkeeping and
archiving processes. The life cycle model sees records passing through stages
until they eventually 'die', except for the 'chosen ones' that are reincarnated as
archives. A continuum-based approach suggests integrated time- space dimen
sions. Records are 'fixed' in time and space from the moment of their creation,
but recordkeeping regimes carry them forward and enable their use for multiple
purposes by delivering them to people living in different times and spaces.
In Australia, the records continuum has provided a way of articulating a
mission that brings together records managers and archivists under the record
keeping umbrella. Records continuum thinking focuses on the unifying purposes
shared by all recordkeeping professionals, defined as to do with the delivery of
frameworks for accountable recordkeeping regimes that enable access to essen-
DE PROFESSIE
4 Peter Horsman, "A knowledge-based electronic record-keeping system", in Proceedings of the DLM-Forum on
electronic records. Brussels18-20 December 1996 INSAR. European Archives News, Supplement II
(Luxembourg, 1997), pp. 54-59.
194
SUE MCKEMMISH
1 This article was first published in Proceedings of the Records Management Association of
Australia 14th National Convention, 15-17 Sept 1997, RMAA Perth 1997.
195