interactive system, what manifestation of such entity can be regarded as the
record, how to keep such entities accurate and authentic through time, and how
to enable users to verify such authenticity over time.
The failure of the generalist
Thus, today, the graduates of archival programs are asked to fulfill a variety of
roles in addition to that of traditional archivist. The most common designations
for such roles are digital archivist, records manager, information system designer
or manager, information and privacy officer, records and information policy
manager, records and information staff trainer, records and archives manager,
and even digital forensic expert and records quality assurance specialist. In other
words, they are asked to fulfill each and every possible function related to records,
to be true records professionals. Would educating a generalist provide the market
with graduates knowledgeable and flexible enough to fill any of the mentioned
positions competently? I do not think so. Developing separate programs for each
of these positions is unreasonable, primarily because of the substantial overlap in
content that they would necessarily present, and offering depth of knowledge in
all the areas listed above would result in a four year full time graduate program,
which no university would deliver, at least not in North America, where cost-
benefit analysis is a fundamental ground for assessing the viability of programs.
An alternative: the specialist curriculum
What is the alternative? In the context of a two year full time graduate program,
I would suggest that the most appropriate choice is to deliver streams. In a
hypothetical example, an archival program could deliver four streams that would
cater to the educational requirements for a) an archivist, b) a digital archivist,
c) a records and information manager, and d) a records forensics expert. A
program structured in streams would have a required core common to every
student, a required core for each stream, and then electives across streams,
which means that students of one stream could take as electives required core
courses of another stream, but also that there would be courses not required
for any stream that delve into the specifics of the knowledge needed by the
graduates of one or more stream (e.g. conservation, digital diplomatics, or
history of recordkeeping). Building on the hypothetical example just outlined,
the common core, which would be offered in the first semester, term or session,
depending on the structure of the graduate program, could be constituted of
archival and diplomatic fundamental theoretical concepts and principles,
records management theory and methods, appraisal theory and methods, and
arrangement and description theory and methods. Afterwards, the core of the
four streams could include courses such as:
PROFESSIONALITEIT
21 This would consist of an Introduction to selected topics in information technology, including systems
concepts, computer architecture, computer network communication, discrete mathematics, database
design, algorithms and data structures, imperative programming, mark-up languages, and end-user pro
gramming tools.
204