A perfect match?
Connecting partners in the
labyrinth of information*
introduction
In this essay I will give some insight into the results of my quest as an archivist1 to
understand the fundamentals of information. It is not only about trying to
understand the complexity, but mostly to grasp or grock this phenomenon. With
the verb grock one indicates that he or she is to understand completely and
thoroughly an object, subject or issue (Heinlein, 1961). At one point I was surprised
to notice that the common perception of complexity of information and
information management overshadows the relative simplicity of the outcome of
the grocking.
As an archivist in Leeuwarden I am on an almost regular basis confronted with born
digital information. I have to answer questions related to (functional) requirements
and tenders for digital systems, change management, information architecture,
system management, process development and management, migrations, and
conversions. The answers have to be simple, preferably fitting on one page (e.g. as
a checklist), because those who are asking are not interested in long considerations,
reports and notes. Often there is not much time and quick decisions have to be
made. It makes my job interesting, because old and new theories clash sometimes.
A couple of years ago I became aware that I had been using an implicit sort of
internal reference model for a long time. It was based on what I learned during my
work as an archivist and my work in ICT. In particular, the fundamentals of
arranging and describing archives, the knowledge about describing archives that I
acquired through the years and the rise of digital systems for this purpose were
invaluable to me to understand today's digital development. In fact, this model was
at its core based on a kind of constant undercurrent. This awareness was prompted
to me through remarks that my colleague Frans Smit made about the behaviour of
people working in ICT, and their internal reference frameworks. As a result, I could
explicate my implicit model and turn the concepts into checklists and forms that are
now in use in my organisation. In addition, I understood that from certain
rienk jonker
I would like to thank Eric Ketelaar for his remarks and suggestions on a prior version and Meike Geerlings for
reviewing my English text. And especially I would like to thank Frans Smit and Arnoud Glaudermans for all
the intervisionary discussions we had on several archivistic topics regarding the archival digital turn.
1 When I use the word archivist, both the archivist and records manager are included. The archivist as keeper
of archives in archival holdings and the records manager as an official found in the frontline where the
records are created, received and managed until their disposition.
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