The records continuum model
The records continuum model provides a useful framework for the exploration of
the continuum of responsibilities that relate to recordkeeping. (Note that copy
right and all rights in the following presentation of the model is held by Frank
Upward.)
Evidential axis
Dimension 1
CREATE
Dimension 2
CAPTURE
Functions
its Activities
Identity
axis
Transactional
axis
Dimension 4
PLURALISE
Dimension 3
ORGANISE
Recordkeeping axis
Figure 1
The model provides a way of conceptualising the records continuum, of thinking
about recordkeeping in our organisations and in our society. The model:
identifies key evidential, recordkeeping and contextual features of the
continuum and places them in relationship to each other
represents the multidimensional nature of the recordkeeping function
maps the evidential, recordkeeping and contextual features of the continuum
against the dimensions of the recordkeeping function
is itself placed in a broader socio-legal and technological environment.
A dimensional reading of the continuum
The continuum is holistic yet multidimensional -like a band of light, it can be
'refracted', separated out into its constituent layers. Table 3 provides a dimen
sional reading of the continuum model.
Table 3:
THE DIMENSIONS OF THE RECORDS CONTINUUMS
1D Create
The dimensions of the continuum are not time-based. Records are both current
and historical from the moment of their creation. By definition they are 'frozen'
in time, fixed in a documentary form and linked to their context of creation.
They are thus time and space bound, perpetually connected to events in the past.
Yet they are also disembedded, carried forward through time and space, and
re-presented in the contexts of their use.
As characterised in Table 2, records continuum thinking and practice focuses
on logical records and their relationships with other records and their contexts
of creation and use. Thus the model is a map of a dynamic, virtual place -a place
of 'logical, or virtual or multiple realities'- and it always has been, even in the
paper world.
When we're thinking in fourth dimensional ways, we're concerned with:
identifying or inventing social and cultural mandates for essential evidence
to function as collective memory
establishing recordkeeping regimes that can carry records beyond the life of
an an organisation or person
developing knowledge bases and classification schemes that represent the
broadest structural and functional contexts of recordkeeping
DE PROFESSIE
Cglleetive-M®
ational/
Organis
Mer aory
Representational
Organisation Actbr(s)
institution
Purposes
iit(s)
XArchivajy
Document
Archive
Archives
202
SUE MCKEMMISH YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW
The first dimension encompasses the actors who carry out the act (decisions, communications, acts),
the acts themselves, the documents which record the acts, and the trace, the representation of the
acts.
20 Capture
The second dimension encompasses the personal and corporate recordkeeping systems which capture
documents in context in ways which support their capacity to act as evidence of the social and
business activities of the units responsible for the activities.
One way to think about ID and 2D might be as the implementation dimensions where the
players might be desktop operators and managers, and recordkeeping professionals with opera
tional roles. When operating in these dimensions, we're concerned with taking the trace and
ensuring that it can function as evidence.
3D Organise
The third dimension encompasses the organisation of recordkeeping processes. It is concerned with
the manner in which a corporate body or individual defines its recordkeeping regime and in so doing
constitutes/forms the archive as memory of its business or social functions.
40 Pluralise
The fourth dimension concerns the manner in which the archives are brought into an encompassing
(ambient) framework in order to provide a collective social, historical and cultural memory of the
institutionalised social purposes and roles of individuals and corporate bodies.
3D and 4D can be thought of as the control, regulation, standardisation and auditing dimen
sions -where recordkeeping professionals with steering roles operate. In the third dimension,
we are concerned with 'insider' issues to do with forming, managing and providing access to
the corporate memory. In the fourth dimension, we're essentially on the 'outside' looking in,
concerned with the constitution of collective memory in a way that crosses organisational and
jurisdictional boundaries.
203