geert-jan van bussel the theoretical framework for the 'archive-as-is' an organization oriented view on archives - part ii be deemed as not of enduring importance and, as such, not acquired by archival repositories or kept by their creating organizations. So, although a user knows where archives and records are ('they are findable'), he or she cannot obtain them ('they are not available'). When archives and records are findable and available, they should be perceivable (9), the third requirement of information access. It should be possible to perceive them, to hear, feel, smell, taste, or view their content. If potential users are disabled in ways that prohibit hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, or viewing, there should be assistive and interactive technologies in operation that allow them to perceive records (Hill 2013). When records are heard, felt, smelled, tasted, and/or viewed, users have the possibility to gather their meaning (Jones 2011). It is only possible, for even if records are findable, available, and perceivable, that does not mean they are 'intelligible'. To ensure accessibility and usability at both perceptual and cognitive levels of human- computer interaction, designers of archival systems need to be constantly aware of such design issues and should integrate those issues in evaluating their designs (Kato and Hori, 2006). The fourth requirement of information access is intelligibility (10). Perceivable records can be read, heard, felt, smelled, and/or viewed, without the user having the capabilities to understand them. Understanding is only possible if the information literacy capabilities of users enable them to do so. According to the Karlsruhe concept of comprehensibility, the most ideal level of intelligibility depends on six dimensions: simplicity, structure, correctness, motivation, concision, and perceptibility. If an information user cannot (completely) gather one (or more) of these dimensions, it becomes more difficult to understand the records (Göpferich, 2006). Facilitating intelligibility may be a burden for organizations (archival repositories among them), because even in very literate countries large minorities of the population can only read simple texts in their own language (OECD 2015). Those minorities may be less educated people, immigrants, untrained readers, or people with dyslexia, aphasia, intellectual or cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, or neuropsychiatry disabilities. Much above the level of 'simple text' is for most of those people unintelligible. For that reason, for large minorities of the population accessing records will be problematic. To have access to ICTs will not solve the problem, which makes the dissemination of knowledge quite difficult. The last, fifth requirement, is contextuality (11). Archives and their records may be findable, available, perceivable, and intelligible, but if their contextuality is in jeopardy, it may be impossible to reconstruct the situational and environmental context in which they were generated, used, and managed. This requirement is connected with the dimension of (situational) context (2) and the principle of (environmental) context (6) as it allows users to access archives and records in context. Archives and records have a specific meaning in the context in which they are (were) generated and used. If their situational and environmental context cannot be reconstructed by a user, the meaning they were meant to have at the moment of their creation or as a consequence of their use, will be lost. At that moment, they lose their function as reference, as evidence of actions and transactions, or as source of organizational knowledge. If that context is unavailable or impossible to reconstruct, archives and records may be interesting for users, but only in their own context of information seeking (Kulthau, 2006). This requirement allows users to interpret the meaning of archives and records in a way that was intended by the organization or person that constructed the archive. That interpretation will not be complete and will be restricted by the metadata that were allowed to be captured during creation, use, management, and preservation of the archive and the records within it. What is done with that context by users is dependent on their (research) questions. They may try to find other contexts unconsciously embedded into the records or the archive, like Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (1975) did for Montaillou or Catarina Bruschi (2009) for the Waldensian heretics in the Languedoc. The requirements of information access are defined from the viewpoint of the users of the archive and its records. For them to be useful for the user, they should be accessible. Meeting information access is one of the biggest challenges for EIM. The five requirements of information access define this challenge. It means that EIM will have to meet every requirement of information access, including all technologies needed for users to perceive records, including generation or maintenance of information architectures that allow users to quickly access archives, and including all contextual metadata for archives and records to allow for a reconstruction of the past. 4.4. The operational component of the 'Archive-as-Is': The information value chain (D) The three defining components of the theoretical framework of the Archive-as-Is are to be implemented by organizations as mandatory requirements in the operational component of the framework: the information value chain. This chain of information processes, organized by EIM, realizes these components in the business processes of organizations. That way EIM assists these business processes to reach organizational objectives. EIM organizes the information value chain to identify, control, and manage archives, records, and ICTs in and between organizations. The chain ensures that the informational and evidential value of records is utilized in and between business processes to improve performance, privacy and security by safeguarding the four dimensions of information, the two archival principles, and the five requirements of information access (Van Bussel and Ector, 2009; Van Bussel, 2012ab). It is recognized that managing records is a critical source for competitive advantage (Holsapple and Singh, 2001). Michael Porter and Victor Miller (1985) point out that between organizations, differences in the management of information (thus, archives and records) have an effect on activities and lead to differences in their competitiveness. The information value chain identifies ten distinct, generic processes and nineteen activities that an organization (an organizational chain and/or even a person) performs when managing its records. The chain is comprised of five primary processes, used to manipulate the organizational archive and its records, and five secondary processes that guide performance of the primary processes and their activities. These primary processes and their corresponding activities do not need to be performed in a strict pattern, but there can be various sequences and overlaps among them. The secondary processes influence these variations. In structuring the archives in liquid times 56 57

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Jaarboeken Stichting Archiefpublicaties | 2017 | | pagina 30