Australian Society of Archivists

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Chris Hurley
The Making and the Keeping of Records: (2) The Tyranny of Listing
Traditionally, records are kept by sustaining the context in which they were made (respecting original order and provenance). This is seen as an essential requirement for maintaining their evidential value. Methodologically, this has required that we ensure the persistence of arrangement (recordkeeping processes) and a description of the transactional framework (business processes). Listing or inventorying has become central to this methodology because the relationships thus preserved are contingent, not logical. It follows that they cannot be set out prospectively and incorporated into the design of an archiving system. Rather, they must be documented retrospectively as or after they happen as descriptions of the implementation of those processes. In this concludingpa71 of the article, the question posed is this: Can we abandon our traditional concern with ensuring the persistence of recordkeeping and business processes and still keep records?

Stephen Yorke
Great Expectations or None at All: The Role and Significance of Community Expectations in the Appraisal Function
The stimulus for this paper is the writer healing many times the term 'community expectations' in records-related discussions; most frequently as the justification for an appraisal decision that will result in the long-term retention of a group of records. Australian Standard AS 4390 makes community expectations for appraisal one of a trinity of retention purposes along with accountability and business needs. The other two, while often arguable in the detail ' can be regarded as orthodoxy to the archival community. But while AS 4390 does provide a listing of requirements or tests for decision-making for business and accountability purposes, no such list is provided for community expectations or even an explanation given for its absence. So just how orthodox are community expectations?

Mark Brogan
Frontiers in Recordkeeping: Internet Service Providers
This article reports outcomes from research into the Australian Internet Service P7ovider (ISP) industry. ISA provide Internet connectivity services to business, government and consumers. Information systems operated by ISA predominantly serve business purposes, but contain significant depositories of personal and other information. Survey data gathered as a consequence of this research describes divergent data management practice between firm, an outcome attributable in part to the unregulated nature of `recordkeeping' in this industry. The author argues that regulatory failure and technology push are combining to create social vulnerability to Internet Service Providers, a situation requiring a proactive role on the part of recordkeeping professionals.

Albert Meijer
Anticipating Accountability Processes
This article deals with the relationship between records management and accountability. Anticipating accountability processes is presented as a key concept. Analyses of business processes and information requirements of accountability forums are presented as a basis for records management which provides for accountability. In some situations these analyses can result in explicit knowledge, in others in tacit knowledge: based on two variables (structure of business process and degree of control of accountability forums), four contingent states are described. These distinctions can form the basis for differentiated records management systems, procedures and practices which can help organisations to anticipate different sorts of accountability processes.

Danielle Wickman
Bright Specimens for the Curious or The Somewhat Imponderable Guided by the Unfathomable: Use, Users and Appraisal in Archival Literature
This article examines the purpose and methods of appraisal from the perspective of two major user groups ‑ researchers and records creators.' It considers Dr Terry Cook's question of whether the dual roles of archives of preserving evidence and memory are reconcilable, and to what extent archivists have met and can meet the needs of both researcher groups.

Ted Ling
'Making Good': Restoring Leased Archives Premises
This article describes some of the processes involved in 'making good' leased premises ‑restoring them to their original condition after they have been vacated. Making good is a requirement of most commercial leases and can sometimes be an expensive exercise.

 

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