Introduction

Introduction. Individuals often ask me for one or two basic references on archival administration, hoping to be able to master the knowledge of archival work with as little effort as possible. These requests come from library or information science students needing some sense of what is involved in archival administration, records managers hoping to comprehend the essential functions of archival work, and individuals contemplating applying to graduate school to prepare for archival careers. Some of these requests also are generated from people preparing for examinations to be certified as either archivists or records managers. The purpose for these and other individuals is the same – to obtain as much information about what archivists do with the least effort applied. While the basics of archival work can be described in a single volume, a simple reading of such a text can provide little more than an appreciation for the tasks the archivist carries out.

Many archivists are willing to accommodate such requests. This is a profession most willing to embrace and help any individual who wants to know something about its inner workings. Helpfulness aside, there is a correct and incorrect way to respond to such requests. The incorrect way, in my estimation, is to “dumb-down” the answer, suggesting that there really is nothing very complicated about managing archival records. Anyone can do it, and we are happy to have others help in this work. There is something very flawed with such responses. The better answer is to suggest some basic readings (and there are some good ones at that), while also indicating that records, recordkeeping systems, records technologies, the nuances of what makes a record possess archival value, the laws affecting records, the principles guiding archival work, and professional best practices are all very complicated matters defying simple templates or formulas. This is not intended to make something simple more complicated, so as to maintain an air of mystery around archival work or to raise salaries and prestige for those initiated in these mysteries. Records and recordkeeping systems are complicated entities, as well as being powerful devices for keeping organizations and individuals accountable and making crucial evidence available over time. We need to take archives and their administration as responsibilities deserving careful attention, not as something we can figure out how to do in an afternoon.

Certification in the records professions, for better or worse, has increased the interest of individuals desiring to obtain a working knowledge of archival administration. The Academy of Certified Archivists was founded in 1989, and its primary responsibilities are administering an examination for initial certification and a program for re-certification. The Academy publishes a Handbook for Archival Certification, including a reading list. The reading list consists of six volumes of classics, a variety of basic textbooks mostly published in the past decade, the Society of American Archivists “Basic Manual Series” of twenty years ago and the “Archival Fundamental Series” published in the first half of the 1990s, a few essay collections, and descriptions of four North American archival journals. The publications “most frequently reflected in the [certification] test” are marked. The Handbook notes that the reading list is “by no means a complete bibliography,” but it “contains only the most traditional and widely available publications” (p. 35). The counterpart group, the Institute of Certified Records Managers, includes “archives” and “preservation” as topics in its more extensive examination process, but it does not provide a basic reading list; as a result, individuals wishing to gain some understanding of archival work for their own records management certification would do well to examine the ACA reading list. The ACA’s reading list would certainly assist records managers preparing to be certified, but the bibliography reflects other limitations (unless we have the most short-sighted professional objective, individual certification, rather than a more comprehensive goal, knowledge of archival work or some particular aspect of archives).

Basic textbooks, by their nature, tend to provide broad overviews and, often, to simplify complex topics and issues. If we accept that understanding records is a difficult assignment, then we should be able to discern the limitations of basic manuals and textbooks. These volumes are written, designed, published, and marketed to reach as wide an audience as possible. In the case of records management textbooks they are developed most often to be used as readings in community college and undergraduate courses. Since archival education is nearly exclusively at the graduate level in North America, one might guess that archival textbooks are published to support that level of student. This is not the principal target audience. Rather, the basic textbooks and manuals have been developed principally to help individuals in the field, working with archival records. The objective of these publications has been to establish a baseline of knowledge for archival administration. As a result, the volumes generally overlook issues of professional debate, changing perspectives, or highly theoretical matters. Individuals reaching for them to study for certification examinations might be well served, in that they can obtain a crash course introduction to most aspects of archival work. However, read and used by themselves, the basic textbooks fail to support more than the most rudimentary knowledge of archival work.

Considering their use in the classroom reveals the nature and usefulness of basic textbooks. While some educators build courses around such basic manuals and textbooks, the majority uses these volumes in different ways. I use Sue E. Holbert, Archives and Manuscripts: Reference & Access (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1977) and Mary Jo Pugh, Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1992) as historical bookends to reflect the archivist’s changing perceptions of reference and access. The differences are dramatic, with the recent volume providing more detail, greater sensitivity to issues related to privacy and access restrictions, and fuller coverage of matters such as studying users. However, both are outdated as they are published well before the advent of the World Wide Web and a subsequent revolution in how archivists view providing access to their holdings. Even in a field seemingly as conservative as archives administration, change is ever present and the life expectancy of most basic textbooks must be measured in the space of a few years at best (unless one is striving to comprehend the evolution of archival thinking and working). An individual who picks up a basic archives manual from the mid-1990s might not be getting the most current information. The only solution is to know the classic texts, the pivotal articles, the flow of debate and change, and, overall, to have a sense of where the profession might be evolving in its theory, methodology, and practice. Whether this helps or hinders one as they prepare to take one of the certification examinations is a matter for debate and analysis, but if it hurts such preparation then the examination needs to be reevaluated.

The purpose of this technical report is to provide a description of critical or seminal writings defining archival work. It first describes the “classic” writings, the publications most essential for having drawn in the contours of archival knowledge, theory, and practice. Moreover, a handful of these pioneering publications remain cited, sometimes as historical documents or sometimes as still definitive statements of certain aspects of the field. The next section describes the textbooks and manuals published in the field, intended generally to provide either introductory information on archival practice or to break down archival work into its most straightforward steps and processes. The field continues to publish and rely on such manuals and textbooks, partly because the ranges of education and experience of those making up the archival profession are so disparate. Those advocating on behalf of such publications believe that these texts will enable at least a common denominator of knowledge to be present, while those who are critical of these works lament that this is often the lowest common denominator. This approach does seem to detract from helping the profession to advance its knowledge, especially to develop new approaches to help it resolve complex and challenging problems. After this, the report describes research studies, conference proceedings, important articles, monographs, and Web sites often providing the most current information available in particular aspects of the field.

One will recognize, at points, considerable overlap in the writings regarding archival administration with that of records management. This is not accidental, nor is it necessarily planned. Productive records work brings together both archives and records management (with important connections with other disciplines such as information resources and knowledge management). The relationship between archivists and records managers has been debated for half a century, and it has reemerged as electronic records and information systems bring all records professionals back together. A recent discourse on this topic declared bluntly, “In a nutshell, archival functions and records management functions are one and the same.”[1] With this, I certainly concur. I could have provided more overlap between records management, archival administration, and other disciplines, but my intention here is to delve more deeply into the aspect of the records work constituting the traditional field of archives. The “Archivist’s Mission,” formulated by the Australian Society of Archivists, really affirms how we need to think more concretely about a records profession made up of a cluster of different disciplines: “Archivists ensure that records which have value as authentic evidence of administrative, corporate, cultural and intellectual activity are made, kept and used. The work of archivists is vital for ensuring organizational efficiency and accountability and for supporting understandings of Australian life through the management and retention of its personal, corporate and social memory.”[2] With such a professional mission, archivists are readily seen as records professionals. How distinctive could a mission for records managers really be?

For an increased understanding of why it is necessary for the archival perspective to be integrated into broader records and information management work, underscoring why archival work is included in a certification examination for records managers, read the exceptionally useful publication by Anne J. Gilliland-Swetland, Enduring Paradigm, New Opportunities: The Value of the Archival Perspective in the Digital Environment (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, February 2000). Gilliland-Swetland reviews evidence, archival principles such as provenance, records life cycle, the organic nature of records, records hierarchy, and metadata. This is an excellent reference for use within organizations concerned about managing their records, classrooms where the emphasis has shifted to digital resources (especially documents) management, and for those studying for certification examinations. Gilliland-Swetland’s work ought to stimulate one into reading more deeply into the nature of archival work, its principles, and its history.

In order to expedite use of this technical report, I have numbered each paragraph and provided a subject and author index. The index is included at the end of the second part of this particular report. Readers of this technical report also will recognize that I have drawn on my columns for the most recent publications. Hopefully, this longer than usual report will serve as a benchmark for future columns. Individuals using this report must understand that this is by no means a comprehensive bibliographic essay on archives, archival work, and the archival profession. It is intended to feature the more important writings and to stress, sometimes in a very expansive fashion, what we comprehend about the archival field. Individuals will need to be regular readers of the primary archival journals (such as the American Archivist and Archivaria), subscribed to the major archives listserves (such as the Archives and Archivists listserve), and members of the major professional associations (such as the Society of American Archivists) in order to stay abreast of new research and writing. Finally, my emphasis in this technical report is on the North American segment of the archival field, although I have tried to comment on international contributions or perspectives when they are particularly relevant.