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5856 results in Facet Publishing

Page 292 of 293

  • 7 - Providing access

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 216-245

  • Summary

    Records are kept so that they can be made available to authorized users when required. Users may include the staff of the business unit where the records were created, other business units within the organization or authorized users from outside the organization.

    At the time of their creation, records are normally accessible only to their creators and perhaps to other members of a workgroup. When they are captured into a records management system, they normally become more widely accessible: capture is often the moment when the existence of the records is publicized, although it may also be the point at which formal access controls are applied to protect confidentiality.

    Since most organizations hold large numbers of records, systems must be in place to allow different users, and records management staff, to ascertain what records exist and to find those that are relevant to a particular need. Along with access control mechanisms, these need to be planned when records management programmes and systems are set up. This chapter examines the issues and offers some solutions to the questions of records retrieval.

    Meeting the needs of users

    Users and their requirements

    In order to design effective retrieval systems, records managers need an understanding of user requirements. Users articulate requests for retrieval in a variety of ways. For example, they may state that:

  • • a particular record exists, and they want to see it

  • • a particular process or activity took place in the past, and they want to find evidence or information about it

  • • they are gathering information about a particular topic to support the activity that they are currently engaged on

  • • they are undertaking broadly based research, and want to see if the records contain material that may be relevant.

    • Most of these requests allow several degrees of uncertainty. Some users may know that a record exists and be able to identify it precisely; others may seek the same record but be ignorant or uncertain of its title or location. Users may know that an activity took place but have varying degrees of uncertainty about when it occurred, who participated in it or what records it gave rise to. Access mechanisms must be able to satisfy a range of users, including those who have little or no prior knowledge of the records.

    In addition, retrieval systems must be able to handle records at different levels of aggregation.

  • 8 - Implementing records management: practical and managerial issues

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 246-269

  • Summary

    This chapter examines the practical and managerial issues surrounding the establishment and operation of a successful records management programme. It provides advice on the development and maintenance of effective records systems for organizations that already have the human and financial resources to support a records management programme, and guidance on establishing the necessary infrastructure for those at an earlier stage of implementation. It uses the framework recommended in the international standard on records management (ISO 15489-1:2001) and the accompanying technical report (ISO/TR 15489-2:2001).

    Getting started

    Establishing a records management policy

    All organizations should have a formally agreed policy for the management of their records. The goal of the policy ‘should be the creation and management of authentic, reliable and useable records, capable of supporting business functions and activities for as long as they are required…. The policy should be adopted and endorsed at the highest decision-making level and promulgated throughout the organization’ (ISO 15489-1:2001, clause 6.2).

    An example of a records management policy is given in Figure 8.2 (page 255). When records management is first under consideration, however, it will not be possible to prepare a fully detailed policy statement. The initial focus must be on obtaining a high-level policy decision that the organization will proceed to set up a programme of records management. When the need for a programme has been formally recognized, decisions are required to establish its broad parameters: in particular, whether it will embrace newly created as well as older records and whether it will cover the whole of the organization or only a part. Once these deci- sions have been made, the policy can be refined as work proceeds on developing the programme.

    Reaching agreement on these initial policy decisions may not be easy. Some individuals at senior level may think that records ‘manage themselves’, or that decisions about records can safely be left to the initiative of local workgroups or individual staff members; others may not recognize a need for well-managed records or may consider it a low priority. Sometimes a crisis occurs – an organization suffers financial loss because records are unavailable for a legal dispute or for recovery from a disaster – and the case for records management becomes self-evident. In other circumstances some marketing may be required to convince every key senior manager of the need to manage records systematically.

  • 1 - Understanding records management

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 1-29

  • Summary

    This chapter introduces the core concepts and terms used in the book. It describes the broad professional context of records management and outlines the intellectual frameworks that underpin it.

    Defining the key terms in records management

    What is records management?

    Records management is the ‘field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records …’ (ISO 15489-1:2001, clause 3.16). As a discipline, it developed from 20th-century office efficiency programmes and from the older profession of archives management. Archives were originally records kept to support the rights and obligations of organizations and individuals, but the archives profession came to be seen as concerned only with older records, kept to support historical research. By the mid 20th century, records managers were employed by archival institutions in the public sector, with the aim of controlling the inflow of ‘modern records’ into historical archives. While this is still one of the functions of records management, it is no longer the only role, nor even the predominant role, of the records manager. Records management now covers the management of records, regardless of age, to meet the needs of private and public sector organizations and the wider society as well as the research community. It earns its place in the life of an organization through its contribution to business aims and organizational goals.

    Records management is a necessary part of the work of almost all employees within an organization (and also of individuals in their personal lives). This book focuses on the organizational context, where records managers are the specialists in records management but rely on the co-operation and participation of all employees.

    To understand records management more fully it is necessary to look at the meaning of the word record. In the past, records management was equated with the management of papers located in organizational filing systems. The growth of new technology and information management has led records managers to seek a more rigorous definition of records, in order to explain what distinguishes them from other organizational resources, and to show how managing records differs from managing documents, data or information.

    What is a record?

    Originally record was a legal term: records were writings preserved in courts of law and accepted by them as authentic testimony of a completed action.

  • 6 - Maintaining records and assuring their integrity

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 173-215

  • Summary

    A fundamental element of records management is ensuring that records remain secure, intact, accessible and intelligible for as long as they are needed. This chapter considers the strategies that are required to maintain the integrity of records over time.

    With paper records, the main emphasis is on storing the physical media and protecting them from loss or damage. Electronic records require a different approach: the physical carriers are likely to be short-lived, but the records must be maintained over time and probably across several generations of storage media. While preservation of paper records is costly in terms of space occupancy, electronic storage media are compact and relatively inexpensive but costs are incurred in ensuring that records remain accessible.

    Storage systems for paper records

    Centralized or decentralized?

    Storage of records can be centralized or decentralized. In a fully centralized system, records for the whole organization are stored together. A central store offers a high degree of control and security, and optimizes the use of space by employing bulk storage equipment. In a decentralized system, records are held closer to where users work, but controls may be more difficult to achieve.

    Some organizations centralize all their paper records storage, but this is increasingly rare. More often, following the lifecycle model in Figure 1.2 (page 6), decentralization of some or all current records is combined with a centralized facility for records deemed to be semi-current or non-current.

    Most organizations recognize that standard procedures and access controls for paper records are easier to enforce in a centralized system, where specialist records staff can be employed; but when records are required frequently or urgently the convenience of local access usually takes priority and decentralization is preferred. Current records are likely to have high referral rates. Records that have passed beyond the current stage are rarely required at very short notice, so local accessibility is less important.

    Besides speed of access, decentralization provides a sense of ownership by records creators and users. Decentralized storage is often the day-to-day responsibility of the business units where records are created, as central records staff rarely have the resources to service decentralized paper files. In some organizations the central records manager may not be expected to have any participation in the management of decentralized systems.

  • Appendix A - Bibliography and sources of further information

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 272-293

  • Summary

    Records management websites

    The following websites are particularly useful for the breadth of their coverage of records management issues. Most of them provide information about both paper and electronic records. Some of their content focuses on the needs of public sector organizations in particular countries, but most is of considerably wider relevance.

    International Records Management Trust

    www.irmt.org/.

    National Archives and Records Administration, USA

    www.archives.gov/.

    National Archives of Australia

    www.naa.gov.au/.

    National Archives of Canada

    www.archives.ca/.

    New York State Archives and Records Administration, USA

    www.archives.nysed.gov/.

    Public Record Office, UK

    www.pro.gov.uk/.

    In 2003 the name of the UK Public Record Office is expected to change to the National Archives, and its web address may also change.

    State Records Authority of New South Wales, Australia

    www.records.nsw.gov.au/.

    Further information about developments in electronic records management can be found on the following websites.

    Digital Longevity (Digitale Duurzaamheid)

    www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl/.

    DLM-Forum on Electronic Records

    www.dlmforum.eu.org/.

    e-TERM (European Training in Electronic Records Management)

    www.ucl.ac.uk/e-term/.

    Interpares Project

    www.interpares.org/.

    Persistent Archives and Electronic Records Management

    www.sdsc.edu/NARA/.

    Records Continuum Research Group

    http://rcrg.dstc.edu.au/.

    VERS (Victorian Electronic Records Strategy)

    www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/.

    General works in print

    Recent works that provide coverage of electronic as well as paper records

    Kennedy, J. and Schauder, C. (1998) Records management: a guide to corporate record keeping, 2nd edn, Addison Wesley Longman Australia. Widely used Australian text, revised in 1998 to conform with the Australian records management standard AS 4390.

    Parker, E. (1999) Managing your organization's records, Library Association Publishing.

    Practical manual in an informal style.

    Short introductions to records management

    Hare, C. and McLeod, J. (1997) Developing a records management programme, Aslib. Succinct account of the components of a records management programme.

    McLeod, J. and Hare, C. (2001) Records management. In Scammell, A. (ed.) Handbook of information management, 8th edn, Aslib IMI. Overview of records management principles, approaches and trends.

    Saffady, W. (1999) The value of records management: a manager's briefing, ARMA International. Brief explanation of records management, emphasizing the value that it can deliver to an organization.

    Works focusing mainly or wholly on the management of electronic records

    Bearman, D. (1994) Electronic evidence: strategies for managing records in contemporary organizations, Archives and Museum Informatics. Seminal work including reprints of articles by a leading theorist.

    Dearstyne, B. (ed.) (2002) Effective approaches for managing electronic records and archives, Scarecrow Press. Collection of essays, mainly by US authors.

  • Introduction

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp xi-xiv

  • Summary

    Why keep records?

    Every organization needs records.

    Organizations use records in the conduct of current business, to enable decisions to be made and actions taken. Records may be required for business purposes whenever there is a need to recall or prove what was done or decided in the past. Records provide access to precedents or previous work and thus save time and money by eliminating the need to create resources afresh. Records are also kept to guard against fraud and to enable organizations to protect their rights and assets at law.

    Organizations also use records to support accountability, when they need to prove that they have met their obligations or complied with best practice. Organizations are accountable in many ways: they must meet legal, regulatory and fiscal requirements, and undergo audits and inspections of various kinds; and they must be able to provide explanations for decisions made or actions taken. The use of records is the primary means by which organizations can defend their actions if they are called to account for their conduct.

    Such external accountability is particularly important to public sector bodies, which are responsible for their actions both to governments and to the wider public. Companies are responsible to their shareholders, besides having a level of responsibility to the wider community. Every organization is liable to be called to account by legislators, regulators or auditors. Organizations use their records to respond to challenges made against them, whether in a court of law or elsewhere, and to justify their actions and decisions in response to enquiries or in the public arena. Within the organization, records support internal accountability. Those working at lower levels are responsible to their seniors for the work they perform, and records are used to prove or assess performance.

    While records are created in the first instance for the conduct of business and to support accountability, organizations may also use them for cultural purposes, both for research and to promote awareness and understanding of corporate history. Figure 0.1 illustrates these three broad reasons for keeping records.

    Outside the organization, the wider community also has expectations that records should be kept. When records are used for purposes of accountability they are not merely supporting organizational needs for compliance or self-defence; they also meet the requirements of society for transparency and the protection of rights.

  • 8 - Headings for corporate bodies

  • J. H. Bowman
  • Book:
    Essential Cataloguing
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 153-172

  • Summary

    We have seen the definition of a corporate body, and you have to keep this in mind. In this section we look at the forms of name to be used for corporate bodies.

    I shall not entirely follow the order of AACR2 here, because it is more helpful to bring certain topics together which in AACR2 are scattered.

    The first part of the chapter covers points which apply to all kinds of corporate name; this is then followed by sections on Conferences and Government names specifically.

    As you might expect, from what you have seen of personal names, the basic rule in establishing the form of name for a corporate body is that you use the name by which it is commonly identified. In order to determine what this is, you use, in this order of preference:

  • • items issued by the body

  • • reference sources.

    • Punctuation and spacing

    Notice the rule about full stops and spaces in headings. If you have a group of initials with full stops, do not put a space after each full stop until you come to the last one, the one immediately preceding the rest of the name. You would therefore put, e.g.

  • ✓ F.W. Woolworth Company

    • not

  • ✗ F. W. Woolworth Company

    • Notice that the ampersand should be used only if it is used in the name of the body concerned; it should not be introduced as an abbreviation.

    In some systems there is a policy of converting it into ‘and’ because sometimes it causes difficulties in filing.

    All kinds of elements may appear in the name of a corporate body. This includes elements in parentheses, if they happen to be part of the official name.

    Examples

    Marlborough Fine Art (London) Ltd Southwick (Sussex) Society

    Distinguish this kind of element in parentheses from the additions that you sometimes have to make to names to differentiate different bodies with the same name (see below, pp. 157–9).

    Capitalization

    Remember that when you are constructing a heading for a corporate body, of whatever kind, you follow the rules appropriate for the language in question. This means that in English you would put capital letters for the principal words in the name (not for words like ‘and’, ‘of ‘, ‘the’, etc.). In many languages you would not use capitals.

  • 7 - Headings for persons

  • J. H. Bowman
  • Book:
    Essential Cataloguing
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 137-152

  • Summary

    Having looked at main and added entries in AACR2 Chapter 21 we now, at last, come to the rules for establishing the actual forms of name to be used. Chapter 22 deals with personal names, and Chapters 23 and 24 with the various kinds of corporate body.

    These rules, of course, apply whether the access point is main entry or added entry, as we always use the same form of name for the same thing.

    Choice of name

    As with the other chapters, we still have a little preliminary work to do before we actually arrive at the form of name as it is to appear in a heading. That is to say, we have to choose the version of the name that is to be used as the basis for the heading. You can most easily understand this by means of an example:

    William Shakespeare's name has been spelt in various different ways over the years, such as

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakspere

    and different editions of his works have used different forms of the name. But we want all his works to be entered under the same form of name, and this means deciding on one of them. The purpose of the first part of this chapter is to help you decide which name to use as the basis for the heading if a person uses, or is known by, more than one.

    In looking at a person's name we have to use ‘the name by which he or she is commonly known’. This is meant to be a simple rule (and in application it usually is), enabling you to base the heading on the form of name by which the person is known, even if you know something about the person which perhaps other people don't.

    For example, you may know that the name is really a pseudonym. But if this is how the author chooses to be known, it is nobody's business whether it is a pseudonym or not. Likewise, because Hilda Doolittle chose to be known as H.D. that is the basis of the form of her name in a catalogue.

  • 2 - Analysing the context for records management

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 30-71

  • Summary

    Records managers need to understand the context of their work at a number of different levels. They need knowledge of the records that are produced, the organizational activities that generate records and the systems used to control them. In addition, they should have a thorough understanding of the organization itself and how records management contributes to its objectives.

    To gain this understanding, records managers must analyse the role and responsibilities of the organization, study its structures and working methods and discover how these have changed during its life. They also need to identify the broader issues that influence the way the organization operates, including its corporate culture and the interests and expectations of stakeholders within the organization and externally. Knowledge of the organization's operating environment is a key element in designing an effective records management programme.

    When the records manager has investigated these broader aspects of the organization, the next task is to acquire a deeper understanding of its functions and the activities that are performed to support them. The knowledge gained from these investigations can then be used to assess how each of these factors affects the organization's needs for evidence and information, and the degree to which its needs are met by the existing records and records systems. Putting all these pieces together, the records manager can design and implement a programme that fits the organization's requirements.

    This chapter examines analytical techniques that records managers can use to develop a wide view of an organization and their role within it. These techniques may be used when establishing a new records management programme and also in responding to changing circumstances when a programme is in operation.

    Using analytical techniques

    What techniques are available?

    Records managers need to undertake a range of analyses, using techniques appropriate to each task (see Figure 2.1). One of these techniques, the records survey, has been developed by records managers themselves, but others were invented outside the records management field. Techniques for investigating the environment, culture and structure of organizations have been developed by management analysts, while functional and process analysis techniques are borrowed from information technology and systems analysts.

    Analysis is an iterative process, since issues raised when one technique is used will often need further investigation using a related technique. The choice of an initial technique depends on the purpose of the analysis and the object to be analysed.

  • 10 - Uniform titles

  • J. H. Bowman
  • Book:
    Essential Cataloguing
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 183-196

  • Summary

    The two types of uniform title

    The term ‘uniform title’ can be confusing, because in AACR2 it is used in two different senses. These are called

  • • uniform title

  • • collective title.

    • This means that collective titles are just a particular kind of uniform title, but unfortunately there is no special name for the first (and main) kind of uniform title. The distinction is that a uniform title (in the first sense) refers to an individual work, whereas a collective title is used in relation to a collection or selection of more than one work.

    To try to avoid confusion I shall refer to the latter as ‘collective title’ throughout this chapter, which means that ‘uniform title’ refers to the first kind only. In AACR2 ‘collective titles’ are sandwiched in the middle of Chapter 25, but I am leaving them to the end because I think this makes more sense.

    Both kinds, ‘uniform titles’ and ‘collective titles’, are unusual in two respects:

  • • they are optional

  • • they are concerned with filing.

    • The fact that they are optional means that an individual library can decide how far, if at all, it wishes to use uniform titles in its catalogue. It may decide to use them for some kinds of work but not for others; we shall look at possible examples of this later. If your library does not need to use them you can ignore this chapter altogether.

    The reason that I think the second point is unusual is that AACR2 has nothing to say about filing, and indeed says nothing about the practical application of uniform titles or about the intended results that their presence should achieve in a catalogue.

    Uniform titles for individual works

    A uniform title is basically something very simple: it is a standardized title for an item which may have appeared under a variety of different titles. This means that, unlike the title proper, it is not copied from the chief source of information: it is something inserted by the cataloguer when required. The uniform title thus enhances the collocating function of the catalogue, by bringing together individual works regardless of the actual title on the title page.

  • 5 - Managing appraisal, retention and disposition

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 146-172

  • Summary

    In records management, appraisal is the process by which an organization identifies its requirements for maintaining records.

    Records managers have developed appraisal techniques primarily to support decisions about retention: which records can be destroyed at an early stage, and which merit longer-term or indefinite retention? However, appraisal can also be used to support other decisions. According to the Australian records management standard, appraisal seeks ‘to determine which records need to be captured’ into a records management system as well as ‘how long the records need to be kept’ (AS 4390.1-1996, clause 8.1). Other uses might include decisions on what records should be created, or identifying those that require special measures for protection or security. In a comprehensive records management programme a range of appraisal decisions may be required.

    This chapter examines different theories of appraisal and considers how appraisal techniques can be applied to control the retention of records. Effective retention management demands a system which ensures that records are retained for as long as necessary and that those no longer required are eliminated. This chapter discusses three components of the system: methodologies for making appraisal decisions; documentation of decisions; and operational measures for their implementation.

    The need for retention controls

    Records, whether paper or digital, cannot all be retained indefinitely. Storage and maintenance over time is often expensive and, as the volume of records grows, access becomes slower and more difficult.

    In practice some kind of appraisal occurs even where no records management programme exists. In the absence of formal controls, retention decisions are made on local initiative. Usually nothing is done until cabinets or servers are full, then someone makes a decision on what to do about it: paper records are moved to another storage area, a bigger server is acquired, or records are moved offline or destroyed. Such decisions are often arbitrary: redundant records are kept, thus incurring unnecessary expense, or records still needed are destroyed prematurely.

    A records management programme aims to ensure that retention decisions are made rationally. One of its key justifications is protection of the organization against legal action. Besides retention of records needed for legal defence, this includes the ability to show why any particular records were destroyed.

  • Appendix B - Select list of national and international standards

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 294-297

  • Summary

    Details given in this list are believed to be correct at the time of going to press, but new and revised standards are issued regularly. The list includes only recognized national or international standards, and related publications of standards organizations. It does not include standards promoted solely by commercial or professional bodies.

    Records management standards and related publications

    AS 4390-1996 Records management, Standards Australia. This standard was withdrawn following the publication of ISO 15489, but it remains a valuable source of guidance.

    ISO 15489-1:2001 Information and documentation – records management – part 1: general, International Standards Organization.

    ISO/TR 15489-2:2001 Information and documentation – records management – part 2: guidelines, International Standards Organization.

    PD 0025-1:2002 Effective records management: a management guide to the value of BS ISO 15489-1, British Standards Institution.

    PD 0025-2:2002 Effective records management: practical implementation of BS ISO 15489-1, British Standards Institution.

    Alphabetical filing rules

    ANSI/ARMA 1-1997 Alphabetic filing rules, ARMA International. ISO 12199:2000 Alphabetical ordering of multilingual terminological and lexicographical data represented in the Latin alphabet, International Standards Organization.

    Digital storage media

    ANSI/AIIM TR 25-1995 The use of optical disks for public records, AIIM.

    BS 4783:1988 Storage, transportation and maintenance of media for use in data processing and information storage, British Standards Institution.

    ISO 18923:2000 Imaging materials – polyester-base magnetic tape – storage practices, International Standards Organization.

    ISO 18925:2002 Imaging materials – optical disc media – storage practices, International Standards Organization.

    Forms and documents: creation and markup

    ANSI/AIIM TR 32-1994 Paper forms design optimization for electronic image management, AIIM.

    ISO 8879:1986 Information processing – text and office systems – standard generalized markup language (SGML), International Standards Organization.

    ISO/IEC 15445:2000 Information technology – document description and processing languages – hypertext markup language (ISO-HTML), International Standards Organization.

    PD0017:2001 Guide to the preparation of business documents, British Standards Institution.

    Information retrieval and language control

    ISO 639-1:2002 and ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages, International Standards Organization.

    ISO 2788:1986 Documentation – guidelines for the establishment and development of monolingual thesauri, International Standards Organization.

    ISO 3166-1:1997, ISO 3166-2:1998 and ISO 3166-3:1999 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions, International Standards Organization.

    ISO 8601:2000 Data elements and interchange formats – information interchange – representation of dates and times, International Standards Organization.

  • 3 - Classifying records and documenting their context

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 72-100

  • Summary

    Records are kept to be used over time. The creator of a record may return to it to seek information or evidence of past activity. It is also likely to be used by others but, unlike the creator, later users may have little or no personal knowledge of the events surrounding its creation.

    Completeness and reliability of the content of records are often the aspects of most concern to their creators. The context that gave rise to the record is usually self-evident to the creator, but may be less obvious to others who use the record in the future. To meet the needs of these later users, a record must carry sufficient evidence of its meaning and context to enable them to identify and interpret it correctly.

    Building on the concepts discussed in Chapter 2, this chapter considers how records are classified and organized to ensure that contextual information is available and users’ needs are met.

    Understanding the context of records

    Context and classification

    Users of paper records can usually gain some understanding of their meaning from their physical appearance and internal structure, and from data contained within the text. A user can distinguish a business letter from a private communication by its structure and format, and can identify the sender and recipient from the contents of the letter. Sometimes, however, essential data may be lacking; for example, the name or job title of the sender may have been omitted from the file copy of an outgoing letter.

    If the letter has been filed with other related items, its context is also illuminated by its relationship to the other items in the file. Again, critical items are sometimes missing from files, so that the full context of those that remain is not apparent. However, paper records that have been filed systematically provide users with the structural and contextual information that is needed to reveal their meaning.

    A key element that underlies the interpretation of records is the classification scheme, which in a paper-based system determines the identity of the file in which each item is housed and the place of each file within the records management system as a whole. Classification schemes play an equally important role in electronic records systems, where paper files do not exist, and in hybrid systems, where paper and electronic records exist side by side.

  • 1 - Introduction

  • J. H. Bowman
  • Book:
    Essential Cataloguing
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 1-3

  • Summary

    The aim of this book

    If you are looking at this book it may be because you are interested in cataloguing. If you are not, I hope that by reading it you will find that cataloguing is not as bad as you thought.

    The book is written with three main kinds of reader in mind:

  • • library school students

  • • beginning cataloguers

  • • other information professionals who have forgotten all they ever knew about cataloguing but now find that they have to do it.

    • If you fall into one of these categories, I hope that you will find something useful in this book, as I take you through the various processes which are involved in cataloguing using AACR2. I must emphasize at the outset that

  • • it is not intended as a substitute for AACR2; indeed I assume throughout that you have a copy of AACR2 with you while you read it

  • • it does not purport to cover everything in AACR2. I have tried to give you the basics, but without completely eliminating some of the difficult decision-making which makes up much of cataloguing

  • • it is intended to be essentially practical. This means that although there is some background material it does not amount to much, and you should refer to other books such as Oddy (1996) and Piggott (1988) for further background information.

    • Layout

    To make it easier for you to stick to the essentials, two sizes of type are used.

    The most important parts are set like this.

    The less important parts are set like this.

    Non-book materials

    You will probably think that this book concentrates rather too much on books. Perhaps it does, but it is much easier to reproduce the relevant parts of books. Moreover, when it comes to cataloguing, most libraries are still dealing largely with books.

    I believe that if you understand the principles of cataloguing you should be able to transfer them to all kinds of material without too much difficulty. I have included references to some of the nonbook materials which libraries are most likely to encounter, and they are shown like this.

  • 5 - Access points

  • J. H. Bowman
  • Book:
    Essential Cataloguing
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp 86-127

  • Summary

    The whole of AACR2 Chapter 21 is devoted to access points, formerly often known as entry points; that is, it deals with the question of who or what is going to get an access point in the catalogue. As I mentioned earlier, AACR2 still maintains the distinction between main entry and added entries; if it did not do so, most of this chapter could be swept away, because all access points would be equal. In an online catalogue they are effectively equal anyway, but as long as the rules remain as they are we need to understand how they work.

    Online catalogues also usually provide various other kinds of access points which are not mentioned by AACR2 at all, such as Keyword and Publisher. And remember that AACR2 does not deal with subject access in any way.

    As with so many sections of AACR2, the basics are very simple, but they can often be obscured by the detail which is necessary to deal with unusual cases.

    The first thing to note is that, unlike in the description, we are no longer tied closely to particular sources of information in the item itself; although the item itself naturally still has priority, we are allowed to use external sources if required. The order of sources is

  • • chief source of information

  • • statements prominently stated (remember what ‘prominently’ means)

  • • information in the content of the item

  • • information from outside the item.

    • In practice this seldom makes any difference, but, for example, in the case of an anonymous work whose authorship has subsequently been established, it does allow us to make the entry under the actual author's name even though it does not appear in the item itself.

    The next thing is that, because AACR2 breaks down the task of cataloguing into as many separate operations as possible, the actual form of the access points is not discussed at all in this chapter. As I said at the beginning (pp. 12–13), there is a difference between deciding that Shakespeare is going to be the main entry and establishing the actual form of his name that we are going to use. This means that whenever an access point is referred to in AACR2 Chapter 21, the actual form of the access point cannot be mentioned because that is dealt with in other chapters.

  • Preface

  • Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
  • Book:
    Managing Records
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    09 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2003, pp ix-ix

  • Summary

    This book describes and discusses the principles of records management and its practical implementation in contemporary organizations. It provides more extensive coverage than most other recent publications on records management. The book does not assume that readers will have any prior knowledge of the subject, but is intended to be of value to experienced practitioners as well as newcomers to the field.

    The discipline of records management has grown so much in the last ten or twenty years that it now seems scarcely possible for a single book to cover the whole range of relevant issues. Although space has not permitted full discussion of every topic, we have nevertheless tried to make this book as comprehensive as possible. While addressing a largely English-speaking readership we have sought to maintain an international perspective. As a result, we have given relatively little emphasis to legal or other topics that are specific to a single country, and have concentrated on areas of professional principles and practice that are applicable worldwide.

    We are indebted to numerous individuals who have contributed directly or indirectly to the genesis of this book: records management students from many countries across the world who have shared their experiences with us; archivists and records managers with whom we have worked in the UK, continental Europe and Africa; and many others, particularly in North America and Australasia, whose writings have informed our understanding of the subject. We are also grateful to our present and former colleagues at University College London, especially Anne Thurston, Clare Rider, Vanda Broughton, Chris Turner and Anna Sexton.

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