ARHIVSKI VJESNIK 43. (ZAGREB, 2000.)

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P. Horsman, Izgubljeni u obilju. Paradoks elektroničkih zapisa, Arh. vjesn., god. 43 (2000), str. 19-27 Summary LOST IN ABUNDANCE. THE PARADOX OF THE ELECTRONIC RECORDS More and more people communicate by electronic mail, in stead of calling, and by sending and receiving e-mail messages they create potential records. It looks like that again orality is loosing its position in social life. Every peace of recorded information is potentially a record. Today in some countries, in the near future in other countries, archives will be surrounded by the electronic records, and overwhelmed by a continuously increasing of records production. These forthcoming changes, these challenges, make us put ourselves the eternal question: What business are we in. To give at least one answer: We arc in the business of keeping records. That is our core business, and we might be in some other related business, such as in the information business, but it is all about records. Not about current records, or semi-current records or non-current records - no, just records. Since wc are in the business of keeping records, we need a clear understanding of what a record is, and what distinguishes a record from other pieces of information. In the current archival literature on this subject, we see two different perspectives for defining electronic records: a legal one, often chosen by archives as a basis for interventions in public administration, and an academic one, chosen by universities, a basis for fundamental archival research. Looking more closely at the academic perspective, we may discover two different approaches. The University of Pittsburgh, for example takes the business transactions of organisations as a starting point. A business transaction creates, and uses records. The records are the evidence of the transactions that created and used them. Contrary to Pittsburgh the UBC project provides with clear definitions of electronic records, and in a structured, in diplomatics founded way. The starting point for the definition of an electronic record is the definition of a document, than of an archival document. An archival document is not a document with archival value, in the sense that it is worth to be preserved permanently, but a document which has recordness, played a role in a business process, and may serve as evidence of that process. An electronic document is a document created and communicated in a digital format and by computer technology. The advantage of the UBC definition is that it links up with traditional thinking, although that might be a risk as well. At least for the short term the use of the concept of the document as a metaphor has advantages for understanding. Whereas Pittsburgh appears to be more dynamic and open for any kind of emerging technology, it bears the risk of being one step too far. 26