Closing an Era: Historical Perspectives on Modern Archives and Records Management (New Directions in Information Management)

The importance of records in modern society is explored by re-examining some of the historical antecedents for critical functions in the modern records professions. The motivation for writing this book comes from a conviction of the importance of records and records professionals in organizations and society, as well as the need to possess a stronger sense of the events, trends, people, debates, and controversies producing the modern records professions. Archivists and records managers have tended to discount the importance of their historical antecedents, ignoring the fact that many of the current debates and issues before the profession are not new but embedded in the historical evolution of the records professions. Re-examining some of the historical origins helps records professionals to re-examine their mission to manage records for the benefit of organizations and of all of society. Such re-evaluation also helps to remind records professionals and others that the concerns generated by new electronic recordkeeping technologies are not new at all but built deep within the fabric of traditional records creation and administration. Machine generated contents note: 1. Mythic Modem Origins and the History of Records Management 2. The Birth of Records Management: The Ancients to the Dawn of the Industrial Age 3. The Birth of the Modem Records Regime and Profession 4. Building a National System of Records Administration 5. Shifting Strategies in Appraising, Scheduling, and Maintaining Records 6. Archives, Records, and Memory 7. Educating Records Professionals in a Hostile Age 8. Archives, Documentary Editing, and the Quarrel about Preserving Our Documentary Heritage 9 History's Future: American Archivists, Cyberculture, and Stasis Index . This work examines the origins of the modern management of records and archives. It explores the importance of records in modern society, re-examining some of the historical antecedents for critical functions within modern records professions. Examines the origins of modern archives and records management, appraising records, records and memory, the education of records professionals, and the future of archives in the emerging cyberculture.