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By representing multiple realities, the RCM articulates the numerous and diverse points of view that contribute to records and archives including individual, group, community, organizational, institutional and societal perspectives. These contexts reveal the need to consider various stakeholders and co-contributors in relation to use, access and appraisal of records and archives. Over the lifespan of a record, multiple decisions are made by various stakeholders of the records that include, but are not limited to records managers and archivists. Other stakeholders can be identified at various dimensions of interaction, including those involved in providing information (not only the person or organization who produced or captured it), as well as their family and community. Records are therefore not simply physical or digital representations of physical objects held and managed in an archive or repository, but are evidence of multiple perspectives, narratives and contexts that contributed to their formation.
The RCMRecords Continuum Model is often described as being in contrast or at odds with the [[Records life-cycle|lifecycle]] records model.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.archivists.org/glossary/terms/r/records-continuum |title=Records Continuum |work=A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology |publisher=Society of American Archivists |accessdate=5 August 2016 }}</ref><ref name="McK1997">{{cite book |last=McKemmish |first=S. |year=1997 |chapter=Yesterday, today and tomorrow: a continuum of responsibility |title=Proceedings of the Records Management Association of Australia 14th National Convention, 15–17 Sept 1997 |pages=18–36 |place=Perth, Australia |publisher=RMAA }}</ref> While the RCM is inclusive of multiple ways of conceptualizing and performing recordkeeping, including a lifecycle approach, there are some significant differences. Firstly, whereWhile the lifecycle approach shows clearly demarcateddesignated phases in the management of records, a continuum approach conceptualizes these individual elements as continuous withand nonot as discernable parts.<ref name="McK1997"/> SecondlySecond, the lifecycle approach identifiesclearly clearidentifies conceptual and procedural boundaries between activecurrent orand currentinactive records. andCurrent records are identified as records while inactive or historical records, butare identified as archives. However, a continuum approach sees records processesmanagement as morean integrated acrossprocess which crosses spacetime. InThis themore continuumtemporal itmethod isof recordkeeping processes that carry records forward through spacetime to enableenables their use for multiple purposesuses and representations.
What this means is that records are always "in a state of always becoming...",<ref name="McK2001"/> and, able to contribute new contexts viadependent on the recordkeepingdiffering processesperceptions thatand occurhistorical withbackgrounds themof various stakeholders who are analyzing their contents. Archival records are therefore not just historical or fixed, but are able to be re-interpreted, re-created, and re-contextualized according to their place and use in spacetime. In this way, archival institutions are nodes in the network of recorded information and its contexts, rather than the end point in a lifecycle stage for records that are managed as "relics".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Acland |first=G. |year=1992 |title=Managing the record rather than the relic |journal=Archives & Manuscripts |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=57–63 }}</ref>
== Theory and influences ==
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