|
[[File:The_Records_Continuum_Model.gif|thumb|right|The Recordsrecords Continuumcontinuum Modelmodel]]
The '''Recordsrecords Continuumcontinuum Modelmodel''' (RCM) was created in the 1990s by [[Monash University]] academic [[Frank Upward]] with input from colleagues [[Sue McKemmish]] and Livia Iacovino as a response to evolving discussions about the challenges of managing digital records and archives in the discipline of [[Archival science|archival science]].<ref name="elis">{{cite book |last1=McKemmish |first1=S. |last2=Upward |first2=F. H. |last3=Reed |first3=B. |year=2010 |chapter=Records Continuum Model |title=Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences |edition=3rd |pages=4447–8 |doi=10.1081/E-ELIS3-120043719 |isbn=978-0-8493-9712-7 }}</ref> The RCM was first published in Upward’s 1996 paper "Structuring the Records Continuum – Part One: Postcustodial principles and properties".<ref name="upward1">{{cite journal |last=Upward |first=F. |year=1996 |title=Structuring the records continuum – part one: postcustodial principles and properties |journal=Archives & Manuscripts |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=268–285 |url=http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/research/groups/rcrg/publications/recordscontinuum-fupp1.html }}</ref> Upward describes the RCM within the broad context of a [[continuum (measurement)|continuum]] where activities and interactions transform documents into records, evidence and memory that are used for multiple purposes over time. Upward places the RCM within a post-custodial, [[Postmodern philosophy|postmodern]] and [[Structuration theory|structuration]] conceptual framework.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Upward |first=F. |year=1997 |title=Structuring the records continuum – part two: structuration theory and recordkeeping |journal=Archives and Manuscripts |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=10–35 }}</ref> Australian academics and practitioners continue to explore, develop and extend the RCM and records continuum theory, along with international collaborators, via the Records Continuum Research Group (RCRG) at Monash University.
==Description==
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.<ref name="McK2001" /> 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 Recordsrecords Continuumcontinuum Modelmodel 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. While the lifecycle approach shows clearly designated phases in the management of records, a continuum approach conceptualizes these individual elements as continuous and not as discernable parts.<ref name="McK1997"/> Second, the lifecycle approach clearly identifies conceptual and procedural boundaries between current and inactive records. Current records are identified as "records" while inactive or historical records are identified as "archives." However, a continuum approach sees records management as an integrated process which crosses spacetime. This more temporal method of recordkeeping processes enables their use for multiple contexts and representations.
What this means is that records are "in a state of always becoming...",<ref name="McK2001"/>, able to contribute new contexts dependent on the differing perceptions and historical backgrounds of 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>
Other models:
* Juridical contexts of the Recordsrecords Continuumcontinuum Modelmodel (Livia Iacovino)<ref>{{cite book |last=Iacovino |first=Livia |year=2006 |chapter=Legal and social relationships: an alternative Internet regulatory model |title=Recordkeeping, Ethics and Law |pages=253–300 |place=Dordrecht |publisher=Springer Netherlands |isbn=978-1-4020-4691-9 |chapter-url=https://www.springer.com/law/book/978-1-4020-4691-9 |series=The Archivist's Library }}</ref>
* Mediated Recordkeepingrecordkeeping: culture-as-evidence (Leisa Gibbons)<ref>{{cite book |last=Gibbons |first=L. M. |date=2015 |title=Culture in the continuum: YouTube, small stories and memory-making |publisher=Monash University Faculty of Information Technology Caulfield School of Information Technology }}</ref>
==References==
<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Shea |first=Greg |last2=Roberts |first2=David |type=Pdf |title=Living in a Digital World: Recognizing the Electronic and Post-custodial Realities |work=Archives and Manuscripts |date=1996 }}</ref>
{{Reflist}}
|
