ITH - Centrum för studier av IT ur ett
humanvetenskapligt perspektiv och
Center for Collaborative Innovation vid Högskolan i Borås
9:1
Electronic Records
- Editorial
- Anneli Sundqvist
Guest editorial: Electronic Records: An
Introduction
- David Brolin
Den digitala
hammarens filosof
Vilém Flusser-introduktion på svenska
[The Philosopher of the Digital Hammer: An Introduction in
Swedish to Vilém Flusser]
[Review]
- Lars Ilshammar
When Computers Become
Dangerous
The Swedish Computer
Discourse of the 1960s
[Refereed Section]
- Else Hansen
Ny viden – gamle idéer
Elektroniske registre i den
danske centraladministration [New Knowledge
–
Old Ideas:
Electronic registers in the Danish Central Administration]
[Open Section]
- Kenneth
Hänström
Autenticitet i en digital värld
Långsiktsbevarande av allmänna handlingar [Authenticity in
a Digital World: Long Term Preservation of Public Records]
[Open Section]
- Karin Wagner
Internet Art and the Archive
[Open Section]
- Pauline Singh, Jane E. Klobas & Karen
Anderson
Information Seeking Behaviour of
Electronic Records Management Systems (ERMS) Users
Implications for Records
Management Practices
[Refereed Section]
Best readers,
It is a pleasure to be able to present a new thematic issue of
Human IT: a theme devoted to “electronic records”,
particularly in an archival context. We have been fortunate
enough to have Anneli Sundqvist, at the Department of
Information Technology and Media, Mid Sweden University,
acting as guest editor for the issue. She has done a wonderful
job, and I am sure you will find much of interest and
enjoyment in the articles.
The theme and the individual articles relating to it will be
presented below by Anneli herself, so I will not go into any
details there. In addition to the theme, however, there are
two extrathematic pieces in the issue.
First, David Brolin reviews a recent monograph (in fact a PhD
dissertation in the history of ideas) by Thomas Karlsson on
the cosmopolitan media theorist Vilém Flusser, "The
Philosopher of the Digital Hammer". Although still a somewhat
obscure name in Scandinavia compared to Kittler or McLuhan, a
few Swedish readers might nevertheless be familiar with some
of Flusser’s work through a thematic issue of the journal Res
Publica in 1998 (#39) on media theory and writing technologies.
Second, Lars Ilshammar brings us an article with the Clarkean
title "When Computers Became Dangerous". Lars is a much
published and appreciated writer on IT politics, history and
ideology issues in Sweden, and has previously contributed to
Human IT with a piece on IT and democracy. In the current
article, he performs a valuable investigation and analysis of
the changing views, expectations, fears and descriptions of
'the computer' in Swedish 1960s and 1970s public discourse. He
tracks such a discourse from early depictions of computers as
rational and administrative bureaucratic tools and ends up in
the heated privacy debates leading up to the implementation of
the world’s first Data Act in 1973. As all fruitful historical
work, Lars’ article helps us better understand and frame
current privacy and ideology ICT debates.
Before handing the microphone to Anneli, let me just inform
you of two things. First, we are happy to welcome Martin
Engebretsen of the Agder University College in Norway into our
editorial board. Thanks for joining us, Martin! Second, you
might want to know that Human IT by now publishes its material
on a subsequent basis. That is, each article is published as
soon as possible after acceptance. Each issue consists of
three or four peer reviewed or open section articles. When
this number has been reached, the issue is “closed” and
provided with an editorial such as this one. We believe that
readers as well as authors will benefit from this by coming
into contact with each other much more quickly. And since it
is technically perfectly possible, why not?
Borås in July 2007
Mats Dahlström, editor
The concept of records is the
pivotal point in archival theory and practice. Records are
recorded information connected to a context, to their creator
and the circumstances of creation. A record is thus to some
extent an abstraction, constituted of contextual relations,
but it must also be materialized in some form. Records are the
documentation of human activities, and the remaining traces of
past actions. They can thus serve as evidence of those actions
and to some extent make it possible to reconstruct what has
happened. However, they can also bring new knowledge. A
characteristic of records is that they are created in one
context and often used in a totally different context and for
other reasons than those for which they where originally
created. This is obvious when it comes to historical research,
but it could also be the case in more short term periods for
instance concerning administrative use. Records can be created
in the process of a business transaction, and then re-used to
meet legal claims or to provide statistical data for future
decision-making.
Information technology has added new dimensions to the concept
of records and to archival practices. For thousands of years
the medium for records creation was stable and physically
tangible, and thus the handling primarily concerned keeping
order in a literal sense. Then from the middle of the 20th
century, first microfilm, audio recordings, and later computer
technology, have challenged the foundations of both practices
and principles. The new technology has made an enormous
proliferation of records possible, often in susceptible
formats of short duration. The concept of a record as a fixed
entity and of the archive as a definite assembly of closed
records is questioned. This touches upon the intricate issue
of the relation between technology and social change. The aim
here is not to go further in to the discussion about the
driving forces of change and development, but all the
contributions to this thematic issue of Human IT attend to the
impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on
established practices in such various fields as administrative
work, long-term preservation of official documents, and the
conservation of art works.
Else Hansen gives an overview of the implementation of
electronic registers in Danish public administration. The
article, based on a research project undertaken at the Danish
National Archives, presents four case studies: the student
register at the University of Copenhagen, the civil
registration, the register of aliens, and the national patient
register. At first, electronic registers simply meant the
automation of manual procedures, but soon additional featured
appeared, which made possible the creation and use of
information for new purposes. However, this was not only a
result of technological progress, but also due to political
demands.
Pauline Singh, Jane E. Klobas and Karen Anderson have studied
the information seeking behaviour of the users of electronic
records management systems (ERMS) in contemporary
organizations. Their findings show how various factors like
training, individual information seeking styles, tasks, and
time affect information seeking behaviour. Users rely heavily
on using the metadata elements included in the ERMS, and often
adhere to the search behaviour they once learned. The full
potential of the ERMS search functions is thus not used.
Training seems to be the critical issue in mastering the
technology.
Long term preservation of electronic records and the
maintenance of authenticity is the object of Kenneth Hänström’s article. Authenticity is a necessary requirement if
records are to bear evidence of activities. Hänström has made
an assessment on the Swedish legal requirements on official
documents in the form of electronic records, compared with the
requirements of the international research project InterPares’
model for authentic electronic records. The result shows that
the current legal framework gives little support in
maintaining long-term authenticity of electronic records.
When is a digital art object considered to be archived? Karin
Wagner discusses the implications that the dynamics of the
Internet have on the conservation of art works. Internet art
is of an ephemeral character and often involves interaction
with the viewers. Furthermore, there is a question of where
and by whom Internet art should be preserved – inside or
outside institutions? Several criteria for how to judge
whether an art work is active or archived are suggested by the
author and these criteria are applied in the analysis of
twelve different art works. The article also points at new
forms of collaboration between curators, conservators and
artists.
These articles points to the fact that the technological
development has a large impact on the premises for production,
dissemination, storage, retrieval and preservation of records.
Established concepts such as record, archive, authenticity
etc. have been challenged, and their meaning has to be
re-interpreted in order for them to applicable in the new
circumstances.
Anneli Sundqvist, guest editor
