I recently attended a seminar on International Aspects of Records Management conducted by David O. Stephens and sponsored by ARMA Houston. Although not the primary topic of the seminar (but certainly related) was a conversation concerning archiving for corporate memory in the digital age.

Stephens spent some time discussing the origins of records management in the United States, the United Kingdom, and European nations, specifically how records management grew out of a different set of circumstances in the United States and how this has affected our attitudes and practices. Stephens pointed out that preservation or archiving for corporate history has in some cases happened quite unintentionally in the United States and he provided examples of physical records retained unknowingly that were later discovered to have lasting value. This will not be the case with electronic records, though, as electronic records with long retention periods will likely not be accessible at a future date without effort and planning – planning that includes migration and other strategies to ensure accessibility and readability.

Stephens returned to this topic later in the day when he recalled a rich trove of information he inventoried for a client project that made its way to a museum collection. This was not a planned archive collection. Instead, it simply happened due to lack of lifecycle management activities. As he stressed though, we can’t count on this happening in the electronic records environment. And, if our primary focus is not on archives, this will likely not be our concern. We will instead be focused on lifecycle management activities that end at disposition or legal preservation.

There are a number of reasons for this current thinking and not all of them are related to a lack of planning. As Stephens pointed out, many companies simply do not want to take the risk of preserving records for corporate memory in our litigious environment. And – there is a cost involved – cost up front to develop an archives program and strategy and ongoing cost related to accessibility and readability.

Corporate archives programs are more important to some of our clients than others. Even without an archives program, we have to accept that there are electronic records that must be retained for long periods of time. These records can be found in our central repositories, business applications, email accounts, shared drives and in external devices, such as USB drives. Hand-in-hand with our retention policies and schedules then, we should be developing strategies to ensure long-term access to electronic records. As Stephens pointed out, this access will only happen intentionally, and by design!