Michael Moss

Digital identity matters

Digital objects or entities present us with particular problems of an acute nature. The most acute of these are the issues surrounding what constitutes identity within the digital world and between digital entities. These are problems that are important in many contexts but, when dealing with digital texts, documents, and certification, an understanding of them becomes vital legally, philosophically, and historically. Legally, the central issues are those of authorship, authenticity, and ownership; philosophically, we must be concerned with the sorts of logical relations that hold between objects and in determining the ontological nature of the object; and historically, our concern centers around our interest in chronology and the recording of progress, adaptation, change, and provenance. Our purpose is to emphasize why questions of digital identity matter and how we might address and respond to some of them. We will begin by examining the lines along which we draw a distinction between the digital and the physical context and how, by importing notions of transitivity and symmetry from the domain of mathematical logic, we might attempt to provide at least interim resolutions of these questions.

Metadata, controlled vocabulary and directories: electronic document management and standards for records management

The authors argue that the development and use of elaborate embedded directory structures or file plans, derived from functional analysis, should be a key component in the future development of the discipline of records management. Directory structures thus conceptualised are explicitly intellectual constructs and their construction will require considerable effort, particularly if they are to be portable. Their greatest advantage is that they provide a coherent schema from which to derive folder/file names that can be embedded in metadata. One of the major challenges is to design systems that derive metadata from the directory structure or file plan and attach them automatically to documents at the point of creation, thereby minimising the need for human intervention and opportunities for human error.

We are archivists, but are we OK?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that the digital environment of the early twenty‐first century is forcing the information sciences to revisit practices and precepts built around paper and physical objects over centuries. The training of archivists, records managers, librarians and museum curators has had to accommodate this new reality. Often the response has been to superimpose a digital overlay on existing curricula. A few have taken a radical approach by scrutinising the fundamentals of the professions and the ontologies of the materials they handle.Design/methodology/approach – The article explores a wide range of the issues exposed by this critique through critical analysis of ideas and published literature.Findings – The authors challenge archive and records management educators to align their curricula with contemporary need and to recognise that partnership with other professionals, particularly in the area of technology, is essential.Practical implications – The present generation ...

Archivist: friend or foe?

Purpose – This paper sets out to explore the relationship between archives and the management of records, which are increasingly the product of the audit society, informed by a neo‐liberal agenda.Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on the authors views.Findings – It argues that there is no relationship between the two activities, except of the records themselves.Originality/value – This article will be of interest to those interested in the archiving of records and its management.

Digitisation: taking stock

The technicalities of digitisation are now fairly well understood, but what is less well understood is the range of issues that need to be considered before committing to a digitisation programme, if it is not to meet the fate of the BBC Doomsday Project. This article discusses a range of these issues in order to place digitisation firmly in a business and political context, including: why digitise, what to digitise, the audience for and packaging and discovery of digitised material, and finally the sustainability of the whole enterprise.

Advancing with the Army: Medicine, the Professions, and Social Mobility in the British Isles 1790-1850

Introduction: The French Wars, Industrialisation and the Professions 1. Army medical service 2. Background 3. Education 4. Army Careers 5. Professional Life Outside the Service 6. Fortunes and Families 7. Enquiring Minds 8. Reflection

Where have all the files gone? Lost in action points every one?

Government files and the system that preceded their introduction have been eclipsed by the introduction of electronic record keeping systems. This has been accompanied both by a marked deterioration in record keeping practices and the use of record keeping to enable an audit culture. The article explores what those charged with integrating digital records into the archives might learn from record keeping practice in the paper world. By explaining how registry systems functioned and developed, it argues that many of the problems and proposed solutions that information technologists believe to be novel have long antecedents. It concludes by suggesting that the voice of the historian needs to be heard more clearly in the debate about the role the archives play in contemporary democratic societies.

Authenticity: a red herring?

Abstract Authenticity is a difficult and taxing notion in both the digital and the analogue world. It is a retrospective and by implication dynamic notion, a reaction to whether or not we are dealing with the genuine article, that an object is what it purports to be at a moment in time and its content can be validated using available technology. It is not an end in itself like a fresh herring, but a red herring which, because of the pungent smell of the smokehouse, can put the hounds off the scent. Moreover it is not an absolute: an object that might appear perfectly authentic from one perspective may be considered to lack sufficient tokens of authenticity in another, and may later from both viewpoints be considered invalid. Content change may be captured in technologies, but does it necessarily follow that the intellectual content remains the same? Revolutions in technology may change the ‘container’ (for example a card catalogue becomes a database), but how do such migrations affect content and the procedures and practices that surround it? Is entering entities in a database the same as filling in cards? Distribution channels have always influenced structure and form without necessarily changing intellectual content or associated practice. In addressing such issues we warn against the ever present danger of a collapse into technological determinism with an accompanying utopian optimism [P. Flichy, The Internet Imaginaire, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007, Liz Carrey-Libbrecht. (trans.)]. We propose that discussion of identity needs to shift away from discussion of technologies for preserving information towards characterisation of the persistent intellectual content. In the migration to the digital we are especially concerned with four separate but related issues of identity from this perspective: • functionally identical replicas • superficially identical replicas • similar objects • earlier/later versions We conclude that identity is not a technical issue: notions of identity, like authenticity, are dynamic and have to deal with the non-transitive relations in stages of documents and objects. We are convinced that only by adopting such a stance can any progress be made in the sterile debate about digital preservation which logically must be downstream from the resolution of notions of authenticity that themselves are reactive to issues of intellectual content and available technology that following Aristotle we characterise as techne.

War and the Militarization of British Army Medicine, 1793-1830

Ettie Rout and Fred Hornibrook advocated a system of exercises based on ‘native’ dances from Polynesia, New Zealand and North Africa as beneficial both for the digestive system and for improving sexual relations. This story is a complex one about public initiatives and private enterprise, about government action and popular movements, and Zweiniger-Bargielowska has successfully woven together these multitudinous strands into a rich tapestry. Managing the Body provides exciting new insights into questions of health, wellbeing, citizenship, the body, gender, class, the relationship between private and public, the complex interactions between the new science of nutrition and the plethora of theories about diet and numerous other matters, in Britain in the early twentieth century.

The Corsini Letters

professional backgrounds and outlooks. Such insights make this book particularly valuable to anyone contemplating a career in archives or records management as it demonstrates conclusively that there is far more to the work than merely the cataloguing of old documents. Similarly, a senior manager of an archival service seeking to understand what his/her archivist is trying to achieve would get a realistic illustration here. For those wishing to amplify their knowledge, there is also a substantial amount of recommended further reading, both sector-specific and more general. The book has a clear goal – to support archivists and records managers who are leading or will lead services. But it also seeks ultimately to influence the wider sector. Good leadership will result in our professional activity being more pervasive, effective and valued. This reviewer was struck by several contributors referring to their activities as aggressive as in aggressively pursued or cultivated. It is not a word often used by or about archives or archivists. Perhaps it is a useful pointer to a successful way of working. This book needs to be read in its entirety, not dipped into. Some chapters may seem more or less relevant to one’s own professional context but the lessons are cumulative. The two final chapters crystallise the points made by the contributors, give a structure to the book and provide reinforcement of the messages. This is a useful and relevant addition to the study and application of leadership in our professions and a springboard for further topical debate.