26 Criteria for selecting archives • Historical value • Continuing value,
including current and historic value Time of archival appraisal • End of records
movement
• From beginning to end Role of records professional • Passive and reactive
• Locked into custodial role and strategies
Proactive-post custodians:
• Records keeping policymakers
• Standard setters
• Designers of records keeping systems and implementation strategies
• Consultants
• Educators/trainers
• Advocates
• Auditors Records management tasks • Things are done to the
records in fixed stages, in a given sequence by a particular professional group
• Records managers and archivists have no business directing what records an organisation creates; they are relegated to receiving the physical objects once created
• Fragmented and desperate accountability of creators, users, records managers and archivists
• Integration of business processes and records keeping processes - the task can happen in almost any sequence by any professional group
• Records managers are accountable for not only the maintenance but also for the creation of evidence of the
organisation’s purposes and functions
• Integrated framework for the accountabilities of players and partnerships with other stakeholders Source: An (2003:1)
27 The Model’s origin is traced to Canada, although it was developed in Australia in the 1990s (Upward, 1996). Its development was in response to the criticisms leveled against the Records Life Cycle Model (Shepherd and Yeo 2003:9). The model is applicable in Botswana context. Reed (2005) and Cumming (2010), argue that the Records Continuum Model can be used for multiple readings and can support different interpretations of the cultural context in which the records are generated and used. The Model is culturally oriented and open to interpretations to suit the cultural context in which the records are generated and used (Chachage and Ngulube 2006). This justified its adoption in the current study as it helped to understand how records creation and capture are affected by information culture through its emphasis on transactions and evidence. In the Botswana context, the model is applicable.
The Model is interpreted as a metaphor and a new worldview, representing a technology-driven pattern shift in records management. According to McKemmish, Acland and Reed (1999), the Model intends to understand records and records keeping processes regardless of form and situation and from which practices for records keeping in digital environments may be developed. Upward (2000:118) posits that “The continuum is a fully- fledged paradigm shift in which a worldview is being replaced”. Kemoni (2008) opines that the Records Continuum Model has gained international acceptance as a basis for the management of records in both paper and electronic formats. This is supported by the view that the universality of the Model is not only intellectual but also practical. It can be applied to “an analysis of recordkeeping practices in any period of history” (Upward 1997:31).
A diagrammatic representation of the Records Continuum Model is depicted in Figure 2.2 below:
28 Figure 2.2: Records Continuum Model
Source: Upward (1996: 66)
As reflected in Figure 2.2, the Model has four major vectors or themes, namely, transactional, authority (identity), evidential and records keeping.
• Transactional vector – relates to records as products of activities;
• Identity vector – relates to the authorities by which records are made and kept, including their authorship, establishing particularities of the actors involved in the acts of records creation, the empowerment of the actors and their identity viewed from broader social and cultural perspectives;
• Evidential vector – relates to the records as evidence; and
• Records keeping vector – relates to the objects created to store records (Upward 2000:123).
The Records Continuum Model also has four dimensions that guided this study. The dimensions are linked by concentric circles representing the layers of the continuum joining the individual record to its contexts (Flynn 2001). The dimensions are:
• Create – records creation involves the actor (creator). The transactions that the actor/creator engages in result in a document (archival document) that presents the trace (evidence) of acts by capturing records supporting transactions. Records of business activities are created as business communication processes in the organisation.
• Capture – consists of the unit in which the work takes place.Documents that have been created or received in an organisation are tagged with metadata including how they link to other records. The created document and its information create a context for the record which, as a result, is presented as evidence.
29
• Organise – the accountable acts are taken to be important enough to permit retaining evidence of them beyond their immediate business and regulatory use in dimensions one and two. The records will certainly become part of the cumulative corporate memory represented by dimension three (An, 2001). It is here that records are organised as evidence by placing them in the context of the corporate or individual archive and managing them in frameworks that enable the records to function as an individual, group, or corporate memory.
• Pluralise a collaborative records keeping establishment under the guidance of a suitably empowered public records keeping authority serves the needs of the total society, its constituent functions, and the entities that carry them out. The records keeping establishment serves the documentary needs of many entities within its jurisdiction and ensures the accountability and the cultural memory of the society as a whole.
Flynn (2001) observes that the Records Continuum Model provides for a unified and homogeneous system for the management of records (including archives) in any format throughout their life irrespective of how long or short that life is. The Model thus allows records managers and archivists to operate at appropriate stages of the records continuum to meet their different but harmonious objectives. The Model is useful in observing the behaviour and actions exerted throughout the stages of the record. The Model provided the study with a framework to answer the research question concerning the influence of information culture on the creation and capture of records.
Cumming (2010) argues that the Records Continuum Model considers the relationship between the system and individual actors, recognising that human activities are mediated by communication and the organisational context. This links in with the current study’s identification of behaviours that influence information culture in a selected organisational context thus making the Model relevant to the study. Furthermore, McLeod and Hare (2006) posit that the Model focuses on processes and activities rather than on the records and their status, hence making it valuable within the electronic environment where systems are central. The Model emphasises the need to incorporate records keeping into business and societal procedures and purposes. This study identified with the Records Continuum Model because, as Flynn (2001) points out, it emphasises the concept of service to the users of records whether internal or external to the creating organisation throughout the lifetime of those records. It also provides a sense of the provenance and the organisational and social contexts in which records are created and maintained.
30 As noted, the Records Continuum Model applies to records including archives regardless of whether they are in paper or electronic form. The Model considers records as logical rather than physical entities regardless of their format. This is particularly significant for electronic records given that the essential qualities of record content, structure and context are not necessarily all physically present in an electronic record but may be available to the user logically or virtually (Upward 2000).
This study will add to the records and information culture debate by focusing on the transactional, evidential and contextual dimensions. This focus will enable the study to answer how information culture affects records creation and capture, as actions/activities that reflect human behaviour are expressed in these dimensions. These activities that take place are engaged in by most people in an organisation. The attitudes and values can be reflected in activities that take place in each dimension. As Upward (1996) succinctly put it, “Once we understand these threading outward processes it is easier to see how structures established in the various dimensions can impact the act of document creation”.
The Records Continuum Model focuses on the multiple purposes of the record. It promotes the integration of records keeping into the organisation’s business systems and processes. Using the Model in this study assisted in assessing the state of records keeping and the identification of actions in records processes. The link between records management and information culture can be identified in these dimensions. With the advent of electronic records, the Model is seen as an alternative to the Life Cycle Model.
According to Cumming (2010), the Records Continuum Model takes a multi-dimensional view of the creation of documents in social and organisational activities, their capture into the records systems, organisation within the framework of personal or corporate archives and pluralisation as a collective archive. Furthermore, Upward (1996) posits that the continuum perspective is that records keeping and archiving processes “fix” documents that are created in the context of social and organisational activity, that is, the human interaction of all kinds, and preserve them as evidence of that activity by disembedding them from their immediate context of creation and providing them with ever-broadening layers of contextual metadata.
31 2.5.1 Studies that used the Records Continuum Model to investigate information culture
Few studies have applied the Records Continuum Model to investigate information culture within records management and this is a reflection of the lack of research on the presumed relationship between records keeping and information culture more generally (Sundqvist and Svärd 2016). Among the few studies which have been done, Oliver (2004) applied the Model, together with Hofstede’s Dimensions of National Culture, as a framework for analysing the interaction of organisational culture with information and its management in comparative case studies of universities in three countries. The findings show that different values and attitudes to information influence the information culture in the organisations studied. Similarly, a study by Svärd (2014) used the Model as an overall analytical framework to study records management and information culture in municipalities in Sweden and Belgium. The findings revealed a lack of collaboration and a lack of developed registry functions in all the municipalities included in the study. Employee attitudes, which affected records across the records continuum dimensions, were identified as a challenge.
It is evident, given the few studies, that there is still a need to understand how information culture can be interpreted using the Records Continuum Model. The different dimensions of the Model need to be tested against the concept of information culture. The current study built on the previous studies by asking how, in a precise question based on the Model’s dimensions, the creation and capture of records are affected by information culture.
There is a need for more studies to demonstrate how the theory can be useful to researchers working on information culture within records management and this study can be seen as a contribution in this regard.
2.5.2 Applicability of the Records Continuum Model to the present study
The dimensions “create” and “capture” of the Records Continuum Model are the main concepts that the study focused on. These concepts were chosen because the dimensions represent loci where most human activities occur. The dimensions informed the key question relating to how the creation, capture and management of electronic records are affected by information culture. The Model’s multi-faceted nature and identification of elements applicable to each dimension contributed to establishing clarity and focus for the study. The dimensions provide focus because it’s around the dimension constructs that research questions and literature review themes are coined around. Moreover, in the data analysis, the constructs from the Model provide a major theme for the qualitative data analysis.
32 The Records Continuum Model was used in the study to examine the contexts of records creation and capture. It assisted the study in answering how information culture affects the creation, capture and management of electronic records. Creswell (2013) states that when advancing a theory in research using mixed methods one has to state how it informs the quantitative and qualitative components of the research. In terms of the quantitative component of this study, the construct “creation and capture of electronic records”, as the dependent variable, was analysed via descriptive statistics while correlational statistics were used to analyse the relationship between this construct and the “information culture” construct. Context is of the essence in the Model, hence informing the qualitative component of this study. Creswell and Clark (2018) observe that a qualitative approach attempts to understand experiences occurring in a natural setting. Battley (2013) argues that viewing records through the lens of the Records Continuum Model allows them to be examined within the context of creation and capture.
The Model provides different dimensions in which records simultaneously exist thereby offering a context that allows one to identify the information culture of an organisation. Battley (2013) emphasises that the Model underscores the importance of gathering information about the entire context of records and the people making decisions about them.
Osanloo and Grant (2016) observe that the theoretical framework will dictate the data collection plan that is developed and illuminate information within the data, especially where the theory has concepts or constructs.
Each of the constructs can be used to structure the data collection and data analysis plan. The Records Continuum Model guides the data collection as the constructs derived from the Model are where most activities that inform and shape information occur in the organisation.
Cumming (2010) argue that those who criticise the Continuum do it on the basis that it focuses too specifically on “evidence” and does not emphasise the social, personal, historical and cultural values of records is also a misreading of the model. The term itself, “evidence”, is perhaps the problem. Although the Records Continuum Model provides a general framework for managing records, it could not specifically address the trust in records management as one of the questions addressed in this study. Therefore the model could not be used as a stand- alone model for the study.