Introduction

This chapter explores intellectual control over records, focusing on metadata, records management and arrangement and description as strategies to exercise such control.

Archivists have been exploring the implications of digital technology on traditional archival practice for some time. The cloud and networked storage present distinct challenges for arrangement and description. Archivists should question assumptions underlying traditional approaches and they should look for opportunities to use technology to enhance existing practice. A thoughtful consideration of the traditional principles and concepts underscores their value and why archivists should maintain them. At the same time, further exploration of what original order is in the digital era demonstrates enormous new possibilities that complement – rather than replace – traditional approaches.

Section 1 of this chapter identifies and explores some of the assumptions and opportunities in order to help archivists understand that decisions to use the cloud and networked storage are often made without fully addressing recordkeeping and preservation implications, especially with regard to archival description.

Section 2 presents some considerations on metadata and authenticity based on the InterPARES 2 Benchmark and Baseline Requirements, moving through the Chain of Preservation Model assertions about documentable actions during the records lifecycle, and then focusing on the InterPARES Trust work on the IPAM (InterPARES Authenticity Metadata) Vocabulary. These models help archivists and records managers cope with the empirical questions that surface when dealing with metadata and records: how much is too much and how much is enough to support the presumption of authenticity of digital records?

Section 3 focuses on usability and human–computer interaction in electronic records management systems (ERMS). Such systems help capture, create, store, classify and access – in a word, manage – records based on authority. The features that an ERMS should support are determined by specific laws and regulations, but we should never forget that these systems are managed and used by humans. The interaction between human and computer can be analysed and evaluated – the qualitative and quantitative outputs of such interaction can tell us whether a system is usable or not. This section deals with Heuristic Evaluation of an ERMS’ usability.