The National Archives and Office Systems: A Status Report Available to Purchase

How can an archivist appraise the electronic records of the personal directories of the over 200 (or 2000) linked computer workstations that might exist across the program areas of a given organization? With some difficulty, no doubt! Even if an appraisal decision can be rendered, how does the archivist acquire the records? In what form and format should they be conserved and how should they be made available to an increasingly sophisticated computer literate research community? Without information technology standards the job is challenging! In the absence of a corporate framework that permits users to generate, transmit, store, retrieve, use and dispose of (what they will claim to be their) information, but in a manner that respects the corporate interests of the institution, the job becomes nearly impossible!