The costing of digital records management

The availability of models for any aspect of a task to be undertaken is always valuable. Unfortunately, although present literature provides us with models for many other aspects of digital records management, and with models for costing many related activities such as the creation of digital surrogates of paper records, it does not provide us with costing models for digital records management. Instead, we find a small number of data points from isolated endeavours with insufficient contextual information to enable us to assess what they truly represent. Whilst this article does not provide this absent model, it does provide factors that it is believed must form part of any model eventually developed through research or experience. In doing so, it becomes apparent that many of the factors are common to the management of traditional records (as one would hope and expect), where the literature provides us with much more solid information. Hence, perhaps the problem is not so severe as it might appear.