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This article examines the various definitions accorded to the two key terms in records management ‐ the records and records management. Variations in their definition have lead to confusion which affects the formulation of theory to underpin the discipline. This problem is to be discussed in two separate parts. Part 1 discusses the changing definition of the ‘record’ as it evolves from an archives perspective, through a management perspective to an information technology perspective. These changes have lead to changes in the status of records. This is discussed as records as objects vs records as electronic objects. However, this is not a new issue. It was recognised by Jenkinson as early as 1922. The debate on the definition of records concludes that any new definition needs to take account of the component parts of a record: the information, the medium and the function. Part 2 will discuss the various definitions of records management.

This is the second part of a two‐part article which examines the various definitions accorded to the two key terms in records management – the records and records management. Variations in their definition have lead to confusion which affects the formulation of theory to underpin the discipline. Having discussed the changing definition of a record in Part 1 in this part the authors discuss the various definitions of records management.

This paper aims to report on a study that aimed at analyzing the relationships between information security and records management (RM), both as programs/functions established in organizations. Similar studies were not found in relevant literature.

The study used the classic grounded theory methodology. Pursuing the general curiosity about the information security-RM relationship in organizations, the study selected the United States (US) Federal Government as its field of entrance and followed the process of the classic grounded theory methodology that starts from the letting of the emergence of the research question to the formulation of a substantive theory that answered the question.

On the emergent question that why, despite the legislative establishment of agency RM programs and the use of the term records in their work, the US Federal Government information security community considered RM a candidate for deletion (CFD), the study coded the truncated application of the encompassing definition of records as the underlying reason. By this code, along with its three properties, i.e. limitations by the seemingly more encompassing coverage of information, insufficient legislative/regulatory support and the use of the terms of evidence and preservation in the records definition, the CFD consideration and the associated phenomena of unsound legislative/regulatory conceptualization, information shadow, information ignorance and archival shadow were explained.

The study results suggested the data for subsequent theoretical sampling to be the operational situations of individual agency RM programs.

The rationale presented in the study regarding the encompassing nature of records and the comprehensive scope of RM program can be used for building strong RM business cases.

The study appears to be the first of its kind, which examined the RM–information security relationship in a very detailed setting.

This paper aims to analyse the current Southern African countries’ archives and records management legislations to identify the gaps and challenges. It is important to assess the role played by National Archives legislations within the preservation of heritage and history; private archives known as liberation archives; the transfer of archives; the disposal and retention of records, access, copyright management and skills; and development of staff.

The study used a qualitative methodology through document analysis, interviews and observation. The sampling of the study comprised representatives from the selected Southern African National Archives (South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia).

The key findings revealed gaps of the archives and records management legislations in terms of definitions, transfer, disposal and transfer of records and accessibility. Some of the Southern African countries failed to use archives and records management legislation to promote accountability and governance.

The research is limited to the following countries: Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.

Archive and records management legislation which has gaps creates problems in terms of effective implementation of archives and records management programmes.

The failure by Southern African countries to revise their National Archives legislations and clarify the role of National Archives will lead to loss of archival materials if not addressed.

Updated archives legislation contributes to the development of effective archives and records management programme.

Social media posts have been an integral part of our society’s communication and serve purposes from the personal to the national, from the mundane to the silly to the momentous. This study aims to examine social media posts as records, discussing how social media technology serves, perhaps unexpectedly, to reinforce traditional archival understandings of issues such as provenance, custody, access, disposition and preservation.

This study follows a four-step methodology. First, this study analyzes literature for a matching definition of the social media record. In the second step, we appraise three social media postings previously curated and cited in news articles by journalists to determine their characteristics – Are these social media posts “records?” Third, this study evaluates the sample records against two dominant theoretical record models, the life cycle and the continuum and attempt to apply the model specifications to the data samples. Finally, this study proposes appropriate records management solutions to address governance issues from the study findings in the conclusion section.

This study shows that, even by the most traditional of definitions, social media posts are records. The paper also demonstrates that platform mediation transforms simple narrative documents into records whose provenance, custody and control are dictated by platform logics and governance, outside of the control of their creators. Through appraisal of a small sample of “important” social media posts, this study illustrates that, rather than obsolete, traditional records management concepts and approaches are necessary to ensuring the ongoing accessibility, usability and evidentiary character of social media posts in the broader “platformized” context.

This is exploratory, theoretical work. In future works, this study plans to expand and validate aspects of this study.

This paper tests existing theoretical frameworks, namely, the Records Life cycle and the Records Continuum for applicability to the social media record. The paper also offers a view of the potential for traditional archival and records management concepts in service of a just and inclusive recordkeeping, because such concepts allow us to demonstrate the centralized, elite-serving, bureaucratic structures which underpin social media records are obscured by the seemingly decentralized, participatory nature of social media.

This article lists and compares specifications, properties, and test results of microcomputer software for information storage and retrieval. Nine different programs which fall into the category of classical retrieval systems (see Part I of this series) have been tested and assessed: BIB/SEARCH, CARDBOX‐PLUS, CDS/ISIS, FREEBASE, HEADFAST, IDEALIST, INMAGIC, NUTSHELL‐PLUS, and POLYDOC. All of them run under MS‐DOS. For each of these nine programs about 100 facts and test results are tabulated. Each program is also discussed individually.

The increasing prominence of the use of the term information governance (IG) raises fundamental questions about the role and relevance of records management in today’s organisations. As a starting point, this paper aims to explore the relationship between records management and IG by considering both recordkeeping and non-recordkeeping perspectives.

The research discusses literature chiefly from 2013 to the present to shed light on how discussion of the relationship between records management and IG has evolved over the past few years.

A range of perspectives on the relationship between records management and IG was evident and, notably, a lack of direct engagement from the records management community. Taking the positive perspectives that emerged, IG was seen as an opportunity for records management. By contrast, others regarded it as a necessary successor to records management, the latter perceived as too associated with the paper era to be capable of meeting the organisational information needs of today. Equally, others were sceptical about the real difference IG offered, suggesting it was in part a rebranding exercise, which did not necessarily articulate anything fundamentally new.

Defining literature in the broadest sense, this paper offers a high-level review of some of the recent discussions that have taken place in a wide variety of contexts around the relationship between records management and IG. It includes journal articles, books, online discussions from professional forums and listservs, vendor contributions, opinion-pieces and blogs and in particular focuses on presenting a range of viewpoints from individuals operating within various information-related spaces, including records and information management, IG, and information technology. It is hoped that this preliminary research will encourage further engagement on the subject from recordkeeping professionals.

A web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine‐to‐machine or application‐to‐application interactions over networks. Descriptions enable web services to be discovered, used by other web services, and composed into new web services. Web service composition is a mechanism for creating new web services by reusing existing ones. In order to compose a web service, the right primitive services have to be discovered. A matchmaking technique enables discovering these services. Web services have functional, non‐functional, behavioral, and semantic characteristics. These four aspects of web services provide different key information about the service; therefore they have to be considered for description, matching, and composition. The purpose of this paper is to propose a formal description framework and a formal matchmaking technique that allows describing and discovering web services by considering their four characteristics.

In this paper, the description framework combines two existing languages for functional, semantic, and behavioral description, along with a simple and new language for non‐functional description.

A case study is used to illustrate the description framework and the matchmaking technique. The implementation and performance evaluation of the matchmaking technique is presented. The framework formalizes and integrates the languages in a common semantic domain in order to match and manipulate the different aspects together and formally. Isabelle is used by the matchmaking technique for discovering the partially and fully matched services.

The contribution of this paper lies in the new description framework and the new matchmaking technique.

In the 1990s, North American archivists and records managers shifted some of their concern with electronic records and record keeping systems to conducting research about the nature of these records and systems. This essay describes one of the major research projects at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, supported with funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Specifically, the essay focuses on the project's four main products: recordkeeping functional requirements, production rules to support the requirements, metadata specifications for record keeping, and the warrant reflecting the professional and societal endorsement of the concept of the recordkeeping functional requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a range of perspectives on the relationship between research data and records and between recordkeeping and research data management.

This paper discusses literature in the field of research data management as part of preliminary work for the author’s doctoral research on the topic. The literature included in the review reflects contemporary and historical perspectives on the management and preservation of research data.

Preliminary findings indicate that records professionals have been involved in the management and preservation of research data since the early twentieth century. In the literature, research data is described as comparable to records, and records professionals are widely acknowledged to have skills and expertise which are applicable to research data management. Records professionals are one of a number of professions addressing research data management. However, they are not currently considered to be leaders in research data management practice.

Research data management is an emerging challenge as stakeholders in the research lifecycle increasingly mandate the publication of open, transparent research. Recent developments such as the publication of the OCLC report “The Archival Advantage: Integrating Archival Expertise into Management of Born-digital Library Materials”, and the creation of the Research Data Alliance Interest Group Archives and Records Professionals for Research Data indicates that research data is, or can be, within the remit of records professionals. This paper represents a snapshot of contemporary and historical attitudes towards research data and recordkeeping and thus contributes to this emerging area of discussion.