I'd call that a compound document - and the short answer is "Yes, but." In
other words, using software it's a simple thing to take such a document, put
it in an ERMS, declare it as a record, and manage it henceforth. The
question then becomes what happens in the event someone attempts to update
one of those linked/embedded/children components - does it fail at the edit?
Does the edit take and it simply not be reflected in the record version
(e.g. the linkage is severed)? If the goal is to be able to manage Document
v1 as a record, and still make changes to the components, and then have
those reflected in the record, I'd say this happens using document
management technologies to manage the versions and ERM technologies to
manage the declared versions. 

And in the absence of software, I don't believe it's possible to manage what
you describe in a foolproof fashion because eventually someone will make an
update or move a linked document such that it impacts the record copy. One
of the technologies that enables this in the Windows world is DDE, or
dynamic data exchange, and an example is a spreadsheet that has a live link
back to a sales forecasting application. When the spreadsheet opens, it
automatically tries to reestablish the link - and if it succeeds, it updates
the document with current information. Great for timely updates, not so much
for records because 3 years from now the auditors want to know what the
spreadsheet said then, not now. 

Jesse Wilkins
[log in to unmask]

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]