As a records manager, an archivist, and someone who recognizes that Outrage
Fatigue
<http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/06/the-onset-of-trump-outrage-fatigue/>
is a real thing, I have real concerns about reflexively getting one’s
hackles up about this. Sure, as was pointed out to me on Twitter by one of
this blog’s administrators, it can be argued that it is ACLU’s job to argue
the worst-case scenario and rouse people to action. As information
professionals, we should do better.

As I see it, this issue—and the reaction thereto—can and should be examined
from at least two angles (plus a third which I am not really qualified to
opine upon, but will attempt to address anyway).

http://bit.ly/2j9sxpO
http://bit.ly/2j9sxpO+


The important thing to remember when we’re talking about records management
at a federal level is that *the Federal Records Act has no inherent
enforcement mechanism*. What this means is that to the extent that
Executive Branch agencies follow records management practices at all, they
are *only* constrained in their assessment of appropriate retention times
by the canonical records values (Historical, Administrative, Legal, and
Fiscal) that attach to those records. To the extent that there is any
meaningful penalty for improper destruction of records at all, it is
attached to destruction or mishandling of records under another criminal
statute


http://bit.ly/2vRw9m7
http://bit.ly/2vRw9m7+


Still with us? Congratulations on getting this far. Your reward for getting
to the end of this series is likely the most controversial angle from which
to examine this issue, plus the promised “TL;DR” section. You’re welcome!
I said two angles in the first post—so where’d this third one come from?
Well, I’m least qualified to talk about this part of it, so I didn’t want
to necessarily include it as a main plank of this post. But I did want to
at least address it a little bit. The “soft” part of this angle is the
question of “whose story gets told by the Archives”, and questions the
assumption made by the appraiser that “major activities of federal
officials” are the only ones worth archiving.


http://bit.ly/2wM3JsB
http://bit.ly/2wM3JsB+










-- 
Peterk
Dallas, Tx
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