Spring 2005 Comprehensive Exams – Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies
Day 1 Notes – Thomas Virgona
Long Island University / C.W. Post
ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Derrida, Jacques. Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
DiGilio, John J. “Electronic Mail: from Computer to Courtroom,” Information Management Journal 35:2 (April 2001), 32-44.
Hinding, Andrea. “Inventing a Concept of Documentation.” Journal of American History 80 (June 1993), 168-178.
Miller, Jerry P. ed. Millennium Intelligence: Understanding and Conducting Competitive Intelligence in the Digital Age. Medford, NJ: CyberAge Books, 2000.
Randolph A Kahn and Barclay T. Blair, Information Nation: Seven Keys to Information Management Compliance (Silver Spring, MD: Association for Information and Image Management, 2004).
Item / Pre-written itemsDefinitions / To initiate this essay, working definitions (in the context of Organizational Information management) are required.
Archives (in this context) have three possible meanings (Hunter, Gregory S. Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. New York, Neal-Schuman, 1997.);
Materials: The non-current records of an organization or institution preserved because of their enduring value.
Place: The building or part of a building where archival materials are located (also referred to as an archival repository).
Agency: The program office or agency responsible for identifying, preserving, and making available records of enduring value (also referred to as an archival agency, archival institution, or archival program).
“Authenticity” in recorded information connotes precise, yet disparate things in different contexts and communities. It can mean original, but also being faithful to the original. It can mean uncorrupted but also of clear and known provenance. Authenticity entails verifying that the object is indeed what it claims to be. (Cullen, Hirtle, Levy, Lynch, Smith and Rothenberg. Authenticity in a Digital Environment. Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, May 2000, available at Authentic is synonymous with genuine and bona fide (InterPARES Project, “Final Report,” available at:
Bureaucracy: “Bureau referred to the cloth used to cover the desks of French government officials in the 18th century and became linked with a suffix signifying government rule. Yet the term has come to signify the multiplication of agencies staffed by narrow-minded and high-handed officials whose work is characterized by innumerable tortuous procedures (Lutzker, Michael A. “Max Weber and the Analysis of Modern Bureaucratic Organizations: Notes Toward a Theory of Appraisal.” American Archivist 45 (Spring 1982), 119-130.).
Data mining; refers to extracting or “mining” knowledge from large amounts of data. Better term: Knowledge mining (Han, Jiawei and Micheline Kamber. Data Mining: Concepts and Technique. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman/Academic Press, 2001.).
Data warehouse; a repository of multiple heterogeneous data sources, organized under a unified schema at a single site in order to facilitate management decision making (Han, Jiawei and Micheline Kamber. Data Mining: Concepts and Technique. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman/Academic Press, 2001.).
Digital coding is coding scheme that represents information by predetermined sequence of bits.
Sources of electronic records; computers and computer-like devices, scientific and medial instrumentation, communications equipment, video recorders and audio recorders (Saffady, William. Managing Electronic Records, Third Edition. Prairie Village, KS: Association of Records Managers and Administrators, 2003.).
Disaster planning: deals with problems caused by natural elements (Hunter, Gregory S. Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. New York, Neal-Schuman, 1997.) A disaster is an unexpected occurrence inflicting wide-spread destruction and distress and having long-term adverse effects on organizational operations.
Documentation: On a broad level, it is the process of recording actions and decisions. (“Trustworthy Information Systems Project,” Minnesota Historical Society, available at:
Electronic record contains machine readable, as opposed to human-readable information (Saffady, William. Managing Electronic Records, Third Edition. Prairie Village, KS: Association of Records Managers and Administrators, 2003.).
Emergency is a situation or occurrence of a serious nature, developing suddenly and unexpectedly, and demanding immediate action (power failure and minor flooding) (Hunter, Gregory S. Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. New York, Neal-Schuman, 1997.)
Enterprise System (ES) or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are packages of computer applications that support many, even most, aspects of a company’s (non-profit, education, government) information needs. (Davenport, Thomas H. Mission Critical: Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.)
Explicit knowledge; exists in documents or databases (Srikantaiah, T. Kanti and Michael E.D. Koenig, eds. Knowledge Management for the Information Professional. Medford, NJ: American Society for Information Science, 2000.).
“Explicit” or “declarative” memory, which is the ability to consciously recall facts or events (Menninger, W. Walter, M.D. “Memory and History: What Can You Believe?” Archival Issues21:2 (1996), 97-106.).
Historical Research: a retrospective activity that concerns itself with an already completed reality (Booms, Hans. “Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage: Issues in the Appraisal of Archival Sources,” Archivaria 24 (Summer 1987), 69-107 (originally published 1972).).
“Implicit” or “procedural” memory, which refers to behavioral knowledge of an experience without conscience recall, such as a skill once learned like riding a bicycle or swimming (Menninger, W. Walter, M.D. “Memory and History: What Can You Believe?”Archival Issues21:2 (1996), 97-106.).
Information Life Cycle; Creation, distribution and use, storage and maintenance, retention and maintenance, retention and disposition, archival preservation (Robek, Mary, et al. Information and Records Management, 4th edition. New York: Glencoe/Macmillan.).
Information management is often defines as the administration of information. Its use and transmission, and the application of theories and techniques of information science to create, modify, or improve information handling systems (Robek, Mary, et al. Information and Records Management, 4th edition. New York: Glencoe/Macmillan.).
Integrity means it has not been corrupted over time or transit (Cullen, Hirtle, Levy, Lynch, Smith and Rothenberg. Authenticity in a Digital Environment. Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, May 2000, available at
Knowledge management (The Gartner Group definition); “A discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures,, and previously uncaptured expertise and experience in individual workers” (Srikantaiah, T. Kanti and Michael E.D. Koenig, eds. Knowledge Management for the Information Professional. Medford, NJ: American Society for Information Science, 2000.)
Life cycle of records is generally understood to mean the life span of records from their creation or receipt until their disposition (Dollar, Charles. “Archival Preservation of Smithsonian Web Resources: Strategies, Principles, and Best Practices.” Available at:
Provenance: chain of custody, characteristics, origin, history, relationships. (Lynch in: Cullen, Hirtle, Levy, Lynch, Smith and Rothenberg. Authenticity in a Digital Environment. Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, May 2000, available at
Records management is the application of systematic and scientific controls to recorded information required in the operation of an organization’s business (Robek, Mary, et al. Information and Records Management, 4th edition. New York: Glencoe/Macmillan.).
A reliable record is one that is capable of standing for the facts to which it attests. Reliability thus refers to the truth-value of the record as a statement of facts and it is assessed in relation to the proximity of the observer and recorded of the facts recorded (MacNeil, Heather. “Trusting Records in a Postmodern World.” Archivaria51 (Spring 2001), 36-47.)
Retention schedule: (master schedule) specifies retention periods for designated record series, regardless of the particular program units where the series are maintained (Saffady, William. Managing Electronic Records, Third Edition. Prairie Village, KS: Association of Records Managers and Administrators, 2003.).
Security deals with potential human problems (physical and collection) (Hunter, Gregory S. Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. New York, Neal-Schuman, 1997.)
Society: it is usually defined as an all-encompassing concept for human coexistence in general. Only in space and time does “society” become concrete reality. Lenin once declared that one cannot at the same time live in society and be free from it (Booms, Hans. “Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage: Issues in the Appraisal of Archival Sources,” Archivaria 24 (Summer 1987), 69-107 (originally published 1972).).
Stability denotes the extent to which an information storage medium retains physical characteristics and chemical properties appropriate to its intended purpose (Saffady, William. Managing Electronic Records, Third Edition. Prairie Village, KS: Association of Records Managers and Administrators, 2003.).
Tacit knowledge; knowledge in peoples hands or in their own files (Srikantaiah, T. Kanti and Michael E.D. Koenig, eds. Knowledge Management for the Information Professional. Medford, NJ: American Society for Information Science, 2000.).
Trusted record-keeping system has been defined as “a type of system where rules govern which documents are eligible for inclusion in the record-keeping system, who may place records in the system and retrieve records from it, what may be done to and with a record, how long records remain in the system, and how records are removed from it.” (InterPARES Project, “Final Report,” available at:
Trustworthiness refers to an information system’s accountability and its ability to produce reliable and authentic information and records. (“Trustworthy Information Systems Project,” Minnesota Historical Society, available at:
Vital Records contain information essential to an organizations mission (Saffady, William. Managing Electronic Records, Third Edition. Prairie Village, KS: Association of Records Managers and Administrators, 2003.). Typical vital records - minutes and contracts, fiscal accounts, tax rolls, maps and surveys, deeds, payroll records, insurance policies, birth and death records, and policies and procedures (Hunter, Gregory S. Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. New York, Neal-Schuman, 1997.)
Value: The value of a particular item only becomes apparent when it is set in relation to something else and compared with that other item (Booms, Hans. “Society and the Formation of a Documentary Heritage: Issues in the Appraisal of Archival Sources,” Archivaria 24 (Summer 1987), 69-107 (originally published 1972).).
"Web publication," which generally refers to any kind of digitally encoded information that is created and made available to the public through a communications network, which clearly could include records (Dollar, Charles. “Archival Preservation of Smithsonian Web Resources: Strategies, Principles, and Best Practices.” Available at:
Trinkets / Conclusion
Modern archives began in 1543 at Simancas in Spain, but really developed as a by-product of the French Revolution. France established the first of the modern national archives in order to document newly won freedoms and to protect the rights of citizens. France was also the first nation to pass a law guaranteeing citizens the right to access of archival records. After the French Revolution, government archives were considered public, not private property. The United States did not have a national archive repository until 1934. Historians and archivists fought a long battle to restore the independence of the National Archives, only achieving success in 1984 (Hunter, Gregory S. Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. New York, Neal-Schuman, 1997.) George Orwell; “Whoever control the past controls the future”
A recent updated study at Berkeley states that annually we are generating about 4.5 Exabytes (1 Exabyte = 1 billion gigabytes) of magnetically stored information. This is equivalent of 34,000 Libraries of Congress! (Scholl, Frederick. “New FDIC Ruling Highlights Data Disposal Issues”. Monarch Information Networks. Q4/2004.)
An archival record doesn’t just happen; it is created by individuals and organizations, and used in turn, to support their values and missions, all of which comprises a process that is certainly not politically or culturally neutral (Kaplan, Elisabeth. “We Are What We Collect, We Collect What We Are: Archives and the Construction of Identity,” American Archivist63:1 (Spring/Summer 2000), 126-151.) Knowledge is transferred in organization if we manage it or not. Strategies for knowledge transfer: Water coolers and talk rooms, knowledge fairs and open forums, determine the “kinds of knowledge”. (Davenport, Thomas H., and Laurence Prusak. 1997. Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.)
The bottom line is that no slowdown in office paper consumption appears on the horizon. In fact, if we look at the figures for worldwide consumption, the trend is a steady, steep increase. Reasons: Word processing applications, email, paper directories and manuals, online databases, cheaper technology, etc (Sellen, Abigail J. and Richard H.R. Harper. The Myth of the Paperless Office Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002.).
The primary focus is not as much on doing things right as it is on doing the right things (Drucker 1994) (Srikantaiah, T. Kanti and Michael E.D. Koenig, eds. Knowledge Management for the Information Professional. Medford, NJ: American Society for Information Science, 2000.).
Mission of the archivist (Hunter, Gregory S. Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives. New York, Neal-Schuman, 1997.):
- To identify records and papers of enduring value (Conducting surveys, appraisal, acquisitions, reappraisal).
- To preserve them (Arrangement, preservation, security).
- To make them available to patrons (description, access and reference, outreach and promotion).
Plato distrusted the written text as they were inadequate for purveying the truth and were only images of knowledge (Thomas, Rosalind. Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.). Documents did not immediately inspire trust. It has been long known that many early medieval documents are forgeries (Clanchy, M.T. From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066-1307. Harvard University Press, 1979, rev. ed. 1991).
The above contains many scholarly references, but is there a real “need” for information management? What is the real risk today? One very timely and relevant example relates to how organizations information management can dramatically impact personal information privacy. Hackers stole the Social Security numbers and other personal data of tens of thousands of Americans, including 2,600 New York state residents, said a spokesman for online data warehouse Seisint ( Last visit: 03/10/2005). The break-in is the latest in a string of security breaches involving several companies in recent months. The breaches have focused public attention on identity theft and sparked calls for tighter scrutiny of data warehouses. Neither breach at the data warehouses involved breaking in via an electronic back door. Thieves got at Seisint's data by obtaining a legitimate password. The ChoicePoint information was stolen by a group posing as small-business owners who signed up as ChoicePoint customers. "A malicious hacker is always going to use the weakest link, which is just people," said Ralph Echemendia, lead instructor at The Intense School, a Fort Lauderdale-based school that teaches hacking to reveal security breaches.
Before Vice President Cheney visited the CIA in mid-February, Clarke sent him a memo – outside the usual White House document-management system(The Complete Investigation; The 9/11 Report: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. New York, New York. St. Martins Press. 2004.).
On 9/11, the FAA “no-fly” list contained the names of just 12 suspected terrorists. The total number of undergraduate degrees granted in Arabic in all U.S. colleges and Universities in 2002 was six (The Complete Investigation; The 9/11 Report: The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. New York, New York. St. Martins Press. 2004.). Where electronic communications were regarded as insecure, al Queda relied even more heavily on couriers. FBI analysts had difficulty getting access to the FBI and intelligence they were expected to analyze. The FBI’s information systems were woefully inadequate, lacking the ability to know what it knew. In July 1995, Attorney General Reno issues formal procedures aimed at managing information sharing between Justice Department prosecutors and the FBI. These procedures were almost immediately misunderstood and misapplied. Even the best information technology will not improve information sharing so long as the intelligence agencies’ personnel and security systems reward protecting information rather than disseminating it.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the FBI and contractor Science Applications International Corp. have been racing to complete the Virtual Case File System project, which is intended to speed the rapid sharing of information ( Last visit: 03/15/2005). FBI Director Robert Mueller, who was in Birmingham, Alabama, said he was "frustrated by the delays. I am frustrated that we do not have on every agent's desk the capability of a modern case management system," Mueller said. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the program "a train wreck in slow motion." Top FBI officials cited a wide range of reasons for the software-development problems. The rapidly changing state of technology was insufficiently understood, and an entire system was developed to replace the antiquated FBI computer and record management systems.
Robert Presthus has called ours the Organizational society since our lives, values, and much of our behavior are shaped by interactions with large-scale, relatively impersonal organizations (Lutzker, Michael A. “Max Weber and the Analysis of Modern Bureaucratic Organizations: Notes Toward a Theory of Appraisal.” American Archivist 45 (Spring 1982), 119-130.). As a society, we want our leaders and the people who act in our name to be accountable for their actions, and records play a role in rendering that account (MacNeil, Heather. “Trusting Records in a Postmodern World.” Archivaria51 (Spring 2001), 36-47.)
Document # / Annotation
JASIST Volume 56, Number 3. 2005. / Liu, Peng, Chetal, Amit. “Trust-based Secure Information Sharing between Federal Government Agencies”. JASIST Volume 56, Number 3. 2005).
The September 11 attack and the following investigations show that there is a serious information sharing problem among the relevant federal government agencies, and the problem can cause substantial deficiencies in terrorism attack detection.
The primary reason that spurs the hesitation and reluctance for agencies to share their sensitive information with one another is that they simply don’t trust each other.