Moments of Risk: Identifying Threats to Electronic Records

The author left the field of electronic records a decade ago, and has returned to survey the landscape of what at that time appeared to be a battleground of irreconcilable positions. Since 1997, significant areas of agreement seem to have emerged. This paper identifies six agreed “moments of risk,” which occur at critical state transitions in the life of records: at capture, maintenance, ingestion, access, disposal, and preservation. It examines the literature of the past decade to identify the commonly held criteria by which records can be known to have survived such moments of risk unscathed. By locating widely accepted critical points in the life of records and the criteria by which we can assure ourselves that our management methods have succeeded, it hopes to make way for tests that could be agreed between proponents of different strategies. RESUME L’auteur a quitte le domaine des documents electroniques il y a dix ans, puis il y est retourne afin d’examiner ce qui a l’epoque semblait etre un champ de bataille de positions irreconciliables. Depuis 1997, des points de convergence significatifs semblent etre ressortis. Ce texte identifie six « moments de risque » qui se produisent lors de transitions d’etats critiques dans la vie des documents : l’enregistrement, le maintien, l’ingestion, l’acces, la disposition et la preservation. Il examine la litterature de la derniere decennie dans le but d’identifier les criteres generalement reconnus selon lesquels on peut savoir que les documents ont reussi a traverser ces moments de risque indemnes. En reperant les points critiques dans la vie des documents et les criteres selon lesquels nous pouvons nous assurer que nos methodes de gestion ont reussi, il espere preparer l’arrivee de tests qui pourraient etre acceptes par les defenseurs de differentes strategies.