The management of corporate records in Italy: traditional practice and methods and digital environment

The archival communitys interest in building records management programs has known a recent development at international level and in various sectors. This is increasingly relevant in the area of corporate records, where the RM principles and methods have been seriously neglected – specifically in the Italian tradition, investigated here. This new interest has many causes – among others, the improvement of business procedures whose efficiency and effectiveness are strictly required in the information society – but presents also contradictions usually not discussed enough within each tradition. The article tries to analyse both the problems and advantages connected with the organization of a RM system in a corporate environment, including as a basic component a summary of the theory and practice developed in Italy in this area and recently updated for digital resources.