Target audience of this publication

The primary audience for this publication includes:

• National Archives staff engaged in digital record-keeping activities.
• Public administration professionals responsible for implementing digital workflows.
• Business analysts & IT professionals designing or procuring digital record management systems.

The main intended audience for this book is the staff of the National Archives who perform records management assistance activities for organisations in public administration, and by extension, the community of recordkeeping professionals. According to international literature, today’s recordkeeping professionals need to have the competence to run a process analysis and determine the records requirements, since these are the basis for designing records systems, to compile a classification scheme and a retention schedule or to set the access policy, and to highlight when and how an assessment can be useful. Such competences were somehow inherent to the traditional activity, mainly for records managers or archivists monitoring the records management activities, but a clear methodological approach lacked so far. Additionally, applying these approaches to electronic records could help shift the mindset toward a new way of managing records and archives within the organisation.

A second audience can be the staff from the organisations, mainly those from public administration, who are interested in digitalising their services and processes. The AbD approach aims to enhance the capability to retrieve information on the long term, while ensuring legal compliance and reducing costs and risks associated with the loss of information due to poor records management. It would support an assessment of the IT systems with regards to their suitability for producing and storing authentic, integer and usable records, as well as delivering long term access to the information produced.

Lastly, the AbD assessment process can be useful for business analysts or IT professionals, who seek to understand and configure recordkeeping functionality in the systems they implement or produce. In organisations where there are no records managers, the IT staff may promote good practices and support the creation and preservation of good records.