A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

circumstances of their creation. The scarcity of the earliest documentation rnay
be attributable to one or more factors. The lack is indicative of the
developmental stages of a system, when product may be imperfect and not fully
comprehensive. Continuing planning, assessment, and revision are necessary
to bring the system to a satisfactory state. Inaccurate titling and obscure
arrangement of records represent problems that do not diminish, but incfease,
with the passage of time. When such records become archival they may require
diplomatic analysis in order to render them mmprehensible. Unrestrained
variation in documents that serve the same purpose may be inefficient in a
system that requires extensive production. Standardized foms and fonnatting
improve efficiency and facilitate access, both at the time of creation and in the
future.
These conclusions may have applications to the problems posed by new
technologies such as electronic records and the Intemet. The introduction of the
personal amputer ir! the 1980s presented huge challenges to the maintenance
and retention of records. There is no doubt that many documents were lost
during the initial stages of use of this technology. But wntinued planning and
evaluation of electronic records have produced rudimentary techniques for
managing this seemingly ephemeral medium. Paper print-out of word
processing documents and electronic mail has been adopted as a retention
strategy by many organizations. Sophisticated development of current
technology has fumished more stable carriers such as CD-ROMs. However, the