Management Public Archives and its Technological Evolution

Abstract

Public records management is a very important issue today, particularly given the technological age, which has exponentially increased the publicity of the documentary mass produced, leading institutions to a process of analysis of how documents are being managed and which forms should be adopted to improve and make more efficient the bodies of custody and preservation of documentary. Compared with the issue of file management in the information age, the book "The information on the Internet: Brazilian public archives" is the result of an extensive study on the "information" or data are produced by private and public institutions, especially the latest, in order to show how they make the management of public records and can make better use of new information and communication technologies to make available your files securely, quickly, with easy accessibility. This work provides grants to understand what are the new areas and challenges for the archival science, to bring an enriching reflection on how the Internet can reposition the archival institutions as public spaces of access to information and management of the democratization of knowledge, without incurring in a manual format, with general and prescriptive agendas. The book entitled "Information on the Internet: Brazilian public archives" is an adaptation of the doctoral thesis in information science defended by Dr Anna Mariz Carla Almeida, being structured in four chapters plus an introduction and conclusion that deal with the archival institutions , forms of information transfer and the use of technological tools for the modernization of the files. In the first chapter, "Transfer of archival information", there is an approach that involves the different stages of document production, with a breakdown of the meaning and the importance given to information, access, custody and availability of files and on the transfer of information or its possible failure or absence when registered the lack of adequate administrative policies. The contents of this chapter also discusses the broad way information currently reaches your users before the significant change documents for support of the emphasis on the content and the information contained therein due to the large number of documents produced using digital media since the conformation of the revolution in information and communication technologies. In this context, a recurring concern presented in the management of public archives is how the information will be made publicly available, as there are numerous barriers encountered by users to be worked through different tracks or languages ​​such as visual media, text, images and sounds, thus allowing diverse means for access to information to materialize to a wide audience interested. In the second chapter, "The archival institutions", the book discusses the origin of the files since the Middle Ages, when nature was personal in order to control the imperial domains, through the Middle Ages, when there was an increase of documentary mass nature Private, with the emergence of monarchs who were carrying their files to the new conquered peoples, which reflected in a significant boost for the creation of management units of documents at the time. In the modern age, with the organization of bureaucratic bodies and the centralization of power in institutions and bodies that came to compose the National States, diffuses a creation of public archives trend coming to the Contemporary Age with the aim of storage documents facilitating government management of public administration and the development of public policies.  In the case of Brazilian public archival institutions, there is highlighting the year 1838, when it was created the National Archives which was characterized by the middle of the twentieth century for guarding and preserving material and historical country content bound for users of bureaucratic res as opposed to 1988 which brought in the Federal Constitution a new mentality to the organs and holders file information, through broad access to users of public res to content produced in public administration. In the third chapter, "The Internet and communication networks", the book describes the beginning of the use of information and communication networks by the military of the United States of America in order to show how its civilian use by universities, through the use of computers connected to the Internet to transmit data, reflected in the technological evolution of the current state of the art in the file management. The new information technologies and communication, conjugating the support and transport, just engendering a spatio-temporal compression in which the researcher-user no longer needs to submit to the rules of time, location or query limit in physical files as the information increasingly becomes digitally publicized to a wide audience of users. In a context that the files become virtual due to the use of the Internet, the issue of digital inclusion becomes increasingly important to define who has access and how the public archives, as there are technological barriers that imply the need for access infrastructure, availability of equipment as well as training in the use of computers and the internet. Last but not least, the fourth chapter deals with "Interfaces of Brazilian public archives to the internet", to warn about the worrying reality of the absence of public policies for the efficient management of files in which are listed a number of barriers ranging from a lack of financial resources to the dependency source maintainers agencies (federal, state or municipal). Overall, there is an evolution in construction in public files manifested by the use of the network for easy access to your data, but in Brazil this process has manifested itself in a slow and tortuous way, since many of the files are still not making use of online research tools, serving only as the institution marketing tool and not as a portal for services to citizens. With reference to a deep literature review and fieldwork in Brazilian public archives, the work shows that technological advances were not enough to move the topic in the country, given that persist both, infrastructure deficiencies in publicizing the files to the the general public, as, cognitive gaps in public users to use the files as information sources. Based on the discussions presented in the book, through four chapters, it is observed that the management of public archives in Brazil is extremely poor, with an emphatic understanding that we are far from making adequate information available, as collections continue without possibility physical access simultaneously the shortcomings of skilled professionals and technologies to facilitate the process in the information age and knowledge. The work shows that for different stakeholders, actors with specific interests in the subject, the Brazilian public archives are not structured to fit enough to efficiently meet their users through virtual service, is due not to computerization of their material, either , because the user does not recognize forms of research and the willingness of documents filed in the search software. It concludes that the extremely relevant and updated content on the management of public records, to be conjugated to a simple and concise language makes the book a work of reference and essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of management, information science and Executive Secretariat, as well as to update professionals who deal directly or indirectly with the issue. Bibliographic References MARIZ, Anna Carla Almeida. Information on the Internet: Brazilian public archives. Rio de Janeiro, FGV, 2012, 168 p. / ISBN: 978-85-225-0928-7