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Re: Archiving information within databases



----- Original Message -----
From: "Wood, Thomas" <Wood.Thomas@uis.edu>
To: "'Richard Pearce-Moses'" <rpm9@MINDSPRING.COM>;
<ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2001 10:55 AM
Subject: RE: Archiving information within databases


> Richard Pearce-Moses wrote:
>
> "Second, I would argue that a database is not a record.  A database is a
> container that holds information that may be assembled into a record.  A
> record is a particular view of the data.  When designing the system, you
> have to define views of the data (users seldome just plough through tables
> directly).  Second, you have to determine which of those views/records are
> worth memorializing.  The decision may be based both on content as well as
> use."
>
> I can't agree with that. Yes, a database is a container for data, but so
is
> a traditional ledger book, or a journal, or a register. Other records
might
> indeed be derived from a database, but records might be derived from the
> data in a paper ledger, as well.

Both may contain information. In my mind, a database is designed to hold
dynamic data, while the information in a ledge is (generally) fixed.
Further, a database may display the underlying information in the tables in
many different manners, whereas a ledger has only a single view.  To the
extent that the database is designed to enable easy manipulation of data
within a field or table, often without capturing any evidence of prior
values assigned to that field or table, the word "container" seems a good
characterization.  The fixity of ledgers makes it much harder to change
content, hence I tend to think of the ledger as a "bearer" of information
rather than "container."

A record, in the archival sense, is fixed.  If the data in the ledger is
changed (existing information erased and updated, as opposed to just
additons at the end), the ledger is not a record.  It is like the database,
where the form is a container for dynamic information.  However, the ledger
can no longer be relied on as trustworthy to determine the state of
information at some prior moment.  In such instances, a ledger and database
are roughly equivalent.

I hope I'm not missing your point.  I don't see an issue in the fact that
records can be generated from other sources, whether those sources are fixed
or dynamic. I don't think that the word container is the underlying issue,
but the dynamic v. fixed nature of the information contained.

Thanks for responding.  I'm still struggling with these issues, and the
conversation helps me understand where I'm not articulating the ideas very
well.

Richard Pearce-Moses
 rpm@lib.az.us

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