In an interconnected world – why do we think in functions?

  • Adelaide Parr

Abstract

I work in the university sector at a great, sprawling institution, with its own quirks, needs, concerns and issues. With occasionally minor reference to the rest of the world, it keeps on going, outwardly little different now from the way it was 20 years ago when I was a student here too.

In that 20 years, however, there has been so much change that it’s really only the surface that seems similar. Underneath, courses, systems, staff (although fewer than you would think) and the place that this university occupies in the world have all changed. And yet, when it comes to advising staff about the best way to manage the records that they create, I can’t offer them anything other than the same solution my predecessor 20 years ago would have offered them – a Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA) with classes that do not, quite meet their needs.

Author Biography

Adelaide Parr

Adelaide Parr is a Records Analyst at the University of Melbourne. Following 10 years of teaching, she completed her MIMS at Monash University and subsequently worked at Victoria University and Public Record Office Victoria. She chairs the Victorian Higher Education Records Management and Archives Group Sub-Committee responsible for creating a new RDA for the tertiary sector in Victoria and is currently the Australian Society of Archivists Vice President and Victorian Branch Convenor.

Published
2014-07-30
How to Cite
Parr A. (2014) “In an interconnected world – why do we think in functions?”, Archives & Manuscripts, 42(2), pp. 197-199. doi: 10.1080/01576895.2014.911688.