Rethinking archives as digital: The consequences of ‘paper minds’ in illustrations and definitions of ‘e-archives’

Culture and discourses affect our understanding of the archive in the digital environment: preconceptions, norms, and practices developed in a paper-based administration colour and limit perceptions of digital archives. It can be difficult to reimagine the archive in the context of e-government and the networked environment, where the complexity of archival issues increases. This is a global problem, because the requirements of digital records are different from those of paper records. This article takes a discursive approach, focusing on “openings” and “closings” of concepts surrounding the idea of archives in Swedish municipal governments. Critical theory is used as a lens through which we understand archives in general, and digital archives in particular.

The analysis is made after establishing three basic principles that public administration in Sweden should work toward: (i) adopting a holistic concept of the archive; (ii) taking a proactive approach to records management; and (iii) striving to integrate the archiving process with the goals and opportunities of e-government. The result indicates that the lack of “closings,” i.e., commonly understood principles and a shared definition of an e-archive, may restrict the understanding of archives in digital contexts and constrain the development of their full potential. At the same time, the lack of “openings” toward new ways of thinking about and designing e-archives may narrow the scope of possibilities that the digital formats can offer. “Paper minds” may presuppose a stepwise progression of records, from active to archival, that is unnecessary in the digital context.