Trusting Records

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. The Evolution of Legal and Historical Methods for Assessing the Trustworthiness of Records

   • Heather MacNeil

   Pages 1-31

3. Trusting Records as Legal Evidence: Common Law Rules of Evidence

   • Heather MacNeil

   Pages 32-56

4. Trusting Records as Historical Evidence: Modern Historical Methods

   • Heather MacNeil

   Pages 57-85

5. Creating and Maintaining Trustworthy Records in Electronic Systems: Archival Diplomatic Methods

   • Heather MacNeil

   Pages 86-112

6. Conclusion

   • Heather MacNeil

   Pages 113-119

7. Back Matter

   Pages 121-163

   PDF

A trustworthy record is one that is both an accurate statement of facts and a genuine manifestation of those facts. Record trustworthiness thus has two qualitative dimensions: reliability and authenticity. Reliability means that the record is capable of standing for the facts to which it attests, while authenticity means that the record is what it claims to be. This study explores the evolution of the principles and methods for determining record trustworthiness from antiquity to the digital age, and from the perspectives of law and history. It also examines recent efforts undertaken by researchers in the field of archival science to develop methods for ensuring the trustworthiness of records created and maintained in electronic systems.
Audience: The target audience for this study is legal scholars working in the field of evidence law, historians working in the field of historical methodology, and recordkeeping professionals (records managers, information technology specialists, archivists) working on the design and implementation of contemporary organizational recordkeeping systems.

• Archiv
• Information Technology (IT)
• antiquity
• authenticity
• organization
• technology

`This is an extremely useful book,..'
Journal of Documentation, 58:1

• University of British Columbia, Canada

  Heather MacNeil

Policies and ethics