A Framework for a Consideration of Diplomatics in the Electronic Environment

Abstract

The author challenges the archival community to consider new sources and formulation for the understanding of contemporary documentation. He looks at the evolution of the information culture from the scriptora, through print culture onto our own post-print culture. Documentation culture has evolved as well from transaction-based to more organizationally sophisticated bureaucracies. He offers two models for the evaluation of the nature of organizational design and behavior, and argues that through these models, new categories can be developed for assigning to the documentation produced by these organizations. All this leads to a new conceptual framework for the very old discipline of diplomatics.