The Evolution of Recordkeeping at the Hudson’s Bay Company
Abstract
The development of a records policy at the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) has been a long and gradual process, resulting in a unique archival legacy and a commitment to the continual supply of records of archival interest for the benefit of future scholarship. The evolution of a corporate records management program, however, has been a more recent development. Common trends from the evolution of twentieth-century record keeping practices can be found in the development of the records management program of the Hudson’s Bay Company: the emergence and professionalization of the records management discipline in North America; the involvement of archivists in implementing records management programs to facilitate the process of records selection for preservation as early as possible; and the present drive for partnerships between archivists and records managers to safeguard electronic records.
RÉSUMÉ
Le développement d’une politique relative aux documents à la Compagnie de la Baie d’Hudson a été un processus long et graduel qui a donné comme résultat un héritage archivistique unique et un engagement au versement continu de documents d’intérêt archivistique pour le bénéfice de la recherche future. La création d’un programme de gestion de documents d’entreprise a toutefois été un développement plus récent. On peut trouver quelques courants communs entre l’évolution de la gestion de documents au XXe siècle et le développement du programme de gestion des documents de la Compagnie de la Baie d’Hudson : l’émergence et la professionnalisation de la discipline de gestion des documents en Amérique du Nord; la participation des archivistes dans la mise en pratique de programmes de gestion de documents afin de faciliter un processus précoce de sélection de documents pour la préservation; la tendance actuelle de créer des partenariats entre les archivistes et les gestionnaires de documents dans le but de sauvegarder les documents numériques.
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