Records Classification

The Portuguese Higher Education Institutions have developed
a common tools production project for records classification
and appraisal coordinated by the Directorate General
of Book, Archives and Libraries. The production process
used strategies and information sharing tools, which can be
interpreted based on the theories of knowledge management.
This article intends to analyze the project according to the
theory of knowledge management, identifying traces of this
theory in its work methodology. This work conducted a literature
review about the theories of knowledge creation and
conversion and on the importance of classification in the
management of organizational knowledge, discussing the
issue from the standpoint of archives/records. From this point
a case study emerged, analyzing the project and discussing it
in the light of these theories, supported by the analysis of
artifacts and participant observation, and concluding with
some observations about the aspects studied. It was found
that the project was developed based on a methodological
strategy widely consistent with Knowledge Management,
identified with the theories of creation and conversion of
knowledge. The conclusion is that these institutions are learning
organizations, with the potential to become intelligent
organizations, because they use their records as assets in the
Knowledge creation process, managing such knowledge in
accordance to a record management approach, whose processes
and tools are based upon the Classification Theory.

Records designated as classified at the time of their creation form a very significant part of public records produced by state and public administration bodies in a broad sense. At the same time, they represent a significant part of historical source production a part of which should be permanently preserved in the relevant public archives. Their information content and informative value for future historical science is in many cases highly qualitatively superior. However, the phenomenon of classified records, including at least minimum possible access to them is also of fundamental relevance to contemporary society and the maintaining of a functioning quality democracy. Very often, however, what is missing is a deeper debate over records classification as such. For example, how do intelligence services manage their records? Are they being arbitrarily destroyed? Do they remain classified unnecessarily and for too long? The legal systems of most countries, including those with advanced democratic systems, now exert minimum real pressure on the declassification of once classified material. The following comparative study addresses the phenomenon of records classification and their declassification in some developed democracies with advanced archival systems; it also focuses on some of the features of the system’s post-1945 historical development, particularly in the United States of America, the United Kingdom, partly also in France, Germany, Sweden, and adds a look at the situation in the Czech Republic representing one of the post-communist countries in Central Europe. The study uses the specific examples of the USA and the United Kingdom to demonstrate in what respects archives and historians can act as an important factor in the process of management and declassification of classified records, and how they can also be an important element of democracy in this sense.