Two rival records management models emerged during the 1990s. Duranti’s model involved moving records out of business applications into a repository which has a structure/schema optimised for recordkeeping. Bearman’s model involved intervening in business applications to ensure that their functionality and structure/schema are optimised for record keeping. In 2013 the US National Archives and Records Administration began asking Federal agencies to schedule important email accounts for permanent preservation. This approach cannot be mapped to either Duranti or Bearman’s model. A third records management model has therefore emerged, a model in which records are managed in place within business applications even where those applications have a sub-optimal structure/schema. This model can also be seen in the records retention features of the Microsoft 365 cloud suite. This paper asks whether there are any circumstances in which the in-place model could be preferable to Duranti and Bearman’s models. It explores the question by examining the evolution of archival theory on the organisation of records. The main perspectives deployed are those of realism and of records continuum theory. The paper characterises the first two decades of this century as an era of partial automation, during which organisations have had a general capability to automate the assignment of business correspondence to a sub-optimal structure/schema (that of their email system and/or other messaging system) but not to an optimal structure/schema. In such an era any insistence on optimising the structure/schema within which correspondence is managed may paradoxically result in a reduction in recordkeeping efficiency and reliability.

在1990年代，出现了两种相互竞争的记录管理模型。Duranti的模型涉及将记录从业务应用程序移出到存储库中，该存储库具有针对记录保存进行了优化的结构/架构。Bearman的模型涉及干预业务应用程序，以确保优化其功能和结构/架构以保存记录。2013年，美国国家档案局（National Archives and Records Administration）开始要求联邦机构安排重要的电子邮件帐户进行永久保存。这种方法不能映射到Duranti或Bearman的模型。因此，出现了第三种记录管理模型，该模型中的记录在业务应用程序中就地进行管理，即使那些应用程序具有次优的结构/架构也是如此。在Microsoft 365云套件的记录保留功能中也可以看到此模型。本文询问在任何情况下就地模型都可能优于Duranti和Bearman的模型。它通过检查档案组织中档案理论的演变来探讨这个问题。部署的主要观点是现实主义和记录连续性理论的观点。本文将本世纪的前二十年描述为部分自动化的时代，在此期间，组织具有将业务通信自动分配给次优结构/架构（其电子邮件系统和/或其他系统的架构）的一般能力。消息传递系统），但不是最佳结构/架构。