Recordkeeping in Book Form: The Legacy of American Colonial Recordkeeping

Zatko, Ruzena

Zhang, J. (2014). Recordkeeping in Book Form: The Legacy of American Colonial Recordkeeping. Information & Culture, 49(4), 469-491.

 

Summary

 

In this study, what is being looked at is the history of recordkeeping, preservation, and retrieval systems. The inspiration to coding actually came from the Native Americans, who wore different color beads and each of them had a different meaning. Some of the bead collecting was to help them remember and to categorize. The colonial times did not have a recordkeeping system adopted yet and there is a lack of evidence on what their process was. But to get to the root of how recordkeeping formed, four samples were taken dating back to the 1600s and the practices were analyzed.

 

Evaluation

 

Due to this being a historic research, there is only the evidence that was preserved that can be used to support any claims with the origins of research. This also demonstrates because of improper recordkeeping practices or lack there of, we don't have the information we could have possibly had if those practices were in play. Clearly, everything must start somewhere. In this case dating back to the 1600s is impressive enough. Overall, this is a great paper, highly informative of the history of record keeping and its legacy.