Course:ARST573/Business and Corporate Archives
When speaking about corporate archives, what people are generally referring to are the division of a corporation that controls the records of that business. What that can also refer to are the societies that will collect the business records from corporations, though these are generally regarded as another form of historical society. records management and archives in the corporate setting can be tricky as well. Sometimes the archivists need to pull double duty and play archivist and records manager, and sometimes the records management and archives are completely separate from each other.
How these corporations use their records varies greatly. The primary user base of a corporate archives is the corporation themselves, though individual corporations may be willing to have outside researchers as well. Outreach efforts, however, focuses greatly on the other divisions of the corporation, which the archives use in order to bring a monetary worth to their work.
For the sake of this article, we will focus primarily on North American corporations. In the example of the United States, there is a history of the business archives coming in and out of fashion, typically in correspondence with economic surges. In Canada, there is a history of trouble getting started, as most Canadian corporate offices do not currently have a corporate archives.
The issues that plague the archives involve what most corporate divisions suffer from: a lack of funds, power, possible issues of proper education, and ethics.
History of Corporate Archives in North America
US History
The first corporate archives was established by the Firestone Company in 1943. Corporate archives grew exponentially during the 1960s and 1970s, which is usually credited to the fact that bicentennial for the country was in 1976, which lead to a general interest in preserving the nation’s history, as well as a number of other factors.[1] The 1980s saw a sudden decrease in the presence of corporate archives, which corresponded with a sudden economic downturn. [2] While the numbers of archives once again increased in the 1990s, US corporate archives are still struggling to stay afloat.
It is worth noting here that corporate archives, in the American sense, can also mean historical society’s archives that were given the records of a specific corporation. These private buildings are many, varied, and may actually allow the public to see the corporation’s records. See Historical Societies.
Canadian History
Business archives form because people become convinced that they are needed. While the arguments found in the outreach section below would come later, most corporate archives were born due to an interest in business history. [3] Even with this development becoming more pronounced over time, there has never been sufficient interest amongst Canadian corporations to maintain a presence in the archival world. In 1982, a survey came out saying that 11% of corporations had their own business archives. [3]
More than that, there was a problem that certain corporations faced that is unique to countries that used to be apart of a colonial empire. Corporations that were established before emancipation were effectively British, and thus the records were kept in Britain. This forced the corporations, once they were made Canadian, to have their records shipped to Canada from Britain, copied, and then sent back. [4]
Outreach
The way that outreach is done in the corporate context is unusual by archival standards. Generally, corporate archives are not geared to “typical” researchers but instead are primarily used by the same corporate entity that controls them. There are two distinct strategies utilized by the corporations for outreach. The point in mind for these kinds of outreach is to prove their utility to the corporation, allowing their continued existence as a piece of the company in question.
There are generally two kinds of strategies, with very different goals in mind, since the different goals depend on the stage that the archives is currently in. The first strategy’s goal is to convince the corporation that they absolutely need an archive. This can certainly be done from within the business itself, though it is very common to see literature from outside the corporation being published with arguments to this effect: “Information is an asset. It makes good sense to protect records with permanent value, and thus invest in the future of your organization.” [5] There is no study regarding how effective this kind of outreach is, though the number of corporate archives is constantly expanding.
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The second is when the archive works together with another department in order to reach out to customers, fix problems, fulfill responsibilities, and other necessary duties that the archives would be expected to aid in. How the archives is used, in this regard, changes drastically from archive to archive, so it is difficult to speak in broad strokes regarding what these collaborations actually look like. Corporate archives can hold financial records, legal records, histories, old advertisements, film reels, and any other kind of documents, that can all become useful in extreme variation. They are as follows:
Self Promotion, Advertising, and Public Relations
A case study was written regarding how the archives was used within the Yapi Kredi Bank, a corporation from Turkey. The archives was established in 1994, with the understanding that the archives would primarily be used by the PR team. [6] From this, “a mutually beneficial relationship developed between the PR department, which made extensive use of the material in the archives, and the archives, which benefitted from the publicity and use.” [6]
Yapi Kredi Bank is a major benefactor of culture in Turkey, and thus had records for play houses, movies houses, and various competitions that were run from the bank. [6] As such, the PR team was able to pull photographs, movies, and other valuable material, that was worth millions of dollars to the bank in advertising.
Corporate Memory
This particular option is fairly popular. “However long or short a time-span these volumes cover, the intention remains the same: the statement of a certain achievement and the mapping, before memory is lost, of the route followed.” [7] One author explains that, in this case, the archives is consulted in order to gain perspective on events, their causes and effects, and anything else important that the archive may have, in order to understand what is happening in the business now. [7]
An assortment of everything
One pamphlet from the UK, one trying to convince corporations to add an archive, recounts Diageo PLC, who controls the Guinness brand of beer. “The heritage of GUINNESS lies at the heart of the brand,” they proclaim, before explaining that the archives, “is used by a range of business units across Diageo.., to promote and protect the brand.” The corporations that can use their archives the most effectively, then, are those that use their archives to aid in multiple operations across the corporation. [8]
Users/Patrons
While most Fortune 500 companies have archives, what is deemed accessible and what is deemed private varies wildly from place to place, as there can be little oversight in this case. Due to the nature of corporate archives and their focus of usefulness to the corporation itself, there is very little information on users of corporate archives. Corporate archives, depending on the nature of their business, also have the option to close their archive to the public, which many corporate archives do. The historical societies who have taken an interest in business histories may have noted the business archives traffic numbers. See Historical Societies.
Issues in Corporate Archives
While the archives of a corporation can occupy an important position in the company, corporate archives still face certain struggles.
Education and Information
“Whatever the reason, business records create problems. Whether it is a forms control problem, a records destruction problems, or an archival one, the key is information.” [9]
According to some, the business archivist has to be a master of many skills in order to do their job well. These requirements include educational training in business, history, and politics; but also a working knowledge of archival theory, the particular company they work for, diplomatic skills, and so on. [10] These can all be necessary, as the archivist must perform their work, and advocate for their division’s survival.
Some would argue that this is because the corporate archives needs to remain as independent as possible, even hinting that other archivists and historians may be more reliable people in which to seek aid, rather than those they work with in the context of the corporation. Others, however, would certainly argue the opposite, as corporate archivists heavily rely on divisions within the corporation as their users. [6] It would make sense, then, that a business consultant may be willing to put in their advice on what to retain and what to destroy.
Power
As alluded to before, archivists have to prove why they exist within the context of their organizations on a semi-regular basis, as well as arguing why they are keeping what they are keeping. [11]There are stories that exist of corporations taking documents that have been used in research, to write the corporate memory, and destroying them because they needed space. [12]As such, the archivist does not have full control over their archives, needing to comply with those that hold more power in the corporation.
Finances
Corporate archives, like other archives, also have trouble getting money. Again, this becomes a problem for advocacy.
The corporate setting is much more competitive than other settings, and thus the corporate archives can face a unique situation. Namely, they can completely cut the archives. Other, more independent archives, can accept donations and other gestures to keep their archive afloat, but this is not the case in the corporate sector. If the archive has been deemed not worth the money, the division is cut.
Ethics
There are a number of ethical debates regarding corporate archives and regarding the role of archivists within the archives. One of the major ethical dilemmas for the archivist is that they are torn between keeping the record that gives the most complete picture of the events happening within their jurisdiction and keeping and maintaining what is deemed necessary by the corporation. [13] While this is not always an issue, it can put the corporate archivist into difficult situations. Others have argued that there is no ethical controversy to speak of, as the ethical expectations and limitations of an archivist has, in reality, always been unclear. [14]
Major Business and Corporate Archives
There are several archives that are often used as examples of corporate archives. A few of these examples include the Firestone Archive, the Disney Archive, and the Hudson’s Bay Company Archive.
Firestone Archives
Firestone is often noted, as it was the first corporate archive in the United States and the beginning of this genre of archives. This archives no longer exists. [15]
Disney Archives
Disney is repeatedly noted for their innovative practices within the context of their corporate archives, especially regarding what they have kept (e.g. artwork, unused film, etc.) [16] The Disney archives has it’s own website. The user, if they are a member of D23, can view these unique items online, which makes for a user experience some archives cannot match.
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson’s Bay Company Archive is a Canadian example of a long-standing archive that had to go through the process of reclaiming their records from Britain over several decades. This led to the evolution of a British institution becoming a Canadian institution. [4] This is a much more common trajectory of archival establishment in the Canadian example, as it reflects a colonial history turned Canadian.
Work Cited
- ↑ [1], Elizabeth W. Adkins, “The Development of Business Archives in the United States: An Overview and a Personal Perspective”, The American Archivist 60 (1997), 12.
- ↑ [2], Elizabeth W. Adkins, “The Development of Business Archives in the United States: An Overview and a Personal Perspective”, The American Archivist 60 (1997), 15.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 [3], Christopher Hives, “History, Business Records, and Corporate Archives in North America”, Archivaria 22 (Summer 1986), 50.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 [4], Siân Madsen “The Evolution of Recordkeeping at the Hudson’s Bay Company”, Archivaria 66 (Fall 2008), 34.
- ↑ [5], Association of Canadian Archivists. “Business Archives Booklet.” Accessed February 24, 2015, 9.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 [6], Bekir Kemal Ataman, “Archives Mean Money: How to Make the Most of Archives for Public Relations Purposes—The Yapi Kredi Bank example”, The American Archivist 72 (2009), 199.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Vic Gray. “Developing the Corporate Memory: The Potential of Business Archives", Business information Review 19, (March 2002), 34.
- ↑ [7], National Archives of the UK. “Corporate Memory Brochure”. Last modified June 2009.
- ↑ [8], Joseph W. Ernst, “ The Business Archivist: Problems and Perspectives”, The Business History Review 44 (1970), 536.
- ↑ [9], Joseph W. Ernst, “ The Business Archivist: Problems and Perspectives”, The Business History Review 44 (1970), 540.
- ↑ [10], Joseph W. Ernst, “ The Business Archivist: Problems and Perspectives”, The Business History Review 44 (1970), 542.
- ↑ [11], Joseph W. Ernst, “ The Business Archivist: Problems and Perspectives”, The Business History Review 44 (1970), 541.
- ↑ [12], Richard Cox, “American Archivist Cover Controversy”, The American Archivist 68 (Summer 2005), 9.
- ↑ [13], Andrew V. Abela, “Digesting the Raisins of Wrath: Business, Ethics, and the Archival Profession”, The American Archivist 71 (2008), 204.
- ↑ [14], David R. Smith, “An Historical Look at Business Archives”, The American Archivist 45 (1982), 275.
- ↑ [15], David R. Smith, “An Historical Look at Business Archives”, The American Archivist 45 (1982), 277.