The archival education is designed to allow one to gain knowledge of archives management theory and practice to fulfill one’s duties as an expert. Due to the current development of information technology, the role of an expert should include not only traditional archives management but also new archives management based on an understanding of electronic records and information technology.
Therefore, the goal of this study is to develop guidelines for a graduate program in archival studies in Korea to produce experts of both theory and practice. The guidelines are used for foundations of enhancing the expertise of archivists and records managers by laying the foundation for the curriculum in response to the changing archives and records management environment. The following research methods were used for this study to design guidelines for a graduate program in archival studies.
First, through a literature review, guidelines from SAA and ACA and certification criteria from ARA, ASA, ACA, ICRM, and IRMS were analyzed to extract common components, 11 of which were knowledge categories and 40 were knowledge contents. The 11 knowledge categories included ①the nature of records and archives, ②selection, appraisal, and acquisition, ③arrangement and description, ④preservation, conservation, ⑤reference services and access, ⑥outreach, instruction, and advocacy, ⑦management and administration, ⑧digital records management, ⑨knowledge for professionals, ⑩contextual knowledge, ⑪information technology.
Second, 25 graduate schools of archival science in Korea and 23 overseas graduate schools of archival science were analyzed to obtain their department name, curriculum, and courses, and improvements were derived from the graduate schools in Korea.
Domestic graduate schools have fewer credits and fewer required courses than overseas graduate schools. The program was not specialized because the graduate school was established as a cooperative program. Of 25 universities, 15 organized courses in the field of information technology. According to the knowledge categories, the categories of ⑥outreach, instruction, and advocacy, ⑨knowledge for professionals, and ⑪knowledge of information technology were not independently conducted, while courses related to history and administration were very subdivided. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate and adjust subdivided courses and conduct essential courses while focusing on the 11 categories of knowledge.
Third, a survey was administered to 102 members of the council on archivists from July to September 2020 and was analyzed using SPSS and Excel. According to the survey, archivists took several courses related to ②selection, appraisal, and acquisition, ①the nature of records and archives, ③arrangement and description, ⑤reference services and access, and ④preservation, conservation. Archivists recognized that the archival curriculum did not adequately reflect changes in the information environment and new courses on digital records were required.
In examining the priority assigned to the knowledge categories, those that had higher representation than the average were identified as ②selection, appraisal, and acquisition ⑧digital records management, ③arrangement and description, ⑤reference services and access, ①nature of records and archives, ④preservation, conservation. Although they did not take many courses on knowledge categories of ⑧digital records management and ⑪information technology, the need for each high knowledge category was investigated.
Fourth, to verify the adequacy and content validity of the components, knowledge categories, and knowledge contents of the guidelines, professional assessments were carried out. To collect feedback on the components, knowledge categories, and knowledge contents of the guidelines, the Delphi survey technique was used with 16 professionals of the field from December 28, 2020, to March 19, 2021. With SPSS. 24.0 and MS Office Excel 2016, the mean, standard deviation, median, and quadrant of the descriptive statistics, including agreement, degree of convergence, and content validity ratio, were analyzed.
As a result of the first evaluation, “preface” and “mission and goals” were integrated, “faculty” was adjusted to require more than one full-time professor; “affiliated” and “student requirements” were deleted; and “learning resources”, “administrative resources” and “facilities and job support” were integrated. Accordingly, were found six components to the guidelines for a graduate program in archival studies.
The knowledge categories were integrated into eight categories: ①records and archives management basics ②selection, appraisal, and acquisition ③classification, arrangement, and description ④preservation, conservation ⑤reference services and outreach program ⑥management and administration ⑦electronic records management, electronic records management system ⑧information technology.
Based upon the descriptive opinions on knowledge contents, the components of the knowledge categories were moved, added, merged and changed.
As a result of measuring the content validity ratio, convergence, and agreement through the second evaluation, there were no items that had inappropriate values; hence, there were no deleted items in the components, knowledge categories, or knowledge contents. Based upon the descriptive opinions on the knowledge contents, one knowledge contents were moved to different knowledge categories: ‘reference service as information technology changes’. Five were added: ‘role and history of records professionals’, ‘concepts and definitions of records and archives’, ‘understanding institutional management and administrative systems’, ‘management characteristics by type of records management institution’, ‘use and assessment of finding aids. Ten that need to be changed to clarify the terms were adjusted: ‘formulation and practice of records collection development policy’, ‘classification of current and semi-current records’, ‘understanding and application of metadata and related standards’, ‘information disclosure act, privacy act, information freedom act, copyright’, ‘user needs analysis and information service assessment’, ‘establishing records governance’, ‘understanding different electronic recording production systems’, ‘understanding the latest information technology’, ‘application of information technology to records management’.
Fifth, based on the contents included in the overseas guidelines and analysis of the current status of graduate schools, the Korea guidelines for a graduate program in archival studies presented the opinions of records managers and archivists.
There are six components of the Korea guidelines for a graduate programs in archival studies: preface, curriculum, faculty, structure of the learning process, administrative support, and conclusions. The knowledge categories are ① records and archives management basics ②selection, appraisal, and acquisition ③classification, arrangement, and description ④preservation, conservation ⑤reference services and outreach program ⑥management and administration ⑦electronic records management, electronic records management system and ⑧information technology.
Knowledge consists of 44 contents: ①records and archives management basics include ‘concepts and definitions of records and archives’, ‘type and characteristics of records’, ‘principles of records management’, ‘Law of Records’, ‘history of records and records management’, ‘role and history of records professionals’ and ‘code of ethics and code of conduct for archivists’; ②selection, appraisal, and acquisition include ‘disposition, disposal, and transfer of current and semi-current records’, ‘appraisal theory of archives’, ‘selection, appraisal, and acquisition of archives’, ‘formulation and practice of records collection development policy’ and ‘evaluation policies and practices of other countries’; ③classification, arrangement, and description include ‘classification of current and semi-current records’, ‘arrangement and description of non-current records’, ‘classification of business and records’ and ‘understanding and application of metadata and related standards’; ④preservation, conservation include ‘measures and activities for preservation and conservation of records by medium’, ‘preservation facilities, environment, and facilities’ and ‘disaster preparedness and risk management’; ⑤reference services and outreach program include ‘development and evaluation of archival finding aids’, ‘promotion of records through SNS, exhibitions, and marketing’, ‘reference service based on records and user needs’, ‘user needs analysis and information service assessment’, ‘reference service policy development’, ‘information disclosure act, privacy act, information freedom act’, ‘reference service as information technology changes’ and ‘use of data set and public data’; ⑥management and administration include ‘the importance of records as institutional information assets’, ‘understanding institutional management and administrative systems’, ‘best practices and benefits of records management’, ‘records management procedures and standards’, ‘management characteristics by type of records management institution”, “resource management and organizational structure of records management institutions’, ‘policies and procedures in the records management program’ and ‘establishing records governance’; ⑦electronic records management, electronic records management system include ‘designing, implementing, evaluating, and maintaining records management systems’, ‘processing and functional requirements of the records management system’, ‘various types of electronic records, such as data sets, web records, SNS, and email’, ‘electronic records laws and regulations’ ‘electronic recording quality requirements’, ‘understanding different electronic recording production systems’ and ‘principles and strategies for long-term preservation of electronic records’; and ⑧information technology includes ‘application of information technology to records management’ and ‘understanding the latest information technology’.
The guidelines for a graduate program in archival studies in Korea were designed in five stages. This study is the first to create guidelines for a graduate program in archival studies in Korea and may be used as a reference or a basic resource for the establishment of graduate education guidelines in educational institutions, related societies and associations or public-private governance cooperation systems. Each graduate school can design basic courses in archives and records management using the knowledge categories and can standardize courses based on the knowledge contents.
The guidelines presented in this study are educational ones that reflect the opinions of those in the field, such as records managers and archivists. In this sense, they are practical guidelines that are desired in the records and archives management field. Even if new topics related to archives and records management emerge in the future or new knowledge is required by professionals, it is possible to design for updating components and knowledge categories of records management by applying the research methods used in this study.