Shepherd, Elizabeth; (2023) The Nordic model: Some reflections on its strengths and omissions. In: Bak, Greg and Rostgaard, Marianne, (eds.) The Nordic Model of Digital Archiving. Routledge: Abingdon, UK.

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Abstract

U.K. archivists, records managers, and archival science academics have long looked towards Nordic record keeping and sometimes felt that U.K. national practices fell short of the Nordic ideal. The Nordic model demonstrates strong up-to-date legislative and regulatory requirements, pioneering digitisation and digital archival preservation programmes, and enduring central registry systems across government, alongside the expertise of Nordic archivists and record keepers. This chapter reviews and comments on themes which arise in this book and explores their relevance in the context of the United Kingdom and wider international archival scholarship. Four main topics are covered: the prevalence of datafication and the availability and reuse of data (not just records) to underpin much public policy and government decision making; participatory and human-centred approaches to record keeping with special consideration of those whose lived experience is reflected in records; the continuing dominance of a centralised and government determined Nordic model in an era when greater decentralisation and sharing of digital sources across cultural institutions is emerging; and the demands these changes make on the skills and understanding of those managing data and digital futures, with implications for university education for archivists and other ways to bring digital skills into record keeping roles.

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