Records continuum model

[2] Upward describes the RCM within the broad context of a continuum where activities and interactions transform documents into records, evidence and memory that are used for multiple purposes over time.

The RCM is an abstract conceptual model that helps to understand and explore recordkeeping activities (as interaction) in relation to multiple contexts over space and time (spacetime).

Create, Capture, Organize and Pluralize, as the dimensions are referred to in short, represent recordkeeping activities that occur within spacetime.

[2] This definition lends itself to a linear reading of the RCM – beginning with Create and working outwards towards Pluralization of recorded information.

[6][8] By representing multiple realities, the RCM articulates the numerous and diverse points of view that contribute to records and archives including individual, group, community, organizational, institutional and societal perspectives.

Other stakeholders can be identified at various dimensions of interaction, including those involved in providing information (not only the person or organization who produced or captured it), as well as their family and community.

[9][10] While the RCM is inclusive of multiple ways of conceptualizing and performing recordkeeping, including a lifecycle approach, there are some significant differences.

What this means is that records are "in a state of always becoming...",[4] able to contribute new contexts dependent on the differing perceptions and historical backgrounds of various stakeholders who are analyzing their contents.

Peter Scott, a contemporary at the Commonwealth Archives Office, is also recognized as a core influence on Australian records continuum theory with his development of the Australian Series System, a registry system that helped identify and document the complex and multiple "social, functional, provenancial, and documentary relationships" involved in managing records and recordkeeping processes over spacetime.

[1] Further influences on the RCRG group include archival professionals and researchers like David Bearman and his work on transactionality and systems thinking, and Terry Cook's ideas about postcustodialism and macroappraisal.

This term was born from an identified and urgent need to address the complexities of computer technologies on records creation and management over time and space.