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The Preservation of Business Records: Why Business Records Should Be Preserved

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

Every business concern has to use records of many types. They are expensive to prepare, they soon lose their current value, and they tend to accumulate in large masses. Modern business destroys great quantities of records and correspondence every day because storage often seems expensive and unnecessary and because the future reference value of such material is not appreciated. It is neither possible nor desirable to keep all business records indefinitely. A business concern has more important things to do, and must avoid unnecessary expense. But selected material should be permanently preserved by individual firms because the historical information which it contains is of definite educational value (1) to the firms themselves, (2) to historians who are trying to study important aspects of human experience, and (3) to the general public which is served by business and which ultimately governs the conduct of business.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 11 , Issue 3-4 , October 1937 , pp. 37 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1937

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References

1 Cotta, Edna G., “The Organization and Management of a Centralized File Bureau” in The Centralized Filt Bureau and Central Transcribing, Office Management Series, O.M. 68 (New York, 1935)Google Scholar.

2 For an excellent brief discussion of the practical aspects of a systematic program of handling records, see Office Machines and Methods, Office Management Series, O.M. 69 (New York, 1935), pp. 6-12.

3 See in this connection Protection of Records, published by the National Fire Association (Boston, 1935), pp. 3-4, 16-20.

4 For a detailed description of this project see De Forest Mellon, “Preserving Business Records for History” in the Bulletin of the National Retail Dry Goods Association, June, 1934.

5 For brief technical discussions of this problem and exact specifications, see Kantrowitz, M. S. and Simmons, R. H., The Technical Status of Permanence and Durability of Paper (Washington, 1936), a paper presented before the Graphic Arts Technical Conference, Washington, D.C., May, 1936Google Scholar; and Arthur Kimberly, E., “The Preservation of Records in Vital Statistics,” Vital Statistics—Special Reports (Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census), Vol. 3, No. 33 (August 5, 1937), pp. 153–160Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., p. 153.

7 For a very useful discussion of all aspects of microphotography of records, see the pamphlet The Year's Progress in Microfhotografhy, prepared by Vernon D. Tate, Chief, Division of Photographic Reproduction and Research, The National Archives, Washington, D.C. (1937).

8 Valuable and detailed information on the construction, equipment, and maintenance of buildings from the point of view of guarding against fire are to be found in Protection of Records, published by the Association in 1935.

9 Office Machines and Methods., P. 12.

10 For an excellent and brief discussion of storage conditions, see the article cited above by Arthur E. Kimberly, Chief, Division of Repairs and Preservation, The National Archives, Washington, D.C.