Record-keeping

“ The evolution of record keeping These four classes of libraries, memory libraries, pictorial object libraries, “mnemonic” libraries, and picture book libraries, form thus the field. All of them existed before what may be called historical libraries; all are found among uncivilized peoples of all times; all have their faint remainders in popular custom among modern civilized nations, and suggestions of all may be found in child-study. Three of these classes, memory libraries, mnemonic libraries and picture book libraries, correspond to well recognized book forms. ”

“ This calculation appears to answer in the affirmative the question of the practicality of keeping palm and sole records of all citizens as advocated in my previous article. M. Bertillon has pointed out the numerous cases in civil life in which one's identity is in peril, and looks forward to a future in which some record, based upon physical characters, will be made of every citizen, but the trouble and inconvenience attending his own system of measurements and the fact that they are applicable during adult life alone, would leave them hardly to be considered for such a purpose. ”

“ Indeed, a very high authority as good as told the writer in the war records office in Washington that no man's memory is as good as the published record, or entitled to any weight at all when not in entire harmony therewith. ”

“ BASIC RELATIONSHIPS—PROPRIETORSHIP
Records and Their Functions.—As far back as our knowledge reaches, records of some sort have been kept and used and they have frequently formed the basis on which our knowledge rests. In a broad sense a record may be defined as a written memorial, a register or history of events, a testimony. Even though the desire to make and hand on to the future a record of achievement is a deep-seated characteristic, record-making has seldom been an end in itself. Knowledge of what has been done has always been a starting point and a guide for future achievement. ”

“ The general idea of providing a permanent record of historical events in the nation’s history is worthy of universal encouragement, and also of making these records easily accessible for public enlightenment. ”

“ Of such, no records are kept in the book of time. Should anybody compile a history of lost opportunities, it might easily require a bigger volume, than that needed for the story of opportunities taken at the crucial moment. ”

“ Perusing records that are a century old is something better than listening to a centenarian, even if his memory could go back so far. The records are as fresh as first impressions, and they bring before us men and things as they were, not as after-historians supposed them to be. ”

“ I ask you to think of the Records not as documents which have come into existence somehow, and which somehow contain among them certain isolated matters that may give passing pleasure to persons of antiquarian tastes. I ask you to think of them as not being a mere mass of parchments and papers arranged in chronological order, in which the student of any particular period of history may find all that he wants, if only he exhausts all the documents of that period. ”

“ In this article, however, we are only concerned with documentary records, or archives. In its accurate sense a record is a document regularly drawn up for a legal or administrative purpose and preserved in proper custody to perpetuate the memory of the transaction described in it; for the most part it forms a link in a complicated process, and unless the connexion between it and the other documents making up the process has been preserved, a portion of its meaning will have perished. ”

“ In this little known and scarce essay he emphasized the true nature of the record as a series of enrolments of judgements, charters, grants and agreements, suggested by quotations that it was rather a roll (rotulus) than a book (liber) , and, by means of extracts from other records and collations, confirmed his earlier conclusion that the extracts in the College of Arms Manuscript were taken from the original Roll then (1580) in existence. ”

“ Doubtless it is impossible for any one journal to make a complete record of all the books and articles that appear in the field of history, but I believe the record could be made much more complete than it now is ”

“ It is presumed that a record of achievements in war,—victories so complete and surprising, gained by our countrymen,—our brothers,—our fellow-citizens in arms,—a record which revives the memory of the brave, and brings their gallant deeds before us, will certainly prove acceptable to the public. ”

“ For the prolongation of the record right on into our own time, while it very greatly increases the real value of the collection as a piece of historical evidence, yet deprives it of that illusion [26] which men cannot avoid where history is concerned: the illusion that things thoroughly passed are in some way greater and of more consequence than contemporary things. ”

“ As we have said, this great subconscious region of the mind—this Memory region—may be thought of as a great record file, with an intricate system of indexes, and office boys whose business it is to file away the records; to index them; and to find them when needed. The records record only what we have impressed upon them by the attention, the degree of depth and clearness depending entirely upon the degree of attention which we bestowed upon the original impression. We can never expect to have the office boys of the memory bring up anything that they have not been given to file away. ”

“ There is an account kept, whether we keep one or not. There are a good many revelations which show us that this is the case. Your history goes before you. All of you will find it when you get [to] the other side of the vail. Every man's history—his acts—are written, whether he has kept a record here or not. ”

“ It requires rare gifts indeed to make such a record—a keenness of eye, a skill of hand, and a transparent honesty of purpose that do not often occur to this degree. The record is indeed so well made that it will always be legible, and what is to be read therein will have an ever increasing historical interest. ”

“ The perfect record may never be possessed, but it seems to be ideally possible, because the events which the record would keep in memory must have happened, and, therefore, might have been recorded if fortune had been favorable. If, however, the understanding of what has happened is correct, its truth can not be something fixed once for all. ”

“ Records Made on the "Exception Principle." — Much time is saved by separating records for the inspection of the man above, simply having him examine the exceptions to some desired condition, — the records which are exceptionally good, the records which are exceptionally bad. This not only serves as a reward to the man who has a good record, and a punishment for the man who has had a bad record, but it also enables the manager to discover at once what is wrong and where it is wrong, and to remedy it. ”

“ Historical criticism becomes hard and exacting, even where the chronicle records events not improbable in themselves; and the moment that the story falls out of our scheme of the world’s habitual course, the ever repeated question comes out to meet it—Which is the more likely, that so unusual an event should have really happened, or that the record should be misunderstood or false? ”

“ We get it, especially, not from the history of the theorist or the statistician, but from the actual, naïve, human record to be found in memoirs, in popular literature, in architecture, painting, sculpture, and music, in the industrial arts, in every unforced product of the mind. ”

“ When such a person is being questioned, or elects to make a statement, a contemporaneous record shall be kept, so far as is practicable of the time and place at which any questioning or statement began and ended and of the persons present. ”

“ Complete records are especially necessary in our great city with its constant removals and changes of population. The individual is like the proverbial needle in the haystack, unless we adopt a method of accounting not only for each family but for each individual down to the latest-born child.* *In order that I may not be as one that beateth the air, I venture to suggest a method of laying the foundation of records that has been helpful in my own work. ”

“ From the great body of records, both public and private, many fall easily and naturally into the class in which the text takes a simpler narrative form; such as judicial records, laws, decrees, proclamations, registers, &c., which tell their own story in formulae and phraseology early developed and requiring little change. ”

“ It is not the habit of our people to treat a good record in the past as anything but a reason for expecting an even better record in the present; and no Administration, gentlemen, should ask to be judged save on those lines. ”

“ There are abundant materials in the Record Office, beginning in the reign of Richard I, for the proof and illustration of all these matters in detail. The records themselves which have fortunately been preserved are of inestimable value for those who know how to use them, teaching us how the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas acquired their respective jurisdictions, and the relations which each bore to the other, and the Eyre to both. ”

“ There is no doubt in my mind that some efficiency record is necessary and valuable, and that a full record, including the usual high percentage of good things with the possible proportion of bad ones, is preferable to a mere blacklist, on which only the bad is recorded. ”

“ In the early annals of a country there is generally a great scarcity of authentic records; and, from a simple dearth of facts, the history of a whole century is compressed, not unfrequently, into a few pages: whereas, in later times, when documentary evidence begins to accumulate, the historians will often spread out the events of two or three years over several chapters. ”

“ As with all nineteenth-century history, the extent, the variety, and the intricacy of the various sources are simply overwhelming. The number of official records—Statutes, Orders, Circulars, Minutes, Reports, Letters, etc.—dealt with for the present small volume (although we have confined ourselves in the main to the publications of the Central Authority itself, and have not been able to consult the manuscript records and letter-books of more than a score of the Boards of Guardians) runs into, literally, tens of thousands. ”

“ It is only worth raising when the record is unusually ample and varied, and of long continuity; when we can believe that it enshrines the thoughts of the people, not merely of the priest or of the philosopher. We are more likely to believe this when the record is rich not only in literature, but in monuments. ”

“ There are immense numbers of documents, some of them dating back to Norman and even earlier times, still in existence. The Record Office, in London, has many thousands of documents connected with the king's business; the borough towns and cities and the monasteries each had their own records, but most of these latter records disappeared in the sixteenth century; every old estate has such documents; and many of the old manors have still records going back many centuries. ”

“ Some of the brightest glimpses of the private life and noble character of that statesman can be obtained from her journals, which are a daily record, in many uniform volumes, not only of her own life, but of the important events of the social, dramatic, political, religious and literary world. Those journals are profusely illustrated and are of great value, since the daily record is unbroken for a period of over twenty years. ”

“ Records were made on hundreds of orchards and the results should be given great weight in determining the system to be practiced, as intelligent consideration of trustworthy records is to be encouraged. ”

“ Professor Sollas, of Bristol, has proposed to the British Association a scheme for securing a complete record of published scientific work, the essential feature of which is, that each nation furnish a record of its own work and of that only, and exchange with all other nations for their records. ”

“ As keeper of the rolls he gained the name of the 'father of record reform.' It was through his unremitting perseverance that the government at last consented to provide an adequate repository for the national records. In the House of Lords he abstained from party controversy as being inconsistent with is judicial office, and devoted his time there to the prosecution of legal reforms. ”

“ Rob drew the Record from his pocket and placed it upon the table.
"This, sir," said he, "is an electrical device that records all important events. I wish to call your attention to a scene enacted in Paris last evening which may have an effect upon the future history of your country."
He opened the lid, placed the Record so that the President could see clearly, and then watched the changing expressions upon the great man's face; first indifference, then interest, the next moment eagerness and amazement. ”

“ Where the question is as to the inferences to be drawn from a record, it is well to have its very language before us. The entire record bearing upon the matters in controversy consists of a single journal entry and a portion of the bill of exceptions. ”

“ But, though I have detected and removed these two pages of irrelevance, I foresee that unessential and therefore obscurantic matter will creep in. Well, when I come to weigh the completed record, I must allow for that; and, meanwhile, so far as time and my own limitations as selector permit, I will prune and clear away from the line of vision these weeds of errant fancy. For the record must of all things be honest and comprehensive; rather than shapely, effective, or literary. To be sure the pundits would say that this is to misuse and play with words; to perpetrate a contradiction in terms. ”