• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.11
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• pp.15-40
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• 2005

'Governance' is a subject that is widely discussed these days in the government and the academic world. I think that the new concept, 'governance', is a strategy to develop the democracy of the society in its institutional and functional aspects. When we are going to discuss about governance, public records and their relationships, without understanding the meaning of 'public' in Korea, we cannot expect to discuss the matter precisely. It is said that Korean public service sectors are awash with authoritarianism and unreasonableness, and that they are at the center of seething corruption and bribe scandals. It is the legacy that the regimes adopted in the aftermath of the Japanese colonial rule for 35 years. The colonial legacy included not simply the practice of the Japanese colony, but also people who had collaborated the Japanese. The American military government and Rhee, Sung-Man regime also appointed the same officials to government posts. As was the same case in other areas including economy, press, education, politics, law, etc. In this point of view, "Righting historical wrongs", a controversial issue now in Korea, aims at establishing the right relationships between an individual and the public, and eventually laying the foundation of democracy for future generation, a procedure of achieving good governance. Apparently, Korea has made progress in developing democracy, as well as in reforming the government policy and organization. Many independent commissions are performing the projects instead of the government institutions that mandated to do the job, but has not played their roles. The e-government projects in Korea was launched in 2001 by the former administration. However, the confusion of records-management after the promulgation of the act is the result of the lack of strategy and the inconsistency of the vision. Good record-keeping supports effective, transparent and accountable government. Accountability is a key element of good governance. It is a recognized fact that without information, there is no guidance for decision-making, and accountability. Thus without records, there is no accountability for the decisions of actions. Transparency means that the decisions taken and their enforcement are carried out based on led-out rules and regulations. When both accountability and transparency are non-existent, good governance is bound to fail. Archival institutions have to give an attention to inner-governance because of the new trend of archival practice, namely 'macro-appraisal'. This 'macro-appraisal' is a kind of a functions-based approach. However, macro-appraisal focuses not just on function, but on the three-way interaction of function, structure and citizen, which combined reflect the functioning of the state within civil society, that is to say, its governance. In conclusion, the public and democracy are major challenges in the Korean society. The so-called good governance requires good record management. In this respect, records managers are in the front line of instituting good governance, and achieving better public and democracy for future generation, a procedure of achieving good governance.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.11
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• pp.41-89
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• 2005

Good records management is essential for good governance in modern democratic society. Though the records management institutions and policies in Korea were improved rapidly since the enactment of Public Records Management Act in 1999, the newly introduced records systems for administrative organizations including the New Electronic Data Management System(NEDMS) and Electronic Records Management Systems for Records Centers(ERMS/RC) have many problems in terms of ensuring the quality of records. The purpose of this study aimed to suggest quality criteria for measuring authenticity, reliability, integrity and usability of electronic records based on the international standards and guidelines such as ISO 15489, InterPARES project and BS ISO 15489 guidelines. The present study began with defining concepts and structure of records as evidence of activities. And it analysed four characteristics such as authenticity, reliability, integrity and usability of records by comparing various definitions in diplomatics and archival science literatures, and some projects reports. Finally it suggested the quality criteria for measuring authenticity, reliability, integrity and usability of records, and methods for maintaining them in each process of creation, maintenance and preservation.

• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.34
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• pp.3-28
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• 2012

The year of 2013 is the first year that the new president takes the power and administrates the national affairs. In Korea, when the new president comes, the new administration brings big changes in the politics, economy, and society. The government management style has been changed according to the orientation and styles of the new president. Public records management is a critical and effective business tool to establish and carry out the government policies as well as an essential tool for democracy. Modern democracy is based on good governance. Creation and free use of full and accurate public records makes the good communication between the government and the public possible, and people's participation in the policy-making and surveillance of government activities for public good can work. During the present administration, communication between the president and the people was cutoff and people's participation in the national affairs have been further limited. Furthermore, in the present administration, the public records management was not regarded important, Whatever new administration comes, the year of 2013 is the time for the new administration to realize again the importance of the public records management and put it back to the normal track. Here are the major issues in the public records management to be concerned and resolved; (1) to ensure technological and institutional management of the electronic records in the government and safe transfer of the massive electronic records, (2) to establish an independent national records management and archives authority to be based on good governance, (3) to innovate the public records management in the public agencies including their agency records offices (RMO) and records management systems (RMS) (4) to establish local government archives and document local government policies and activities (5) supporting and promotion for documentation of the total society as a public service (6) expanding employment of professional records managers and archivists in the central and local governments, and standardization of professional competency and certification. In this paper, I will introduce the major issues in the public records management and suggest the policies and solutions that the Korean records professionals considered and discussed. This analysis and suggestions are the outcome of our professional considerations and discussions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.87-111
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• 2006

Publication Information Dissemination Guidance(P.I.D.G.), in which a public organization opens it's information to the public in advance of requests, could be an appropriate medium to support the good governance. In other words, good governance could be established by adopting P.I.D.G. to guarantee the accessibility and usability of information to a public organization, to arrange an opportunity for conversation with the people, and eventually promote the participation of people in administration. However, the P.I.D.G. is not well-known among people due to lack of nation-wide advertisement, and a number of multi-laterally found flaws in the system operation, suggesting an urgent need of improvement. Disorders are found in the operation of P.I.D.G. due to un-standardized categories among the standards of Publication Information Dissemination, set by administrative organizations. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the P.I.D.G. and suggest the ways to improve it based on the criteria indicated above.