-Logo-06.jpg){kind=logo}
The four freedoms of records
Records must outlive the systems that hold them. Whoever keeps them next must be able to do four things without anyone's permission.
Verify.
Verify the records without trusting the supplier.
Read.
Read the records without the supplier's software.
Leave.
Leave, taking everything.
Study and change.
Study and change the tools that keep the records.
By supplier we mean whoever you depend on for the system that holds the records today. A vendor, a hosting service, a platform, or an open source project. If you run open source software yourself, the project is still your supplier. The test applies all the same.
Fail any one and the records are not sovereign. Sovereign here means simply that the records can move when their keeper needs them to, including to a new keeper. The test applies to every supplier. Including us.
What we mean by a record
By a record we mean evidence. Something kept so that, later, someone can show what happened and who was responsible. An email, a database or a case file can all be records. What makes something a record is that people rely on it.
Laura Millar calls the people who keep records evidence professionals. These freedoms are for them, and for whoever comes after them.
Free Software and Free Records
The four freedoms of records were inspired by the four freedoms of free software. Those protect the person who uses a program. These protect the records, and the people who will keep them next.
Two other efforts point the same way. The Data Centric Manifesto argues that an organisation's data should outlive any application that uses it. Our Future Memory sets out four digital rights for libraries, archives and museums, endorsed by IFLA and the International Council on Archives. We see all three as complementary to the four freedoms. The freedoms are a test you can apply today, to any system that holds records.
Use them, argue with them, improve them
This text is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Copy it, quote it, change it.
We would like to know whether these four freedoms help, and whether they matter to you. Say so wherever you talk about records, with #FourFreedomsOfRecords. We are on Bluesky at @artefactual.com, on LinkedIn, and at info@artefactual.com.