This thesis sets out to explain how spheres of responsibility or competences are assigned in the administration of government functions in order to assess the ways in which archivists can come to terms with increasingly rapid rates of administrative change in the performance of their work. It examines statutes and government publications to present a picture of the evolution of the competence of agencies of the government of Canada given responsibility for carrying out activities in administration of the function of agriculture. It is found that knowledge of the assignment of functional responsibility is essential to a number of archival tasks. It is vital to know all the bodies participating in carrying out the function when appraising records. A vital part of identifying the external structure of a fonds lies in determining the competence of the agencies creating records in it, and this knowledge must be effectively communicated in archival description. Finally, the concepts of function, competence, and activity, if clearly understood, can guide the development of vocabularies to assist users of archives to find loci of administrative action relevant to searches they are undertaking. Accumulating information about the functions, competences, and activities of organizations and keeping it current can serve many purposes in the administration of records during the entire life cycle. Organizations need this information to control and provide access to records for administrative purposes and to facilitate secondary access under freedom of information and privacy legislation or for historical research purposes. The method of analyzing how functional activity employed in this study can be used for all government organizations in Canada.

This thesis sets out to explain how spheres of responsibility or competences are assigned in the administration of government functions in order to assess the ways in which archivists can come to terms with increasingly rapid rates of administrative change in the performance of their work. It examines statutes and government publications to present a picture of the evolution of the competence of agencies of the government of Canada given responsibility for carrying out activities in administration of the function of agriculture. It is found that knowledge of the assignment of functional responsibility is essential to a number of archival tasks. It is vital to know all the bodies participating in carrying out the function when appraising records. A vital part of identifying the external structure of a fonds lies in determining the competence of the agencies creating records in it, and this knowledge must be effectively communicated in archival description. Finally, the concepts of function, competence, and activity, if clearly understood, can guide the development of vocabularies to assist users of archives to find loci of administrative action relevant to searches they are undertaking. Accumulating information about the functions, competences, and activities of organizations and keeping it current can serve many purposes in the administration of records during the entire life cycle. Organizations need this information to control and provide access to records for administrative purposes and to facilitate secondary access under freedom of information and privacy legislation or for historical research purposes. The method of analyzing how functional activity employed in this study can be used for all government organizations in Canada. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

This thesis begins by tracing the development of the practice of records scheduling in the federal governments of United States and Canada, from the initial concern with records disposal in the late eighteen hundreds, to the implementation of formal records schedules in the 1940s in the United States and the late 1950s in Canada. These federal initiatives provided a model for later developments at the state and provincial level. However, changes in scheduling methods have lately become necessary to meet the demands of the increasing volume of records, organizational complexity and change, and the widespread use of new media, particularly electronic records. Many of these changes have occurred at the provincial and state level, where the limited size of government has allowed the agencies responsible for scheduling to be more responsive and innovative. For this reason, analysis of current records scheduling practices in the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, and the states of Washington and New York were conducted. These studies reveal schedules which are both flexible in their use and adaptable over time because they attempt to accommodate both records in all media and organizational change. Among the scheduling techniques examined are the addition of media specific elements, the use of functional schedule arrangement, the integration of schedules with other management tools, like classification, and the expanded use of general schedules for records common to more than one organization. These techniques are capable of dealing with the volume, complexity and variety of records which are being created in government today. Despite the changes demonstrated, the studies show that records scheduling remains a viable practice to control the life cycle of all records, from creation until disposal. Throughout this investigation, the role of archivists is discussed. Archivists' involvement in scheduling began with the earliest developments and continues still today. Archivists have been central to the initiation, development and adaptation of records scheduling in government. With the development of new information technologies, archivists' role is even more important, for they must intervene into the process of records creation if they want to maintain the ability to identify records of enduring value to society, and to ensure that their integrity is maintained throughout administrative procedures and use.

Orientador: Mario Luiz Possas / Banca: Marisa dos Reis Azevedo Botelho / Banca: Tatiana Massaroli de Melo / Resumo: Pretende-se, por meio desta pesquisa, analisar a gestão governamental de duas leis: a Lei do Bem e a Lei da Informática. Estas leis fazem parte do conjunto de medidas relacionadas ao âmbito das políticas tecnológicas desenvolvidas pelo governo brasileiro e têm como instrumento a concessão de incentivos fiscais. A intenção é analisar a concepção e a formulação dessas leis, com ênfase na análise da avaliação governamental (quando existente). Parte-se da hipótese que a avaliação governamental das leis estudadas é inexistente ou qualitativamente insuficiente, o que se constitui em uma grande falha de gestão governamental, já que as políticas tecnológicas que têm como instrumento os incentivos fiscais exigem das empresas beneficiárias o cumprimento de requisitos e contrapartidas financeiras para fruição do incentivo fiscal. Assim, a contribuição desta pesquisa dar-se-ia no sentido de levantar possíveis deficiências e sugerir melhorias na formulação de políticas tecnológicas que tenham como instrumento os incentivos fiscais / Abstract: The aim of this research is to analyze two federal laws: the "Law of Good" and the Law of Informatics. These laws are part of the set of measures related to the scope of the technological policies developed by the Brazilian government, whose instrument is the concession of fiscal incentives. The main intention is to analyze the conception and formulation of these laws, with emphasis on the analysis of government assessment (when it exists). This work presumes that the governmental assessmentof these laws is nonexistent or qualitatively insufficient, which constitutes a major failure of governmental management, since technological policies based on fiscal incentives require from beneficiary companies to achieve some goals as well as financial compensation for the tax incentives. The possible contribution of this research would be to raise shortcomings and failures and to suggest improvements in the formulation of technological policies based on fiscal incentives / Mestre

This thesis begins by tracing the development of the practice of records scheduling in the federal governments of United States and Canada, from the initial concern with records disposal in the late eighteen hundreds, to the implementation of formal records schedules in the 1940s in the United States and the late 1950s in Canada. These federal initiatives provided a model for later developments at the state and provincial level. However, changes in scheduling methods have lately become necessary to meet the demands of the increasing volume of records, organizational complexity and change, and the widespread use of new media, particularly electronic records. Many of these changes have occurred at the provincial and state level, where the limited size of government has allowed the agencies responsible for scheduling to be more responsive and innovative. For this reason, analysis of current records scheduling practices in the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario, and the states of Washington and New York were conducted. These studies reveal schedules which are both flexible in their use and adaptable over time because they attempt to accommodate both records in all media and organizational change. Among the scheduling techniques examined are the addition of media specific elements, the use of functional schedule arrangement, the integration of schedules with other management tools, like classification, and the expanded use of general schedules for records common to more than one organization. These techniques are capable of dealing with the volume, complexity and variety of records which are being created in government today. Despite the changes demonstrated, the studies show that records scheduling remains a viable practice to control the life cycle of all records, from creation until disposal. Throughout this investigation, the role of archivists is discussed. Archivists' involvement in scheduling began with the earliest developments and continues still today. Archivists have been central to the initiation, development and adaptation of records scheduling in government. With the development of new information technologies, archivists' role is even more important, for they must intervene into the process of records creation if they want to maintain the ability to identify records of enduring value to society, and to ensure that their integrity is maintained throughout administrative procedures and use. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate