Personal digital records are one of the most underrepresented areas of archival theory and practice. Documentary forms created by private persons have long been victim of a poverty of professional attention, and much of the literature on the appraisal and preservation of records has tended to focus on those generated by government and other organizational entities. And strategies developed for the archival management of digital records have similarly placed strong emphasis on business functions or corporate transactions as the primary unit of analysis. This scholastic deficit has severely impaired the ability of the archivist to comprehend and effectively meet the many challenges of archiving personal records in the digital age. This thesis demonstrates how investigations of the original context of creation and use of records in contemporary personal computing environments are integral to the development of comprehensive strategies for the capture and preservation of personal digital archives. It is within these digital domains that archivists come to see cultures of personal recordkeeping, private appraisal decisions based on unique designations of value, and the complexities of both online and offline personal digital preservation strategies. A keen understanding of how individuals create and preserve their digital records across time and space should be of the utmost importance to archivists for, if nothing else, these pre-custodial activities are the principal sites of archival provenance. Chapter one discusses past and present responses to both paper-based and electronic personal archives. The discussion begins with the definition of the personal record as essentially non-archival by early leading archival theorists and how these definitions, though first advanced in the early to mid-twentieth century, continue to find resonance in contemporary archival ideas and institutional mandates. This chapter then illustrates how ideas predicated on the management of electronic government records, and metadata standards developed for formalized electronic recordkeeping systems, are not easily transposed to personal domains. Chapter two takes a critical look at the often oversimplified personal digital archiving environment to expose the many nuances in the context of creation and use of records by individuals in the digital era. Chapter three explores a number of emerging approaches to the professional archiving of personal digital records and reveals how the proper management of these materials requires multiple hardware and software applications, concise acquisition strategies and preservation methodologies, and diligent front-end work to ensure personal digital records cross the threshold of archival repositories. The thesis concludes with a summary of the main arguments and collates the best ideas, approaches, and technologies reviewed throughout to propose a hypothetical strategy for archiving personal digital records in the present. This thesis argues that significantly more work with records creators earlier in the record creation process must be done when archiving personal digital records because more proactive measures are required to capture and preserve these materials than was previously the case with paper-based or analog documentary forms.

Personal digital records are one of the most underrepresented areas of archival theory and practice. Documentary forms created by private persons have long been victim of a poverty of professional attention, and much of the literature on the appraisal and preservation of records has tended to focus on those generated by government and other organizational entities. And strategies developed for the archival management of digital records have similarly placed strong emphasis on business functions or corporate transactions as the primary unit of analysis. This scholastic deficit has severely impaired the ability of the archivist to comprehend and effectively meet the many challenges of archiving personal records in the digital age. This thesis demonstrates how investigations of the original context of creation and use of records in contemporary personal computing environments are integral to the development of comprehensive strategies for the capture and preservation of personal digital archives. It is within these digital domains that archivists come to see cultures of personal recordkeeping, private appraisal decisions based on unique designations of value, and the complexities of both online and offline personal digital preservation strategies. A keen understanding of how individuals create and preserve their digital records across time and space should be of the utmost importance to archivists for, if nothing else, these pre-custodial activities are the principal sites of archival provenance. Chapter one discusses past and present responses to both paper-based and electronic personal archives. The discussion begins with the definition of the personal record as essentially non-archival by early leading archival theorists and how these definitions, though first advanced in the early to mid-twentieth century, continue to find resonance in contemporary archival ideas and institutional mandates. This chapter then illustrates how ideas predicated on the management of electronic government records, and metadata standards developed for formalized electronic recordkeeping systems, are not easily transposed to personal domains. Chapter two takes a critical look at the often oversimplified personal digital archiving environment to expose the many nuances in the context of creation and use of records by individuals in the digital era. Chapter three explores a number of emerging approaches to the professional archiving of personal digital records and reveals how the proper management of these materials requires multiple hardware and software applications, concise acquisition strategies and preservation methodologies, and diligent front-end work to ensure personal digital records cross the threshold of archival repositories. The thesis concludes with a summary of the main arguments and collates the best ideas, approaches, and technologies reviewed throughout to propose a hypothetical strategy for archiving personal digital records in the present. This thesis argues that significantly more work with records creators earlier in the record creation process must be done when archiving personal digital records because more proactive measures are required to capture and preserve these materials than was previously the case with paper-based or analog documentary forms.

在近現代總統制國家中，「總統」所產生之文物，不論在歷史、經濟、社會、教育、科學及文化等層面，皆具有高度保存價值，記錄總統執政期間之施政表現，見證國家各階段之發展歷程，為國家與全民共享之珍貴資產，後代子孫的歷史寶藏。然而國內自行憲以來，歷經蔣中正總統、嚴家淦總統、蔣經國總統、李登輝總統以及現任之陳水扁總統等五位總統，卻仍未建立總統文物管理之機制，致使歷任總統文物歸屬權責不明，亦缺乏相關之管理規範，造成行憲以來歷任總統文物散佚各處等情況。鑑於美國在總統文物管理實務方面以「總統圖書館」之機制，系統化地典藏總統於任內及任期前後所產生之文物，並有效地開放提供社會大眾應用，本研究希冀取法美國總統文物管理之特點，並配合國內現實環境與現況，提出適用於我國之總統文物管理之建議，以供日後發展總統文物管理機制時之參酌。 本研究採以調查法與深度訪談法進行研究。一方面藉由對蔣中正總統、嚴家淦總統以及蔣經國總統所產生之文物進行實際調查，以瞭解上述三者於內涵、來源、產生方式以及架構等方面之現況；另一方面則運用引導性取向的深度訪談法，訪談國內總統文物之使用者與管理者共計10位，蒐集受訪者對於總統文物管理在定義與範圍、功能導向、管理模式以及法源依據等面向之意見。而後整合實地調查與深度訪談之結果，提出適用於我國之總統文物管理建議。 由實際調查結果發現，我國行憲以來歷任總統文物目前主要典藏於國史館，包括有蔣中正總統檔案、嚴家淦總統檔案以及蔣經國總統檔案等。該館所典藏之總統文物在內容範圍方面涵括十分廣泛，但是在完整性方面則仍有不足之處；而該館所採用之整編方式，乃依循文物原移轉接收時之架構，並未運用現代檔案管理原則重新進行整理編排。另一方面，由深度訪談結果發現，使用者與管理者等不同背景之受訪者對於「總統文物」與「總統檔案」之名稱適用性與定義看法紛歧，但是卻普遍認同「總統個人文件」之名稱，亦認可總統文物可依歸屬權分為公務及私人兩類，並認為兩者間應有不易劃分的模糊地帶。此外，多數受訪者同意我國總統文物管理功能應以典藏與應用為導向，且宜採行集中制管理，同時也提出總統文物管理機關定位不明以及缺乏相關法源依據等意見。 依據研究結果，本研究由以下四方面提出幾項建議。一、實務面：（一）於總統文物產生階段即展開管理工作；（二）回溯徵集現行總統文物中遺缺之部分；（三）積極廣徵總統個人文件。二、應用面：（一）提供總統文物多樣化之應用服務；（二）提升總統文物應用服務之品質。三、制度面：（一）採行集中制管理總統文物；（二）授權國家檔案管理機構負責總統文物之主管與典藏事宜。四、法制面：（一）儘速制訂總統文物管理相關法令；（二）透過法源依據建立總統文物管理規範；（三）提升總統文物管理者與使用者之法律素養。