The Classification Plan for Local Administration: Portuguese Archives and the Knowledge Organization in Practice

Abstract

This paper presents recent developments in Portuguese local archives' classification policies. Following several professional workgroups and reinforced with a political mandate, local administration archives are putting in practice a new knowledge organization approach through the development of a national Classification Plan for Local Administration (CPLA). New archival legislation is ready to be officialy published and its impact is expected to largely modify administration practices. The main objective of the study is to discuss the knowledge organization solutions embedded in the creation of CPLA. To achieve this goal, a literature review was performed, together with a project management approach, exploring a qualitative analysis of the problems and the solutions found during CPLA's design. The Functional Macrostructure for Public Administration information is the main framework for the development of CPLA, and contributes to the emergence of a new paradigm in Information Management. Such paradigm intersects functions with business processes, transversally and supra-institutionally, and considers the different public administration bodies as open systems. As an outcome, the public administration and, in particular, the archival community receive a new standardized information management tool that serves the classification, appraisal and selection of archival information.