A lawsuit seeking e-mails from Governor Blunt’s office might soon be revived. A communications expert says the retention of e-mails has become an important matter for government to consider.
Executive Director Charles Davis with the National Freedom of Information Center located at the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism says any presidential library presents history on paper, either typed or handwritten. He says future libraries will present history through electronic communication; the e-mail.
Davis says that no longer will the historian rifle through a file cabinet to snatch that ever-important, carefully typed memo. He says e-mails will contain our collective history and for that reason alone need to be retained.
A full understanding of the weight of e-mails and their equal standing with paper correspondence would make people handle e-mails more carefully, according to Davis.
Davis says people typically treat e-mails more informally than they should.