Abstract: [Purpose/Significance] This paper aims to explore the origin and development of informatics in the field of records management, and put forward some thoughts on the development of archival undertaking and archival science through critical reflection.[Design/Methodology] Based upon the representative literatures in informatics, social informatics, records informatics and other fields, this paper built a model of conceptual evolution and elements' relationships of informatics which was used as the analytical framework for sorting out the development process of records informatics. [Findings/Conclusion] Referring to the development trends of informatics in terms of "technical centered, object centered, business centered and human centered", records informatics has realized the transformation from technical centralism to business centralism, which emphasizes the inter-construction and mutual influence among information technology, institutions and records management. In the future, records informatics will be human-centered with deep integration of computation, cognition and society, while building up a multi-stakeholder cooperative governance mechanism, integrating into social informatization and the process of digital transformation, further broadening the boundary of archival science and embedding it into the collaborative evolution of the discipline group of information resources management. [Originality/Value] This paper reveals the whole development and evolution of records informatics so as to promote the continuous deepening of digital transformation of records management and empower social development.

Keywords: Records informatics, Informatics, Social informatics, Records continuum, Archival informatization