Sue Myburgh said Actually, I do know how the CRM works: it is precisely my point that it is not an educational qualification, and it not based on a body of theory and research that is the hallmark of professions. It tests how practitioners practice . . . most professionals gain their professional education at a university first, before getting the assurance that they practice their profession according to the standards that are demanded.
The ICRM certification process could include an alternative allowing an advanced degree such as an MLIS or MS in information science to substitute for one or two years of the experience requirement. The Academy of Certified Archivists has such an option, acknowledging the value of graduate education. As it stands, only undergraduate work contributes to accreditation as a CRM. Academic institutions do not have much incentive to offer RM graduate programs because their degrees are not valued sufficiently by the RM community. Until academia is more engaged with RM, the body of theory and research that is the hallmark of professions will be inadequate.
My MLIS program specialized in archival administration, and I studied taxonomy, classification, and filing systems; indexing and abstracting; preservation of materials in all formats; vendor relationships and contracts; government information sources (how to research laws); and theory of archival administration including records management. Other course options were metadata, databases, information architecture, networks, web development, and information policy. Surely these types of classes provide a background that would make an MLIS graduate immediately productive in records management. The up-through-the-ranks method is not the only way to grow a modern records manager, and ICRM needs to recognize graduate education as a basis of professionalism.
Janet Kerschner, MBA, MLIS, CA
Chicago-area archivist/RIM wannabe
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