I would like to add my thanks to Dianne Hagan for her beautifully 
articulated Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Jounral letter. I especially like 
her keep throwing stuff in ever-multiplying file cabinets analogy and 
have bookmarked the letter for future reference.  In reading some H-net 
historians' message boards over the years, it's clear to me that some 
scholars only have a hazy understanding of the challenges faced by 
archivists and RIM professionals.  As you all may realize, I'm here not 
only to provide you all a Federal historians' perspective but also to 
help carry back to historians some of the records management 
perspective.

Dianne notes "Further, depending on regulatory and business 
requirements (businesses and industries have unique requirements), not 
all records are retained for the same length of time." Excellent point. 
And, as I have tried to illustrate here recently, what works in the 
private sector may not work in the governmental sector.  And vice 
versa.

In some private sector organizations, you keep records as long as the 
creating official needs them for his or her business needs or as long 
as regulations require, then destroy them as soon as possible to limit 
exposure to liability. Ideally, all the stakeholders agree and there 
are no ethical conundrums. As I've pointed out, businesses have 
concerns related to shareholders, consumers and competitors that 
government does not have. In other organizations, the creating official 
may not be best positioned to prevail in decisions on the value of his 
or her records to national memory. Yet his or her power may place 
records managers or archivists into very difficult positions. In the 
example I cited earlier this week -- the removal of the Kissinger 
telecons -- if any of you had seen Dr. Kissinger removing the records 
 from the Department of State in 1977, you probably would have alerted 
agency counsel.

Not only do private and public sectors RIM experts face these types of 
varying dynamics, you all rely on vendors who are trying to sell you 
their wares. It's fascinating for me to watch the debate over the many 
issues that arise. I only wish more of my fellow historians would 
immerse themselves in these issues and try to educate themselves about 
the challenges you face. Again, my thanks to Dianne for an thought 
provoking letter!

Maarja

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