Knowing a bit about RIM and archives management in higher education 
(HE), let me put in a point about these functions in that 
environment.  I agree that "collaboration is key," but in the larger 
HE organizations the two related disciplines are often staffed by 
different sorts of folks who also have different reporting lines.  A 
records manager is working from a set of assumptions different from 
the archivist in that the former normally is focused on economic and 
legal issues rather than research and cultural history.  The latter 
typically works from issues related to preservation, research, 
long-term corporate memory, evidential needs (documenting the growth 
of the institution, no the legal meaning of that term).

In larger HE organizations, the records manager will often have a 
business/management background and education in that area and the 
archivist a background in history.  (Three of the last four records 
managers at the University of Tennessee have been CRMs (not CAs).) 
Archivists often work in and/or report to the dean of libraries.  In 
such cases, the archivist must often have an MLS or equivalent, not, 
IMHO, because the archivist needs an LIS background or degree but 
because *all* hires at the professional level in the library must 
have such a degree.

When I worked as a records manager, we had good relationships with 
the university archivist--it should be that way, and each should know 
a bit about what the other does and why. In the end, the records 
manager should be concerned with 100% of the records, and the 
archivist focuses on the 3%-5% of the records that are archival in 
quality. But the records manager should have the university archivist 
review--and even sign off on--proposed retention schedules.

Mike



J. Michael Pemberton, Ph.D., CRM, FAI
Professor
The School of Information Sciences
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
1345 Circle Park Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996-0341
Phone: 865-974-6509
Fax: 865-974-4967
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http://www.sis.utk.edu/~pemberton/
Life: Information in Motion


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