As I was talking to my Ear, Nose, Throat and Belly-button specialist the
other day, he said to me "You know, sometimes I think that we break
things down too far.... There are just too many specialties."

We are all part of a profession that is attempting (and in many cases,
doing a good job) to manage and control information.  If we know the
basics of everything and then specialize in what we do best, we could
all relate to what other "specialists" do.

Some are very good in the Archival field, others are good at legal
research for retention or compliance, still others are good at IT
issues.

This is why I love this list.  It has everything covered.  Thank you all
for your input.

On another point,  Why is it that ARMA has only (about) 10,000 members,
while AIIM has about 1500 members in the LA Chapter alone?

Are we really doing everything possible to advance our profession?  What
else can we do?

GT

Graham Kitchen
Corporate Records Manager
Unified Western Grocers
5200 Sheila Street
Commerce, California 90040
Telephone:  (323)264-5200 Extension 4560
Cell:  (323)243-1865
email:  [log in to unmask] 

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Records Management Program 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John J. O'Brien
> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 3:21 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: archival principles
> 
> You ask, "What is your opinion and/or practice, the archival 
> principles 
> are aplied to records management issues"?
> 
> Could you give more of an angle of inquiry?  This is a very 
> big topic, and 
> one that differs greatly when taken from the philosophical 
> base of the US 
> model versus the Canadian, and European which have influenced Asian 
> models. 
> 
> In my personal philosophy (and put too simply here) archives 
> is integral 
> to recorded information management. There are specializations 
> as in any 
> domain, and there is differentiation within the domains.  
> However, I do 
> not personaly subscribe to the idea that information 
> managment domains are 
> well served by differentiation at senior levels.  It is necessary for 
> competency at journeymen levels, but a synthisis and 
> over-arching grasp of 
> the meaning of information resources through time is critical 
> at senior 
> decision making levels of organizations. Often, archives is 
> approached as 
> a quasi (and out of touch) library function and RM is approached as a 
> clerical and warehousing function.  Both domains waste their 
> potential in 
> this way. But one can roll along a long time like that!
> 
> You may be interested in developments in knowledge resource 
> managmeent and 
> intellectual capital assessment (not IP, per se).  Metadata 
> definition and 
> conceptual work in the complex array of values is also an 
> exciting area. 
> 
> List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
> Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
> 

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