Natasha:

The problem with standards, at least in the U.S., is that they are not
mandatory.  Each entity must adopt the standards as rules or regulations to
be met. The more records and information management (RIM) practioners learn
and understand the available standards, the more they can bring to the
corporate or agency planning table.  RIM practioners become the experts in
knowing and applying appropriate standards to the information assets (or
knowledge assets) of their organization, and, thus, become the one that
management turns to for compliance, program development, protection
planning, etc.

I do concur with your observations on DoD 5015.2. It is a very useful
document for establishing authority and standardization of electronic
document management systems.  However, because it is a standard for U.S.
Federal government agencies, not all U.S. state or local governments
prescribe its adoption, and many private corporations are simply unaware of
its usefullness.  I think the most comprehensive standards to use for the
promotion of RIM, nationally and internationally, are the two parts of ISO
15489.  ISO 15489-1 designates RM professionals as responsible for all
aspects of RIM within an organization, and ISO 15489-2 states RM
professionals have the primary responsibility for implementation of ISO
15489-1.

I gave a presentation at the ARMA International Conference in Long Beach
last month on using standards to establish records protection programs, and
setting the RIM practioner as the "expert" in protecting vital information.
Some other standards that I discussed in the presentation also gives this
responsibility to the RIM practioner:
NFPA 232- 2000 assigns the responsibility to “the records manager or
archivist” for determining higher levels of protection
ANSI/ARMA 5-2003 requires assigning responsibility for vital records
program, and recommends the RIM manager as that person


Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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