Paula,

I think what you are referring to is the entrenchment of "professional
Arrogance". This a non-clinical diagnosis, however, I think it reflects
current reality (by the way Larry, thanks for the headache). Years ago,
Back when Peter was a pup, there was an initiative to create a cabinet
level CIO position in our government. Looking to IT folks to lead the
charge. At the time there was a counter culture movement within the IT
world. The basic tenet was we don't need certification, rules etc.
technology changes to fast and we (IT) are not bound by the same rules
that shackled man before the PC. They raced ahead, smack dab into the
Circuit Courts, replete with old fogies in black robes. The courts
reminded these fast running folks that there were controls and
documentation and rules of evidence and all sorts of odd "rules" that
had to be followed.

Slogging three centuries behind these hard running folks came the
records Managers. These brave and dogged warriors of time had just come
off a decades old civil war over whether electronic documents were or
even could be records. Typical to their time and our reality they waited
for the courts to tell them. Once convinced that electronic documents
could be records they raced forward at twice the previous speed, or
least some did. Others continued to rail against the winds of change.
These giants of the profession created a small schism, for just the
briefest of decades. The result of the Great Schism was a fragmented
profession carrying with it a range beliefs and values. The RIM, RM,
Records Management, etc. profession moved as a convoy rather than a
cohesive unit.

The IT folks looking back saw litany of terms and assigned definitions
to them (ah the sins of youth). As they fell back (not all of them) they
spread out the IT profession. No longer were all charging forward. At
this time Y2K fell on these hard chargers. All was abandoned to fix what
haste had created. During this time RIM's leading edge caught the
trailing edge of IT, and passed them by. Had Y2K not been taking their
attention things might have been different.

Now we struggle. Not because we have lost touch with our past, our
values or our principles, rather we struggle because we lack the
professional maturity to adapt. We hold to the arrogance of youth. Lest
we be more careful we will occupy a footnote in time similar to data
processors.

We are a profession of individuals lacking a shared vision, a shared
goal, and a shared reality. Until we move within the information
management profession to be more inclusive, the struggle will continue.
Should the IT folks adapt faster, or as some have intimated co-opt our
Records Managers to the dark side as in ND, we will lose out.

How hard is it to learn Records management?


Chris Flynn



I am finding that there is a significant disconnect in the realm of
records
management.  Not to develop a significant debate, but I was caught by
the
idea that there is Records Management, then there is Lifecycle
management
in a information management or technology sense.

When did RIM become so divorced from it's roots?

No particular need to answer this rather rhetorical question, but it
seems
that communicating RIM and what it entails is lost in the shuffle.



Paula Johnson
Director, Administrative Records
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, UCtr 108 MS 0014
La Jolla, CA 92093

telephone: 858-534-2552
FAX 858-534-6523


Excerpt:
At 04:40 PM 3/7/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>I work at the Delphi Group, and Records Management systems and
>practices are one aspect of content lifecycle concerns that we cover,
>from both the business/need angle, and the technological solutions to
>this issue.
>
>We are curious as to what Records Management professionals' perceptions
>are on a new category roll-up that we (Delphi Group) are investigating
>at the moment, which we are calling 'Content Security' - a melding of
>various aspects of content creation, re-use, destruction, and overall
>content lifecycle management, with emerging information security
>concepts and systems. We are primarily focused on digital/online
>content at this time.


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