In undertaking a study for the ARMA International Educational Foundation, I have found that the case study literature on the establishing and sustaining of archives, records, and information management programs is sparse in coverage, uneven in quality, and in need of vast improvement.  I will be making a report on my work at the forthcoming ARMA conference in Chicago.  My own report will be published electronically, pending review and acceptance, at a later date by the Foundation.

In my capacity as Editor of the Records & Information Management Report, a technical report published 10 times a year by M.E. Sharpe, I am issuing a call to individuals or teams interested in writing such case studies for this publication.  Authors are well compensated for essays in the 7 to 9,000-word range (25-35 double-spaced pages).  I am issuing this call to archivists, records, and information managers who may have an interest in writing a case study about their own program; consultants who either can make anonymous a report or who have permission to publish an institutional study; faculty who have been engaged in research about particular institutional cases; and graduate students who have prepared case studies as part of course research assignments.  I am hoping to publish not just substantial studies but to feature good stories that can serve as models and guides for the developing and strengthening of archives, records, and information management programs.

I am looking for essays describing the origins and subsequent development of archives, records management, and information management programs that provide details of the successes, failures, challenges, issues, obstacles, and lessons learned about the nature of these programs and their contributions to their organizations and society.  Case studies about these programs in a variety of organizational settings – corporations, universities and colleges, cultural institutions, all levels of governments – are welcome and encouraged. The aim should be to contribute to advancing the profession’s knowledge about why they are established, how they evolve, and what factors play a role in their success or failure.  Ideally, I am looking for assessments done by individuals on the outside of these programs, but I am open to balanced accounts by individuals associated with these programs as well.  I am not interested in essays merely promoting a program or organization.

Authors can explore these topics using any methodology they believe is appropriate (such as historical case study), as long as the program is described in a manner enabling the field to discern factors affecting these programs’ origins and subsequent development.  Each case study should describe a real situation, possess a solid methodological approach, include appropriate citations, and draw on real data (ranging from archival documentation to interviews).  My short-term aim is to strengthen the field’s understanding of how archives, records, and information management programs are established, what affects their evolution, and what influences their success and failure.  My long-term aim is to draw together these essays into a single volume that can be used to advance our understanding of the nature of these programs, teasing out principles and developing a working set of factors that provides a stronger theoretical or conceptual base for predicting success in these program!
 s.

Anyone interested in proposing a case study should feel free to contact me.  I will be happy to provide comment on any proposal or to review an existing manuscript.  Individuals should follow the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style in preparing citations and bibliographies.  I also will be happy to send a sample issue of the Records & Information Management Report to anyone contemplating preparing a case study.


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Richard J. Cox
Professor
Department of Library and Information Sciences
School of Information Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
Editor, Records & Information Management Report
Society of American Archivists Publications Editor
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Voice:  412-624-3245
FAX:    412-648-7001
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homepage: http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/%7Ercox/

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