I read the My Turn column available at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13389950/site/newsweek/
and laughed, for the most part. Yep, I've got an old manual or two
around the house, with the appliance itself long gone. The notion that
a homeowner only needs to keep papers related to current appliances,
etc., makes sense.
However, as an Historian, I get a kick out of displaying a manual for a
1965 Royal Empress typewriter next to the old typewriter in my office
here at GAO. I'm glad someone here at GAO preserved the manual as well
as the typewriter! There actually are some social history and cultural
aspects to it, as the woman in manual is pictured wearing relatively
conservative attire for that time period. She's wearing a dress that
would have been acceptable in 1959 or 1960 (kind of like one of these
from 1961
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/fashion/dresses-mw-61.jpg). When I first saw
the manual, I guessed wrongly that it dated to around 1959-1960 rather
than 1965. No Mary Quant, Carnaby Street vibe there, as in this Yves
Saint Laurent item from 1965
http://www.sixtiescity.velnet.com/Fash2/Images/stuff2106.jpg. Sensibly
enough, instead of using cutting edge images, given the product, the
advertisers' appeal seems to have been pitched to "middle America"!
But that made it harder to date the manual based solely on visual,
internal evidence (no copyright was listed). I had to rely on other
means.
But I cringed when I read this part of the Newsweek column:
"Staff where I'm employed filled two recycling containers in less than
30 minutes one Friday with outdated reports, files and notes from
meetings held by people who no longer work there about projects that no
longer exist. As in most workplaces, the purge was needed. Yet we were
paralyzed at first by that nagging fear. Will someone, someday,
suddenly ask to see the indecipherable doodles scribbled on the corner
of a memo stapled to a pamphlet from 1991?"
Not a word about records management. If the office had good records
management, and the records were scheduled properly, no one would need
to be paralyzed by nagging fear. Just go ahead and pitch the stuff if
disposal is authorized. Conversely, the premise that you can throw
away files and notes just because a project is complete or an employee
has departed is scary. Depending on the type of project documented by
the record, the rank of the departed employee, the business, legal and
knowledge requirements of the organization, some records of departed
employees might have required longer retention. Too bad she didn't
mention that in a well run office, such issues are handled routinely
and systematically, not in atmosphere of nagging fear.
Anyway, thanks for the link, I chuckled at most of it!!
Maarja
----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 20:26:50 EDT
Subject: [RM] Fun/Light reading
Newsweek, June 26 Issue-Page 16--"My Turn" Column
"C'mon, America, Fire Up Those Shredders (If you hear a little voice
that
whispers " Some day I might need it," chances are you have infonoia.
Bill Benedon
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
________________________________________________________________________
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email
and IM. All on demand. Always Free.
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
|
