That's a great example, Linda - thanks! One of the things these various
examples point to is what John and Luciana touched on - the concept of
communication through time. I would add that a record created for a
particular purpose today may communicate an entirely different message
to the future. For example, photographs taken 70 years ago solely to
document traffic patterns or road conditions may today tell us something
about our cultural past - if the restaurant in the background is "for
whites only" - long after they have served the purpose they were
originally created for. This is an example where the context changes for
a given record.

OK, Ill admit it, I'm just using this as another excuse to toot my
archives horn. I've been around a long time and have seen records
management "sell" the archives, and archives "sell" the records
management piece, when one of the functions may not have been broadly
supported. I agree with John that we are going to start seeing a growing
emphasis on intellectual capital, history, archives, what have you.
Right now, our archival function is the one getting the high level buzz,
and creating support in key areas to perform our records management
function, at a time - I might add - of considerable budgetary stress. 10
years ago, the opposite was true.

I think to a large extent, the future of records management is in the
past. Just as a general statement - particularly in the public sector I
am most familiar with - records managers may want to start focusing on
building the same relationships with their archival partners that they
have tried so hard to build with their IT partners (if they haven't
already).

And Connie - don't get me started: art, science, history, process,
business, community, system, technology.... WOW! You'd have to be nuts
to want to do anything else!

Dwight Wallis, CRM
Records Administrator
Multnomah County Fleet, Records, Electronics, Distribution and Stores
(FREDS)
1620 S.E. 190th Avenue
Portland, OR 97233
Phone: (503)988-3741
Fax: (503)988-3754
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