Luciana Duranti wrote:
> Any professional or national pride out there? I am not even American,
but as an Emmett Leahy Awardee I feel I have some responsibility to the
American profession and I owe something to the great man.

Luciana, I agree with your observations, but may I just make a quick
comment? The work environment in the United States has changed
dramatically over the past few years: demands for increasing
productivity, cost cutting, less staff, more output. Perhaps you have
noticed amongst many of the American posters on this topic outside the
academic realm a certain sense of exhaustion; a sort of "not another
thing to take on!" kind of attitude.

My own program lost a position recently, yet has seen an explosion in
demand for our professional expertise, as well as a significant increase
in the scope and usage of our historic archival collection. Just a
simple thing - the fact that we are strained to have a body present
while public researchers are using our collections - is causing a lot of
strain. Our Records Center - which I have predicted should see a
decrease in demand - instead is seeing the opposite as agencies
essentially begin moving more active records to us to cover for their
own loss in resources. Critical projects are being left undone, while
the overall infrastructure we operate in deteriorates. I am spending an
increasing amount of my time dealing with IT, facilities, financial,
purchasing, budgetary issues - basic non-Records administrative
functions. Everyone's response, it seems, is to externalize their own
responsibilities to the customer. Recently, it has taken me several
months to renew a service contract I have been managing for 20 years,
and which I renewed 5 years ago within a couple of weeks. Staff
turnover, early retirements, layoffs, all are contributing to these
difficulties, and to an overall lose of institutional memory and basic
procedural experience.

It is an exciting time! Never in the history of our program, or in my
own personal odyssey in this field, has our expertise been more in
demand and more respected. Yet, I can relate to my colleagues weariness
as we face 21st century demands with 20th century resources.

Not an excuse, just a plea for a little understanding in these hard
times.

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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