Dear Everyone:

Steve is absolutely correct that "Certificate" and "certification" are two very different things. There is also different value in certifications. For example, our ICRM certification resembles an architects certification on one regard: that you need several years of experience after college, but differs in that most people getting the architecture experience have degrees in architecture. One is then licensed in a state as an architect. 75 years ago to take the bar exam in a particular state one had to have apprenticed oneself to an attorney and worked for several years in that capacity. Our certification is not bound by state laws and is recognized internationally because it reflects both experience and a rigorous test.

Also, do not confuse taking a course with having a degree in a subject. I took quite a few courses on ecology and evolutionary biology and geology as an undergraduate, but my degree is in the Humanities. A course, depending upon the school, requires approximately seven solid days of in-class experience. This is very different from sitting in a seminar for a week and then taking a test. In a course, you go away and do reading and writing assignments and then you come back in to class and discuss what you have read, done, and thought about. The intellectual experience of coursework versus a week-long seminar is very different. The degree requires you to take many classes in a subject and even the electives are restricted to a more general topic. 

One of the problems we have in records management is that we have a toehold in three different areas: information science, law, and business. Where many archivists could be quite comfortable taking all their courses in a school of library and information science, a records manager would need to break out and take courses in the law school and the business school as well--courses that many schools of library and information science would not permit because of campus policies about who gets your tuition money when you take classes outside your unit. 

You should also be wary of distance learning opportunities. Your success or failure in these is directly correlated to your own discipline, there is no one to link arms with and march through the coursework as there is with in-class work. Also, a professor in a university expects to be asked for recommendations. What type of recommendation could be given to a student whom you have never laid eyes on? There are distance learning structures that assist this problem. Some require a weekend on campus, some use video technology for a virtual "classroom" experience.

There are several graduate schools that advertise information/archives and records management programs including, University of Michigan, University of Maryland, University of British Columbia. You will note, however, that the records management courses are taught primarily by archivists. Look carefully at the curriculum. Most of them, not all, are archives curricula with a course in records management tossed in.

The work of records management is at the graduate level. Our work is highly intellectual, requiring a degree of abstraction found in very few professions. You guys are theorists of the highest caliber whether you are managing boxes in a warehouse, files in the basement, or you are writing corporate policies and procedures--which is why I like hanging with you. Courses taught in community college can give you some how-to's. Courses in colleges can give you some more how-to's. But to get to the real core of what you do, take a graduate course, from a school of library and information sciens, a business school, or a law school. Use seminars like you would college courses, to get some how-to's and be delighted when they take you further.

Records Management Rocks!

Best wishes,
Carol
Carol E.B. Choksy, Ph.D., CRM, PMP
CEO
IRAD Strategic Consulting, Inc.
(317)294-8329

Adjunct Professor
School of Library and Information Science
Indiana University, Bloomington

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