Sorry, I take a different approach entirely albeit using the same acronyms.

In our lexicon:
IRM = Information Resource Management
RIM = Recorded Information Management

Over 20+ years in the business and particularly as an exec talking to other
execs, I have found that people can grasp the notion of a need to manage
information resources more easily than they can grapple with distinctions of
"what is a record", particularly when the latter is so subject to context.

Recorded information clearly reaches all information that is recorded:
content.  Records still imply paper to many people, and worse, database
records that are all taken care of (aren't they?) by our friends and
colleagues in IT.

As others have suggested, I have always felt that "records & information"
seems a reach into a arger realm in order to justify or establish a
legitimacy for what is perceived by many to be narrow and not really a
professional domain.  In fact, an IT exec said as much in front of a team of
senior exec quite willing to hear that message and avoid the messy reality
evident in their lack of attention to records management.  It was when I
used the language of resources, assets, liabilities and the need to manage
information that is recorded through multiple media within a myriad business
transactions and decision processes that the IT exec's words showed him, not
me, to be out of touch with a corporate need.

I agree that this is not a trivial issue.  Since studying the power of
records managers to influence their organizations (as part of my grad work)
I have observed that language is absolutely critical. IMHO, the common
usages for IRM and RIM speak to the choir, and effectively enough.  Our
challenge, however, is to speak to an audience that is demonstrably not "in
the choir".

A final thought with great respect to Dwight:  I disagree that it is
"records" that distinguishes us (though I get your point).  Increasingly, we
find that the definition of a record is not the issue in litigation or
compliance matters.  It is the existence of recorded information. In my
view, it is our expertise relative to the management of recorded
information, regardless of whether the organization defines them as such,
that is our great distinction and contribution.

Cheers!
John

John James O'Brien, BA, CRM, MALT
[log in to unmask]

Partner & Managing Director
IRM Strategies
Hong Kong: +852 3101 7359
Bangkok: +66 2 207 2530
www.irmstrategies.com

Associate Partner, S4K Research
Stockholm www.s4k.com
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