Personally, I prefer the explanation that the real difference between archivists and records managers is that "archivists are better educated, records managers are better paid."



However, the tension between archivists and records managers goes back to at least 1948 when Irving Shiller complained in the American Archivist that for archivists "it appears to be sufficient to house the records safely, to mechanize reference service on the documents, and to keep storage and maintenance costs down to a minimum by means of wholesale records destruction."



Fast-forwarding to In the 1954 Society of American Archives presidential address, Wayne C. Grover stated:



                "This Society has been remarkably adept at accommodating itself to the great variety of vocational interests and points of view represented in it. Archivists, manuscript curators, practicing          historians, librarians, and now records management specialists, corporation secretaries, records administrators, commercial management engineers--all seem to sit together in reasonable            history.....It is folly for archivists to even think of parting company, literally or psychologically, from the newly developed specialists in records management; and no less folly on the records                 management side than on the archival side. Our numbers are too few; our common interests too important."



I agree with Wayne Grover, Peter Kurilecz and Steven Cohen that we are the same-we just concentrate on different aspects of our jobs.



Paul R. Scott, CA, CRM
Records Management Officer
Harris County, TX
713 274-7740

Under the Texas Public Information Act written communications to or from public employees may be considered to be public records and may be made available to the public and the media upon request.  This e-mail and any replies may be subject to public disclosure.




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