Hi,
I recently re-joined the list after a few years away and came across this
recent thread, which I found interesting.  In the 15 years I've been working
in this field, I have seen the negative behaviors that a few members of the
listserv referred to, and I have also had some very good working experiences
with archivists.

You don't change a culture overnight - and like society in general, every
field including archives will have its early adopters as well as its
dinosaurs that have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the present.

IMHO, there are real technical issues that divide RMs and archivists.  For
example, as far as I know, there is no off-the-shelf RM software package out
there that meets archival requirements for tracking organizational history
over time (with the related functionality of linking all the records through
creation, use and disposition) (- although if there is someone please tell
me about it).  This is a very real limitation that has a greater impact on
archivists than RMs.

I see it as a tension between the "doers" and the "thinkers" - Records
management by necessity is much more of a field of doers. What this leads to
is sometimes archivists appear to me to be frozen in indecision when it
might be that they just don't want to make a mistake, or invest in
implementing software that isn't perfect, or that doesn't conform to every
standard out there.

I do believe that this leads to a huge gap between theory and practice, and
I think there a little bit of the same problem on the IT side.  RMs bridge
the gap because we're the practitioners who've done it on the paper side and
are muddling through on the electronic side while software companies "make
hay while the sun shines".  I am tired of being looked upon as either not
"intellectual" or not "technical" enough for some archivists and IT
practitioners.  At least I can say I solve problems, in my own limited way.

I think we (we as in all three of our related fields) need to solve some of
these very real technical and intellectual issues before we rail against the
others.  We're all in the same boat, relatively speaking.  We should expect
and demand that we be listened to respectfully and our ideas given their due
share.  So that then when our practical "it'll do for now" solutions get
stomped on, at least we've had our say.  You can't force a closed or narrow
mind to open, or a complainer to be quiet.  But you can align yourself with
like minded people, whether they be in IT or archives or records management
or content management.  I could write another whole post on the divide
between librarians and RMs (but I won't).

Julie Luckevich, MLIS
Toronto, Ontario CANADA
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