Records management as a discipline grew out of at least two things -
archive management and the federal Paperwork Reduction Act from the late
1930's/early 1940s.  In fact, records managers as we know the profession
in the U.S. are usually called archivists in Europe.  The Paperwork
Reduction Act spawned such RIM concepts as records retention and
disposition, inactive (inexpensive) records storage, correspondence
management, and forms management.

Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Ruth Duerr
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 2:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] records management and libraries

Hi all,

I am a science data manager and I've been lurking on this list for a  
while - I am fully convinced that records management, libraries  
(including digital), and science data management are all allied  
fields in many ways.  At least we are all coping with the issue of  
keeping information safe and accessible for some time into the future  
- something which is made more difficult now that so much data/ 
records/information are digital.  I am a fan of not reinventing the  
wheel - so to me it makes sense to pay attention with what groups in  
allied areas are thinking and doing.  So far nothing I've heard from  
this list, has changed my mind about this.

I do have a question though.  A friend of mine is preparing an  
invited talk for the upcoming IUGG meeting about data management  
(probably not relevant to most of you, but...).  He asked me to look  
over his outline.  One thing I noticed was that he was claiming that  
library science was the predecessor for not just data management but  
also for records management.  I agree with him on the data management  
part - most scientific data from 100 yr ago or more is indeed written  
in a book stored in a library somewhere.  But, I am not convinced  
about records management.  I don't know the history of your field  
enough to know.  Is there anyone on the list who is enough of a  
history buff to provide me an opinion one way or another?

R. Duerr
MODIS/PARCA Program Coordinator
   and Data Stewardship Program Manager
National Snow and Ice Data Center
Campus Box 218
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, CO 80309

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