On November 09, 2005 Maarja Krusten said: >As people on this List have said, records management involves "predicting >the future." Maarja, you may be confusing listserves. I've reviewed past postings and haven't come across any records manager implicitly stating this. As a records manager (20+ years experience) I have a hard enough time predicting this week's football picks let alone what someone cares about 20 or 30 years down the road. :>) Now archivists, that seems to be a different story. They appear to have the ability (or so I have been told) of predicting what historians and other researchers will be looking for, say 25 or 50 years from now. Some archivists I've come across who (I assume are not as good of forecasters) believe we should keep everything because there could be someone in the future who might want it for a study, book, research project, etc. Now back to the original question. As a records manager, I would consider the archivists (as with all parties involved) views as it relates to the retention of the records. But they should not be dictating format or filing system; that's the responsibility of the business user(s) with (I hope) advice from the records manager. The archivists' primary role is to organize (2% to 5% of volume, depending on the organization) whatever the business user provides them. They are in essence at the end of the document food chain. My own experience is that if a filing system (whether paper or electronic) doesn't meet the business users' needs they won't use it. If that's the case, why have one at all. My opinions my own... Bruce L. White, MBA, CRM, PMP List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance