Dear Colleagues: With the recent release of the new
International Records Management Standard, ISO 15489-1 and ISO TR 15489-2
at the recent ARMA Conference and Expo in Montreal,
Canada on September 30 - October
3, 2001 it may be time to readdress, what a record is. I have, based on presentations made
at the December 3 - 6, 2000 Australian RMAA Convention in Sydney “Bridging the
Gap”, put pen to paper, or keyboard to screen and documented what I believe
Records Management is. The Toronto Chapter of ARMA
International, published the article in their June 2001 Newsletter TORONTO
HI-LITES which is available online at http://www.armatoronto.on.ca/docs/Newsletter_June_2001.pdf
page 5. You may care to visit the site. In a discussion with one of
Australia’s providers of Records and Information Management software solutions
in the past few days, their representative was of the opinion that greater funding
and a higher exposure of the profile of Records Managers is evident to him and
his Company out in the market. WHY? Has RM suddenly become flavor
of the month, OR ARE WE DREAMIING AGAIN? The same person commented that the process,
in his opinion, is still being driven by the IT section but due to past
BLUNDERS, sorry, slight undershoots of the goals set by wholly IT driven
initiatives, he is seeing RM types being brought in at the early pre-evaluation
stage of the process. His comment was that it was all about Knowledge
Management “KM” and that the core, or basis for KM was, GUESS WHAT? RM “Records
Management”. The Australian Standard, AS 4390
(1996) has been a great help here in Australia and the region and to a lesser
extent, I am advised, overseas, in lifting the profile of RM in the eyes of our
IT colleagues and to a lesser extent, Management. Is the International Standard, ISO
15489-1 and ISO TR
15489-2 going to
bring another level of sophistication to our profession and an enlightenment to
the IT and Management masses so as to improve RM’s position to the betterment
of all organizations Government or Private? Time will tell, and I am an
OPTIMIST. Regards, Laurie Mr Daniel
Lawrance [Laurie] Varendorff, ARMA Consultant/Trainer/Tutor/Presenter: Records and information Management Imaging and Micrographic Specialist with 25 years experience The Varendorff Consultancy ABN: 77 836 801
165 27
Ronneby Rd, Lesmurdie, Western Australia 6076 - AUSTRALIA PHONE:
+61 8 9291 6925 - MOBILE: +61 0417 094 147 EMAIL: Laurie.Varendorff@Bigpond.com |