Turf wars for the records repository prize?
Jinfo Blog

17th September 2010

By Tim Buckley Owen

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By a ten to one majority, the Records Management Society has decided to add ‘Information’ to its name. It’s more evidence of the inexorable convergence of the records and information management professions, and a new report suggests that the opportunities are spreading from the academic to the corporate world. You could be forgiven for missing the change of name to Information and Records Management Society, for at the time of this LiveWire not a word about it appeared on the Society’s website (http://www.rms-gb.org.uk). But in an email to members seen by LiveWire, its Chair Matthew Stephenson explained that the change was intended to reflect the fact that the majority of its members managed both. IRMS has also launched a new professional and networking site called IRMSpace, which is open to anyone, although there will be special content for members (http://digbig.com/5bcjqw). To judge from the introductory page, the Society clearly sees its new forum as a potential member recruitment tool as well. Name changing seems to be a popular concern at the moment. SCIP has done it (see Penny Crossland at http://www.vivavip.com/go/e30033) but the SLA chose not to (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27456) – while a merger in June between the Society of Archivists, the National Council on Archives and the Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government spawned the freshly named Archives & Records Association (http://www.archives.org.uk/). Confused? It’s hardly surprising – and the confusion doesn’t stop there. In the new Outsell report Digital Repositories: A New Challenge for Information Management Functions, Roger Strouse explains that, while management of such repositories is an emerging responsibility for information managers, it’s still not entirely clear what the term means. Outsell not only attempts its own working definition, but also lists a raft of purposes to which repositories can be put. Crucially, the report points out that what began in academic and government library circles is also expected to take hold in corporate settings (purchase details at http://digbig.com/5bcjqx). Once you’ve decided what a digital repository is (and how it differs from a digital library), the next big challenge is making sure that your digital records remain readable in perpetuity. This is no easy matter, as I discovered when writing a piece on digital libraries for Information World Review about 18 months ago; one expert told me that, although hundred year old paper documents may be a bit dog-eared, you can still read them – whereas in the digital world, 10 years is pushing it (http://digbig.com/5bcjqy – subscription validation may be required). With greater transparency requirements in the public sector, and tougher compliance obligations in the private, the opportunities for professionals in this area look bright. But which professionals? And how qualified? Could we see turf wars before a new all-purpose profession emerges?

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