Armed with knowledge, the future isn't all that unpredictable.

• Position: IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editors

Wouldn't it be wonderful if accurately predicting the future were as simple as gazing into a crystal ball? We could determine exactly what technology to invest in, and we could predict the outcome of business decisions as well as which natural disasters might affect us and our business operations.

For records and information management (RIM) professionals, gazing into a crystal ball won't spell out the future. Fortunately, though, myriad tools do exist to help RIM managers prepare for the future ... both the predictable and the unknown. Standards, technology, management systems, and legislation team together to make up the tool box that savvy records managers can use to prepare for future scenarios.

Eugenia Brumm, Ph.D., CRM, and Diane Carlisle, CRM, provide a primer for using ISO 15489 in tandem with several ANSI/ARMA standards to form a basis for a comprehensive RIM program in their article "Standards: Building Blocks for a Strong RIM Program." Their approach offers multinational organizations the tools needed to ensure their RIM programs have a global focus. They write, "Like other professional standards, the records management standards, if correctly applied, lead to results that are consistent, predictable, and desirable."

Technology also offers glimpses into the future of the RIM profession. Software and other technology change almost daily, and smart RIM managers work in cooperation with IT to make sure their efforts result in programs that are efficient, in compliance, and enduring. One new approach to searching for information within documents and databases is offered by Joaquin Delgado, Ph.D., Renaud Laplanche, and Viswanathan Krishnamurthy in their article, "The New Face of Enterprise Search: Bridging Structured and Unstructured Information" They explore the information discovery paradigms used today and...