The clock is ticking: it's time to take charge of your information.

• Author: Lanter, Amy
• Position: IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editor

In the age of increasing technology, procedures, and regulations, effective records management has never been more crucial to meeting corporate governance, risk management, and operational mandates.

Unfortunately, many organizations lack effective policies and procedures for systematic control of information. They may be:

* Storing some records too long, not long enough, or not at all

* Destroying or retiring certain vital documents prematurely

* Losing information needed for proper regulatory reporting

* Failing to properly protect information from hackers or unauthorized insiders

For those who need to assess how well they're doing in these areas, ARMA International's Risk Profiler for Records and Information Management is available at www.arma.org /standards /eassessment.cfm. The Risk Profiler is a web-based tool that allows you to assess and document your records and information management (RIM) program against ARMA-interpreted best practices in the spirit of ISO 15489, an international standard that is recognized worldwide as establishing the baseline for RIM program excellence. The user-friendly, guided self-assessment tool provides a diagnostic analysis of your RIM program's strengths and weaknesses.

This issue of Information Management takes an in-depth look at RIM compliance and risk management issues. The fall Hot Topic, which is also included in this issue, focuses, appropriately enough, on "Creating a Strategy for Organizational Use of Social Media."

Keeping information volumes down is one key to successfully managing it. In his article, Brent Gatewood, CRM, emphasizes that without proper controls in place, workspaces, libraries, and portals grow at alarming rates. Organizations should avoid allowing these spaces to exist into eternity; there must be a disposition process and accountability for each site.

In "10 Things to Know About Preserving Social...