Effectively managing electronic records and archives.

• Author: Richmond, Heather
• Position: Book Review

TITLE: Effective Approaches for Managing Electronic Records and Archives

AUTHOR: Bruce W. Dearstyne (Editor)

ISBN: 0810842009

PUBLISHER: Scarecrow Press

PUBLICATION DATE: 2002

LENGTH: 167 pages

PRICE: $33 U.S.

SOURCE: www.arma.org/bookstore

Records and information management (RIM) professionals grapple with the constantly growing repository of electronic records that their departments, organizations, and businesses create at a staggering rate every day. "Electronic records" is the topic of many meetings and the theme at numerous conferences, yet the solutions seem to be elusive. RIM managers and archivists tend to be fatalistic when it comes to the issue of electronic records and the unwieldy job of managing them. In fact, many feel that the issue is insurmountable.

Effective Approaches for Managing Electronic Records and Archives, edited by Bruce W. Dearstyne, is a compilation of essays that provides insights, observations, and experiences of experts in the RIM field and addresses the implications for archival programs operating in the current digital environment. The essays provide a window into some innovative concepts and ideas that have been put into practice with surprising results. They also offer advice on how to "customize records and archival programs to fit particular settings and circumstances." If an individual is still looking for the magic bullet or cure-all to his or her electronic records ills, this still isn't it. But "it" doesn't exist, so RIM professionals must start looking at viable solutions, all of which involve work, effort, and partnerships.

One of the concepts, which won't surprise anyone who has worked in the RIM profession for any length of time, is that RIM practitioners are not always involved in the policy development, and this ultimately affects information and its handling practices. However, RIM professionals can make a difference at the implementation stage. RIM managers and archivists possess a great deal of value-added skills to bring to the table and offer the other stakeholders. This essay collection delves into and describes how they might do that. One way is to take full advantage of partnerships, not just with senior management, but also with other like-minded professionals in an organization or respective industry. RIM professionals cannot continue to live in a vacuum and say that the problem of electronic records management continues to elude them. They must wade in, roll-up their sleeves, and do...