Records management of the future: anticipate, adapt and succeed.

• Author: Dearstyne, Bruce W.
• Position: Includes related article on Australian records management

Change is the order of the day in records management programs. The greatest transformation in records management since the origin of the profession is now taking place, mainly because of the use of digital technology, which changes the nature and use of both information and records. The records management community needs fresh and broad insights into the nature of these changes, how they affect records management programs, and how the field needs to change in order to stay responsive and successful.

Records management is operating in a context of change of unprecedented magnitude and complexity: institutions, user needs and expectations, and the very nature of information are all changing. Change has challenged the records management community's ability to develop new theoretical frameworks, adapt traditional practices, maintain a viable definition of "record," and distinguish records management from other information management fields.

The nature and the future of records management are being debated with an intensity and concern unequaled since the origin of the profession. Records management in 2010 is likely to bear only a passing resemblance to records management in 1990. The change in title of this journal from Records Management Quarterly to The Information Management Journal is evidence of transformation and an inclination to position our field in a strategically advantageous manner for the future.

This article analyzes fundamental changes, assesses their impact on records management, and advances recommendations for how the records management community needs to adapt. It also provides a starting point for further discussion rather than attempting to settle definitively very complex issues.

The growing reliance of government, business, education, and other institutions on digital information technology and the dramatic growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web are the underlying causes of this unprecedented upheaval.

According to USWeb's Sheldon Laube, "We're living and doing business in a world where information and ideas are the new capital, and where bits and bytes are becoming more important than physical objects." (Laube 1999)

Digital information is not tied to any particular format; in fact, it is increasingly decoupled from formats. It can be transmitted anywhere there is a computer tied to an information network and used in new, creative ways. Its electronic form, fluidity, and volatility make it manipulable and more versatile than static information recorded on tangible formats. Institutions' ability to create, access, and share information seems to know no bounds. For instance, the impact of e-mail alone has vast, far-reaching, and unmeasured consequences.

The Internet has become the world's most important information transmission and access network. It is teeming with information; the U.S. Commerce Department estimates that traffic on the Internet doubles every three months. A subpart of the net, the World Wide Web, features hyperlinking, which supports and encourages far-ranging information seeking, and has - as yet - unmeasured consequences. The Internet is like a vast, unorganized library of undifferentiated information, with search engines and Web browsers (e.g., Hot Bot and Alta Vista) being cyberspace versions of traditional finding aids. Intranets set up within organizations provide for dramatically enhanced information sharing.(1)

Information has exploded beyond our ability to keep track of it. It is comparable to suddenly having more oxygen in the air - a good thing, perhaps, but only if kept within limits and directed to the benefit of the organism.

There is also a generational aspect to all this. Younger people who have grown up with computers and are used to accessing information and educational materials and interacting over the Internet and the Web, naturally seek information in easily accessible, digital form. They seem relatively unconcerned about the origin or authoritativeness of the information. They are less inclined than their parents and grandparents to distinguish sharply between types of information; to be concerned, for instance, about whether a piece of digital information is a record or not. Their main concerns are pertinence and usefulness. The coming generation "is the first to grow up surrounded by digital media. Computers can be found in the home, school, factory, and office and digital technologies such as cameras, video games and CD-ROMs are commonplace. Increasingly, these new media are connected by the Internet, an expanding web of networks which is attracting millions of new users monthly. Today's kids are so bathed in bits that they think it's all part of the natural landscape. To them, the digital technology is no more intimidating than a VCR or toaster. For the first time in history, children are more comfortable, knowledgeable, and literate than their parents about an innovation central to society." (Tapscott 1998)

Information's New Status

A quiet but major change has taken place in the past two decades: information has gradually been reconceptualized so that it is now widely regarded as a key strategic resource for institutions, the basis for doing business and delivering services - equal in importance to people and financial resources. The most important part of the workforce carries out what Robert Reich has called "symbolic-analytical services," including planning, policy development, management research, and other work that involves "manipulating symbols" (data, words, oral and visual representations) - essentially, using information (Reich 1991). Peter Drucker asserts that information has become the fundamental basis for production and that information-based organizations are "knowledge-based...composed largely of specialists who direct and discipline their own performance through organized feedback from colleagues, customers and headquarters." (Drucker 1988)

Information is at the heart of institutional operations, but its importance continues to grow. Transacting business and buying and selling goods and services over the Internet has tremendous transformational potential. Customers can bypass traditional retail outlets and order directly from a manufacturer. Companies can cut overhead and costs by "just in time" replenishment of stocks on their shelves through electronic data interchange (EDI) hookups with suppliers. "The deepening and maturing roots of the Internet are about to grab, shake, and take hold of businesses and individuals like never before...executives...may not realize how much this electronic El Nino will transform customers, careers, and relationships... The Net Future is not [just] about selling things on the Net or about an extension of existing business. It is a revolution in the making." (Martin 1999) From another perspective:

A fundamental shift in the economics of information is underway - a shift that is less about any specific new technology than about the fact that a new behavior is reaching critical mass. Millions of people at home and at work are communicating electronically using universal, open standards. The explosion in connectivity is the latest - and, for business strategists, the most important wave in the information revolution...a profound transformation of the business landscape lies ahead. Executives...will be forced to rethink the strategic fundamentals of their business...every business is an information business...information is the glue that holds together the structure of all businesses. (Evans and Wuster 1997)

In forming a mental model of contemporary institutions, "one does not imagine a well-oiled machine, one thinks of electrical impulses, of dialog and constant re-creation," say the authors of Fast Forward, a book whose title captured the blockbuster impact of digital technology and related forces on business and, arguably, on records management. "One does not imagine an entity impelled by command from the top. One thinks of an organization kept in constant motion by information flows that cross levels and boundaries." (Champy and Nohira 1997)

Redefining and Asserting Records Management's Role

Where, then, does records management fit into this broad, exciting arena of information? Records managers have always been in the information business. Now, it might seem, destiny has caught up with them: information is becoming everyone's business, or at least their concern. But if information is now so highly valued, why aren't records essentially recorded information and records management accorded comparable status? The records management community has had limited impact on grand information developments such as the rise of the Internet and the Web, the National Information Infrastructure, and the shift to "digital government." In fact, records and records management issues are too often slighted, misinterpreted, or ignored in discussions of information in the news media, journals, and books.

One possible explanation is that in some ways, ironically, the great changes in the nature and role of information have simply swept past records. In fact, some of the very traits that make electronic information so valued in institutions today are the ones that make records management in an electronic setting so difficult. Records, traditionally, have been regarded as things that are fixed, recorded, tangible, definite, deliberately created, tied to format, and having a serious purpose and some longevity. By contrast, electronic information:

* Has the capacity for constant changing, updating, refreshing; catering to people's desire for "hot" information that is current, almost instantaneously accessible

* Fosters easy - almost casual - and spontaneous information creation and communication (e.g, through e-mail)

* Promotes and supports interactivity - between and among people, groups, institutions

* Encourages widespread dissemination and sharing for strategically advantageous purposes

* By its...