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

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 very abundance and omnipresence, discourages attention to issues of quality, longevity, and value

* Is regarded as a revenue producer or enhancer and an asset

Records management is evolving from traditional approaches that fit information that is fixed and recorded in an unchangeable way on a tangible format. The records management field is reacting to the tremendous changes that have come upon it, but that reaction has not yet resulted in satisfactory responses.

In searching for historical analogies, one is reminded of changes in American society and economy at the end of the 19th century. Industrialization and urbanization led to a distended society, where dislocation and bewilderment were common traits, and institutional leaders tried to understand the world in terms of what they had known in the past. They operated in settings that "had altered beyond their power to understand them" and generally tried "to impose the known upon the unknown." (Wiebe 1967)

Records managers at the end of the 20th century face a similar challenge of coping and reconceptualization to fit current and emerging reality. The remainder of this article describes nine issues that are transforming records management. These developments may undermine records management, or they may lead to a renaissance. Individual records managers, records management programs, and professional associations will determine the outcome by their responses over the next few years.

A Nine-Point Agenda for Effective Change

1 Clarifying the Concept of Information

Records management is unsettled in part because the notion of information is unsettled. Information is understood to be essential to the economy and society, but there is also a search in progress for a better, more rational operational definition of just what information is. It would be logical - and reassuring - to assume that information professionals settled this basic definitional issue long ago, but in fact there never has been a single, prescriptive definition.

Digital technology, which in effect renders as information just about everything created by, stored in, or transmitted by computers and flowing over the Internet and the Web, has undermined traditional concepts and definitions. Information is not data, which is more concrete, discrete, and often quantifiable; neither is it knowledge, which is information in and from the human mind that is applied to particular work.

Tom Davenport, whose insights about the transformational impact of information are both helpful and influential, quotes Peter Drucker's elegant definition of information, "data endowed with relevance and purpose." Davenport demonstrates that information is more than just technology; its actual use is what makes it important. It is people that need to be at the center of discussions of information. He advocates information ecology or human-centered information management, which has a focus on the diversity of information; recognition that institutional needs evolve; and a stress on how people actually seek, find, and use information (Davenport and Prusak 1997).

The very term "information" may be too narrow and tradition-bound to bear all the meanings that are being attributed to it. In the future, we may develop new terms for certain types or species of information. Records management professionals need to actively contribute to this foundational discussion.

2 Clarifying the Concept of Record

At the same time that information has undergone a radical change both in its nature and in how it is perceived and used, there has also been an earnest search, inconclusive thus far, for a new definition of record.

Definitions have not caught up with technological change. Most records management programs operate under a conceptual definition and a set of assumptions that are several decades old: a record is recorded information, regardless of physical form or characteristics, created in the course of an institution's business. That definition, despite the caveat about physical format, is rooted in the notion of record as a tangible entity. The definition is confusing in a digital world where information is fluid, manipulable, susceptible to continuing change, readily transportable, decoupled from its physical format, fragile, and transitory.

There are at least two developments - both being shaped by the archival community more than by the records management field at this point - that are slowly pointing toward new directions.(2)

The first is the movement to define functional specifications for recordkeeping systems. These projects and initiatives are attempting to identify a set of traits, characteristics, and responsibilities that must be in place to produce reliable records or evidence.(3) These statements of specifications are based on professional literature, assessment of best practices, statutory and court definitions, and other sources. They attempt to relate recordkeeping to business processes, a strategically wise approach that ties records to the central administration and services of their creating organizations. Their actual application to specific situations requires analysis, discussion, good judgment, and the ability to influence the creation of information systems at the time of their planning and initiation.

A second approach is to develop and test new definitions of what constitutes a record. One of the most progressive definitions is that it is "recorded information produced or received in the initiation, conduct, or completion of an institutional or individual activity and that comprises content, context and structure sufficient to provide evidence of activity, regardless of the form or medium." (International Council on Archives, 1997) Accompanying concepts such as "recordkeeping system" may give meaning and context to this promising definition, but it is still uncertain what the key term - recorded means. In the federal government, for example, the nature of, and responsibilities for electronic records have been so unresolved and contentious that they have been addressed (inconclusively) in litigation for several years.

These efforts toward clarification and reconceptualization have provided new insights and produced some excellent products, but they are inconclusive and unequal to the task at hand. They are not being carried out within a practical research/development agenda (see point 8) and are moving too slowly to catch up with, let alone keep pace with, the changes in the information world noted earlier. Efforts are insufficiently coordinated, tracking/reporting mechanisms are missing, and projects often take too long to complete. By the time the product is ready, the need has passed or has been transformed into something else because of the relentless pace of digital change.

Carried out mostly by archivists and records managers, the efforts have not, for the most part, reached beyond the professional field to include, for instance, representatives of the computer and telecommunications industries or information policy makers in government and other institutions. The debates and discussions have mostly been confined to the archives/records community and its literature. The circle is simply too small. Records managers need to continue, yet they also need to expand, accelerate, and make more practical the process of redefining what is meant by a record, and to involve a much broader array of experts and interests in the process.

3 Convincing Institutions That Records Management Is an Operating Necessity

Records management has in the past been known as a valuable but not essential administrative support service. In the future, it needs to be accepted more as a central operating requirement. Records managers need to demonstrate to administrators, legal counsel, auditors, and others the importance of sound records management to the successful operation of the enterprise.

"We...are in the business of managing expectations," notes one leader in the field. "We actually are helping people to do what they do better. We help improve teaching, learning, research, administration, commerce... If we start thinking that way, promoting our services that way, and reassessing our performance that way, we can make the business case to our senior executives much more appropriately than by saying that we served so many people with these kinds of services over this period of time." (Griffiths 1998)

One starting point is to redefine what we mean by "records management" to make it more meaningful and more clearly related to management interests. A proposed new definition is as follows:

Records management means the leadership, administration, coordination, and other work required to ensure that adequate records are created to document institutional functions and meet administrative, legal, and other operational needs; that recordkeeping requirements are analyzed and included when information systems are developed; that professionally sanctioned management techniques are applied throughout the records' life cycle; that records are retained and disposed of based on analysis of their functions and value; and that records of continuing value are preserved and accessible (Dearstyne 1999).

In advocating and explaining records management, professionals in the field need to stress the operational, legal, and documentation function of records and the value of sound records management to the enterprise of the organization. Otherwise, records managers run the risk of being undervalued or marginalized even in institutions where information is glorified.

4 Relating Records Issues to Information Policy Development

Successful records management programs will need to operate in the institutional context of information policy where one exists. Information policy means the philosophy, statutes, regulations, and standards that guide the creation, management, and use of information by the institution itself and by those who access and use its information. The United States government, most of the states, and numerous large corporations now have offices that establish and coordinate information policy. The reason for rapid development of information policy is apparent: large enterprises sense the need to harness, channel, and coordinate the use of what is now recognized as a central strategic resource. It is a reaction to the impact of technological change, a recognition of the power of digital information technology, and an acknowledgment that systematic management of information can cut costs, improve service, and generally increase efficiency.

The key insight for records managers is that information policy is tied in an obvious and convincing way to the business enterprise of the organization. "Government information is a valuable national resource," says the U.S. government's central information policy document. Government agencies are required "to plan an integrated manner for managing information throughout its life cycle," including the use of information by employees and the impact of dissemination (OMB 1996).

Perhaps the best single example of focusing on the strategic use of digital information technology is the 1996 Executive Order on information technology. "Government that works better and costs less requires efficient and effective information systems," it asserts. It notes that government agencies "now have the clear authority and responsibility to make measurable improvements in mission performance and service delivery to the public through the strategic application of information technology...[They are to] refocus information technology management to support directly their strategic missions, implement an investment review process that drives budget formulation and execution for information systems, and rethink and restructure the way they perform their functions before investing in information technology to support that work." (Federal Information Technology 1996)

Many federal agencies now have chief information officers who are assigned leadership and coordinating responsibility for information resources. Records management is often ignored or slighted in the development of information policy an astonishing fact since much of the information subject to information policy is actually information that is captured and embodied in records.

The central role of records to the functioning of the institution needs to be reasserted. Records managers should be among the architects of information policy. They need to make connections and build alliances with information policy offices, concentrating on areas where there are natural points of convergence (e.g., legal admissibility of records, cost savings and cost avoidance, management of Web sites and internal information shared via intranets, and access/confidentiality issues).

5 Capitalizing on Knowledge Management as an Opportunity for Learning and Partnership

One of the impacts of digital information is the blurring of distinctions between records management and formerly separate, distinct fields. Furthermore, some new subdisciplines of the field are emerging and defining themselves. These include such groups as competitive intelligence specialists and strategic information specialists.

Perhaps the most intriguing development is knowledge management (KM), which relates to cultivating and drawing on tacit knowledge; fostering information sharing among employees; finding new and better ways to make fresh, pertinent information available when and where needed; and fostering the active application of knowledge for the strategic advantage of the organization.(4) Like the dramatic rise of information policy, the advent of knowledge management is in part a reaction to the need to manage the avalanche of digital information and an acknowledgment of the power of information to support institutional objectives.

In many ways, the goals of records management and those of knowledge management are very similar - to make accurate, relevant information available when and where needed. This common ground suggests opportunities for partnership and cross-fertilization. As is the case with information policy, however, records management professionals need to be assertive and entrepreneurial in working out beneficial partnerships with their newly minted colleagues - knowledge managers or to consider playing the role themselves.

Knowledge management literature usually ignores records, relegates them to the sub-category of "explicit knowledge," or deals with them in a manner that is slighting or even dismissive. One KM book begins with the assertion that "information and knowledge are the thermonuclear competitive weapons of our time. Knowledge is more valuable and powerful than natural resources, big factories, or fat bankrolls." It does not discuss records, has some offhand references to "files" and asserts that "paperwork, necessary but annoying, is a form of knowledge management whose procedures date from a time when objects were more important than information." (Stewart 1999)

Tom Davenport and Laurence Prusak's influential book Information Ecology asserts that records managers essentially play a dated oversight and custodial role:

[Records management is a] staff role [which] first became established in the era of file folder-based customer information and has grown now to include both paper-based and electronic records. Records managers focus on creating, storing, retrieving, and using records without the loss of any vital data within those records. From a cultural standpoint, these managers are particularly concerned with preserving information, and are therefore less likely to enhance effective use of current information (Davenport, Prusak 1997).

A broader, more meaningful dialogue between records managers and the proponents of this emerging field is needed. Records managers can sharpen and deepen knowledge managers' insights about the generation and management of information; KM experts can increase records managers' understanding of the application of information and knowledge. A useful initial step would be records managers more clearly articulating their role in information management and clarifying their contributions to the management of their organization's information resources.

6 Redefining the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities of Records Managers

Records managers will need to clarify their role in the information management spectrum and, at the same time, offer unique and necessary services. In addition to traditional roles, records managers need to play the roles of analysts, publicists, demystifiers, teachers, consultants, and facilitators of the new technology.

One of the best models of a statement of core competencies for records specialists is the Functional Plan for the Records Keeping Community of the Government of Canada - A Framework for Renewal. It includes:

* knowledge of the business of the organization and its processes and work flows as well as accountability requirements of the organization

* knowledge of the criteria and analytical process for establishing rules for record keeping (i.e., what records need to be captured based on the business needs of the organization; procedures, standards, and practices for the identification, description, classification, organization, storage, protection, retention, and disposition of records)

* knowledge of the methods for incorporating record keeping requirements into the design of business applications, work processes, and management function

* knowledge of strategic planning, project management, and performance standards and measures

* knowledge of evaluation techniques for measuring the effectiveness of the record keeping infrastructure of the organization

* ability to work well with colleagues in the information technology, legal services, management, and user areas of the organization as well as any other individuals or groups who have an interest in the record keeping infrastructure of the organization

* ability to analyze and conceptualize 

* ability to communicate complex ideas and concepts to diverse audiences

* ability to serve as an advisor or coach to raise awareness of managers and other users about the importance and relevance of records as a source of information for decision making and the delivery of programs and services, and an instrument to meet accountability requirements

7 Improving Educational Preparation for Records Management

One of the defining traits of a profession is that it has articulated, recognized educational standards and provisions for regulating or guiding entry into the fields.(5) This is a sensitive topic because the records management field includes talented, effective practitioners with varied background and educational credentials. But the ground is shifting, and the need for new approaches is apparent. Technological progress, and the unsettling changes it produces, will require significant attention to records management education.

Pursuing a career in records management requires a clear understanding of the broad, complex subject. People who are considering records management as a career need a clear understanding of what it entails and of the educational preparation they need. Employers should have a realistic conception of what records managers do and of the knowledge, skills, and abilities they bring to the job. Educators, particularly those in graduate archives and records programs, need guidelines as a basis for developing curricula and courses. The courses need to cover not only records management techniques but also management, communication, and team work skills; the ability to understand and apply changing technologies; and the ability to relate effectively records and information management to the work of the organization.

8 Developing a More Effective Research/Development Strategy

The advent and use of digital technologies and telecommunications networks have outdistanced the capacity of the profession to analyze issues, test and develop insights and solutions, and share them within the community in a systematic and timely manner. There is a need for a practical research/development agenda or framework to help the records management community and others concerned with these changes. This framework could be used to address issues, share solutions, and generally approach pressing records management issues in a systematic way. The most critical needs are at the meeting point of technology, strategy, and alliance building.

The new ARMA International Educational Foundation has created Research and Development Framework for Records and Information Management, probably the best single document to date that articulates these challenges and needs (ARMA International 1998). The Foundation's document advocates practical, timely projects that involve partnerships among individual information management professionals; records / archives / information technology programs; professional associations; research universities; and associations, institutions, and companies that represent the information industry. It suggests the following areas for research and development work:

* How to survey, monitor, measure, and track changes in recordkeeping needs and practices in modern offices, particularly in an electronic setting.

* How to reconceptualize what constitutes a "record" in an electronic setting and state it in a concrete, understandable way, (e.g., in a statutory definition in government or in regulations or directives for businesses).

* How to further develop and apply in institutional settings the concepts of "recordkeeping system" and "corporate memory."

* How to tie information management issues and concerns to the notion of information as a key strategic resource/asset that drives business, supports services, etc.

* How to tie records issues and concerns to the development of information policy in government and other types of institutions.

* How to develop benchmarks and measurements for the technical aspects of this field.

* How to articulate, dramatize, and raise the visibility of records and information management and the work of professionals in this field.

* How to deal with the records implications of home pages and Web sites, including their use to access records and their records management implications.

* How to build effective partnerships and cooperation among information management professionals who have important influence on records creation and management (e.g., computer specialists, information technology experts, auditors, institutional counsel, program managers).

* How to develop the most effective approaches to education and continuing professional development in this field.

9 Transforming Professional Associations into Leaders of Change

The winds of change affecting information and records management are also stirring - or buffeting professional associations in this field. The once-admirable traits that made records management associations so strong and vibrant - reaching out to new members; broad-scale, profession-wide appeal; operation through patiently built consensus - may actually frustrate future decision-making processes and result in membership dissatisfaction.

Members of records management associations expect their groups to lead the profession and field in rapidly changing times. This type of leadership requires clear assessment but also timely and decisive action. Moreover, the traditional role of associations as providers of information is being undermined by the very technologies transforming the records management profession - a rise in the quantity and availability of digital information via the Internet. Professional associations need to initiate new approaches to meet this challenge.

"To understand what your members need, you have to know where they're headed," says Karla Boyers. "To truly deliver the products and services your members need, you must first try to understand the constantly changing world in which they operate... Change has become the essence of management, so to survive and prosper in the future, you and your organization will have to perfect 'outside in' thinking skills: to relate information about developments in the external world to what is going on internally... Association executives must come to understand their members - and the business of their members - like never before. Likewise, association executives must help members envision a positive future - and then help them find their way there." (Boyers 1997)

In the future, associations will need to play a greater and more visible role in the following areas (Dearstyne 1998):

* Continue to define and articulate what it means to be a records management professional and how this professional work relates to, reinforces, but is different from, the work of other professionals on the information management stage.

* Redefine their membership categories, consider new categories such as "virtual membership," and offer more services over the Internet.

* Keep continuously in touch with their members via membership surveys and other approaches to make sure the association stays in touch with real needs, and engages members' expectations and interest

* Find new ways to solicit membership, particularly from newer and younger people in the field, and to elicit members' support and work for the association's projects and initiatives.

* Rally and energize their members by continually ratifying the importance and professional nature of the work and by supporting a community of interested, dedicated professionals.

* Develop, issue, and work for the implementation of more statements of fundamental purposes, principles, and goals as a means of influencing the development of institutional information policies.

* Place more stress on case studies, model practices, and research/development projects and their results as a means of conveying to their members strategies and approaches for dealing with a continuously changing, unpredictable environment calling for rapid development and application of practical solutions.

* Mount broader and more imaginative public relations and advocacy efforts that redefine and present records management issues and records managers' perspectives in a changing environment.

* Assist their members in doing the same thing in their institutions and communities as a way of getting the word out where it counts.

* Develop and implement accurate, revealing performance measures as a means of providing feedback on the impact of the association's efforts.

* Collaborate with each other.

Records management can expect to continue as a vibrant, responsible professional field only if it rises to the challenges of a rapidly changing environment. Program success will be determined by capitalizing on trends and recognizing opportunities for service. Constant transformation at a rapid rate will challenge future records managers. As a professional field, we will need to balance three strategies:

1. holding onto what is best from our traditions

2. revising and refining where necessary

3. inventing entirely new approaches

This effort will require energy, imagination, insight, vision, leadership, and plenty of hard work as we continue to move fast forward.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT ON FAST FORWARD: AUSTRALIAN LEADERSHIP

The Australian records management/archival community has set an excellent example in recent years of developing strategies, policies, and standards to adjust records management to changing realities. The Australian products tend to discuss goals, strategies, and guidelines in a manner that makes clear the relationship among the three: balance flexibility and prescriptive approaches; ensure that objectives are clear but also provide that individual records management programs and records managers have considerable flexibility in determining how to reach them; and advance imaginative new approaches for preserving electronic records with enduring, archival value. Some examples include:

* the world's first records management standard, Records Management, developed by Standards Australia (Sydney: 6 parts, Standards Australia, 1996).

* several clear documents on information policy, documentation of government, and management of electronic records, issued by Australian Archives, and available on the Internet at http.www.naa.gov.au.

* Steering Into the Future, which provides guidelines on electronic records management, issued by the Archives Authority of New South Wales, and available on the Internet at http://www.records.nsw.gov.au.

* a new set of electronic records guidelines issued by the Victoria Public Records Office, Victoria Electronic Records Study: Final Report, available on the Internet at http://www.vicnet.net.au.

ANTICIPATING THE INFORMATION FUTURE: SOME WEB SITES TO WATCH

The Web is often the best source of up-to-date information about the relationship between digital information and organizational transformation. Here are some suggestions for interesting, provocative, informative sites beyond the ones that records managers routinely access:

* http://www.nasire.org - The National Association of State Information Resource Executives includes states' chief information officers and chief technology officers of the states; their site is a good source of information about "digital government" issues.

* http://www.cio.com - The site of the journal for chief information officers.

* http://www.naa.gov.au - The Archives of Australia is a model for the development of policies for dealing with electronic records and related digital information issues.

* http://www.clir.org - The Council on Library and Information Resources focuses on developments in digital libraries and digital archives issues.

* http://www.ctg.albany.edu - The Center for Technology in Government is a national leader in assessing and providing guidance for the use of technology in government to improve services.

* http://www.cni.org - The Coalition for Networked Information's goal is to advance the transformative promise of networked information technology for the progress of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.

* http://www.cnri.reston.va/us - The Corporation for National Research Initiatives promotes research that centers around strategic development of networked-based information technologies.

* http://www.dlib.org - This is the digital magazine about digital library research, intended for "researchers, developers, and the intellectually curious."

* http://www.cohasset.com - This site, maintained by Cohasset Associates, is a helpful entry point for legal issues related to electronic records.

* http://www.brint.com/km - This site provides an extensive virtual library on the topic of knowledge management.

* http://www.km.org - The Knowledge Management Consortium International, which works closely with ARMA International and other groups, is maintaining this site to promote "knowledge about knowledge management" and aid in its efforts to standardize KM technology and training.

* http://www.interpares.org - This site, maintained by the University of British Columbia's School of Information Science, provides information on an international project that is defining what constitutes an authentic record in an electronic environment.

* http://www.growingupdigital.com - This site, maintained by Don Tapscott, author of Growing Up Digital, provides insights into how the "net generation" accesses and uses information via computer.

* http://www.blursight.com - This site, maintained by Chris Meyer and Stan Davis, authors of Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy, provides information on how "connectedness" and the easy flow of digital information are changing major institutions.

* http://www.speedofthought.com - This site is connected to Bill Gates' book Business at the Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System, which maintains that digital information systems are like the human nervous system in providing instantaneous, pertinent information.

NOTES

1. One indication of information-related events outrunning our ability to conceptualize and define are the common terms Internet and World Wide Web. These terms still do not have settled definitions and are often used interchangeably. One of the clearest discussions of the topic, Martin Irving's Web Works (1997), maintains that the Internet has three components:

* a worldwide computer system using a common means for linking hardware and transmitting digital information

* a community of people using a common communications technology 

* a globally distributed system of information

Irving defines the World Wide Web as "a system for delivering and displaying hypertext and multimedia files on the Internet." The key traits of the Web are hypertext, which refers to "the kind of document that contains links to other documents," and hypermedia, defined as "the method of linking and displaying computer files in more than one digital medium (text, audio, image or graphics, and video." Web Works explains that intranets are local, secure (limited access) internal networks that use Internet and Web technology, set up by businesses, universities, and other organizations to deliver and share information.

2. There is a vast amount of literature that focuses on the issue of what constitutes a record in an electronic environment, but none of it is conclusive. Among the most helpful writings are Margaret Hedstrom and David Wallace, "And the Last Shall Be First: Recordkeeping Policies and the NII," Journal of the American Society for Information Science (April 1, 1999); Margaret Hedstrom and Francis X. Blouin, Electronic Records Research and Development: Report of an Invitational Conference Held at the University of Michigan, June 28-29, 1996; Richard Cox, "The Record: Is It Evolving?," Records and Retrieval Report (March 1994); Richard Cox, "The Record in the Information Age: A Progress Report on Research," Records and Retrieval Report (January 1996); David Roberts, "Defining Electronic Records, Documents, and Data," Archives and Manuscripts (May 1994); David Bearman, Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations (1994); David Bearman, "Reality and Chimeras in the Preservation of Electronic Records," D-Lib Magazine (April 1999); Terry Cook, "Electronic Records, Paper Minds: The Revolution in Information Management and Archives in the Post-Custodial and Post-Modernist Era," Archives and Manuscripts (November 1994); Philip C. Bantin, "Developing a Strategy for Managing Electronic Records - The Findings of the Indiana University Electronic Records Project," American Archivist (Fall 1998); and William Saffady, Managing Electronic Records (1998).

3. Among the most promising recent initiatives are:

(a) a multi-year project at the University of Pittsburgh School of Library and Information Sciences that produced "Functional Requirements for Evidence in Recordkeeping," available on the Internet at http://www.lis.pitt:edu/nnhprc/meta96.html; the "Pittsburgh specs" are now being refined and tested in several places;

(b) a set of functional specifications issued by the Department of Defense, "Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records Management Software Applications," available on the Internet at http://www.dtic.mil/c3/stdfb.html. These are particularly important because DOD has begun certifying software that meets the specifications

(c) an ongoing project by the State of Delaware to refine and apply the Pittsburgh specifications, "Model Guidelines for Electronic Records," available on the Internet at http://www.lib.de.us/archives/gline.htm

(d) a project carried out by the Center for Technology in Government and the NYS Archives and Records Administration that ties electronic recordkeeping to business process analysis, "Models for Action," available on the Internet at http://www.ctg.albany.edu/resources/pdfrpwp/mfa.pdf

(e) a project at the University of British Columbia School of Information on the preservation and integrity of electronic records, available on the Internet at http://www.slais.ubc.ca.

4. Among the best writings on Knowledge Management are: Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak, Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know (1998); Chung Wei Choo, The Knowing Organization: How Organizations Construct Meaning, Create Knowledge, and Make Decisions (1998); Dorothy Leonard, Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation (1995); Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotake Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation (1995); David J. Teese, "Capturing Value From Knowledge Assets," California Management Review (22 March 1998); and Thomas Tierney, "What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?" Harvard Business Review (March/April 1999). J. Michael Pemberton, Ph.D., CRM, FAI, has done much to clarify the relationship between records management and knowledge management, for instance, in "Chief Knowledge Officer: The Climax to Your Career?" Records Management Quarterly (April 1997). See also William Saffady, Knowledge Management: A Manager's Briefing (1998).

5. Probably the most concrete statement of what records managers are expected to know and to do is the examination for certified records manager (CRM). See Institute of Certified Records Managers, Preparing for the CRM Examination: A Handbook (1997).

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Bruce W. Dearstyne, Ph.D., is associate professor at the University of Maryland's College of Library and Information Services (CLIS), where he teaches courses in archives, records, and related topics, and coordinates the archives/records/information management curriculum. Prior to assuming that position, he was a program director for many years with the New York State Archives and Records Administration. He also serves as executive director of the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators. Dearstyne authored The Archival Enterprise and Managing Government Records and Information. He may be reached at [e-mail].

The author wishes to express his gratitude to two colleagues at CLIS, Christopher Halonen and Ann Prentice, CLIS dean, for reading and commenting on a draft of this article.