Continuing professional development for the information discipline of records management. Part 1: context and initial indications of current activities

Abstract

Explores the newly emerging information discipline of records management, focusing on its current status in the UK where it is represented by a range of sector‐specific and general for information professionals organizations. Investigates the issue of education and training in this developing field in the context of a research project on continuing vocational education for records practitioners, which is being undertaken by the Department of Information and Library Management at the University of Northumbria. Early results from the project identified two main training needs: one relates to a specific area of information management, that of managing electronic records, and the other relates to the general area of strategic approaches to management. While records management involves some skills and knowledge which are different from those already mastered by library and information professionals there are significant overlaps in terms of cataloguing, classification, indexing, identifying and meeting user needs and the challenge of dealing with information in electronic form. Contends, therefore, that in the changing and sometimes shrinking market of some of the more traditional library sectors records management may offer the opportunity to develop or shift one’s career path while remaining within the discipline of information management.

Citation

Hare Julie McLeod, C.E. and King, L.A. (1996), "Continuing professional development for the information discipline of records management. Part 1: context and initial indications of current activities", Librarian Career Development, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 22-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/09680819610116158