Forword
In today's society, and particularly in the management community, there are few issues that are more compelling than the effects of information technology on the work that is to be accomplished in the organizations, communities, and enterprises that are being managed. It seems that most people with management responsibility fall into one of two camps with respect to this distinctly 1990s phenomenon: they either pledge themselves (and their organizations) to a total commitment to information technology and all the advantages that IT brings to the workplace, or they reject it out of hand, accepting only what society and the business world `forces' on them in the way of information technology, but never really buying into the idea that IT and the effective utilization of IT can give their organization or enterprise a competitive edge in the particular marketplace in which it exists. Growing out of these extreme perspectives is, of course, the innocent and almost forgotten `victim', the corporate memory that, in all the excitement about electronic information delivery, gets somehow shunted aside until someone suddenly remembers that a fact or a document or a plan is needed, and the search is on.
Obviously I exaggerate, but I want to make the point that the management of the corporate memory is not a management function that should be taken lightly, and Kenneth Megill has done the information services community and the management world at large a fine service by writing this important book about how society can deal with the management of information in our age of electronic information delivery. No one else has written a book about this subject that even begins to address the fundamental issues that must be addressed, and Ken Megill's clear, concise, and perfectly reasoned analysis of the role of information in empowering society and the organizations that make up society to achieve success is timely and full of good direction for those who must make decisions about information and the role of information in their organizations and enterprises.
Megill's approach is to identify the problem of corporate memory loss and then, with great skill and precision, to bring the reader into the information management picture with solid, practical advice about how to approach the subject of corporate memory and how to use the enabling power of information technology to ensure that corporate memory is not lost. His commitment to the integration of all information required for organizational success, regardless of where it comes from or in what format or location it is captured, is obvious throughout the book. The value of an integrated approach to information is made very clear and only lends authority to the force of his argument. Naturally Megill offers much theorizing and philosophizing, for Ken Megill is nothing if not a theorizer and philosopher, but he wraps his affection for the intellectual `side' of information services management in a mantle of practical and eminently worthwhile guidelines, suggestions, and definitions. He also, in a gesture not to be dismissed, speaks to the burning issues of education and training for the management of corporate memory, and his comments here, I am convinced, will be referred to by future scholars as seminal thoughts in the history of the study of corporate memory.
Ken Megill's book will provide much consolation and encouragement for all managers, regardless of the environment in which they work. Those who heed his advice and use his good words will move the corporate memory function in their own organizations to a new level of responsibility and authority, a new level that can only be reflected in organizational success.
Guy St. Clair
President
InfoManage/SMR International
New York, NY