Introduction
Corporate Memory is information that a corporation (organization or
business) creates which is of value for re-use. This book is written for
the corporate memory manager of the future. Information managers in
the knowledge age will come from different professions that are in the
process of merging. I do not argue that such integration should take place:
I just assume that it is. I try to point out practical ways in which the
information of an organization can be managed in the electronic age.
I come to this activity as a professional records manager who, like most
records managers, had a previous career. I began my professional life as a
philosopher and moved on to the world of organizations and politics before
coming to information management. My roots show in this discussion,
which I hope will be a contribution to the development of a systematic
theory for information management. My work with many organizations has
convinced me that many, if not most, of the problems of organizations and
businesses are information problems, and if we can find practical ways to
identify and preserve the memory of the organizations in which we work,
our lives will be not only more efficient but also fuller.
Two colleagues, Carlos A. Cuadra and Judith Wanger, encouraged me
to develop a coherent theory for managing information in the electronic
age. Carlos wrote a paper a few years ago entitled ‘The Corporate
Memory and the Bottom Line’, suggesting that managing wordprocessed
documents would begin to bring electronic documents under control.
When he asked me to look at a draft of that paper, I recognized that he
had pointed the way to solutions for many problems facing records
management in the electronic age. Some of the material in this book is
taken directly from Carlos’ original paper. He has also used his extensive
editorial skills to help make this work more intelligible.
At about that same time I began working with Judith Wanger, Vice-
President of Cuadra Associates, to develop an application for the STAR
software package. STAR is a text-based database application developed
by Cuadra Associates that I had used in my work as a records manager
for a federal agency. When we began to develop the application, I tried
to elaborate on the work of records management and identify how to
automate its essential activities. Six months later Judith was able to show
me an application that managed records from cradle to grave, without
regard to the media in which they are stored.
I was attracted to records management in 1987 as an emerging profession
of information management that focused on throwing things away in
a timely and orderly manner. Establishing disposition schedules – the heart
of traditional records management – was the primary tool used to bring
records under control. In about 1992, a shift in the attitudes of the profession
became apparent. One reason for this was the arrival of image
technology as a usable and cost-effective tool for records management.
The other was the development of wordprocessing in a networked
environment.
With the arrival of imaging, wordprocessing and networking technologies,
most records were no longer kept on paper. Rather, they were
created and stored in electronic form. Thus a convergence of imaging,
wordprocessing and networking enables offices to move records from
place to place electronically without copying them on paper. Paper copies
became copies of records, not the records themselves.
Many other people have helped me with this project. Most of all, I
want to thank the many students who stimulated me to develop a theory
for records and information management that will meet the needs of the
next century. Leonard Mignerey, whom I worked with when he was MIS
Director at Catholic University, introduced me to the world of management
information systems and showed me how the world of data and
the world of records are colliding. Most of the ideas in the chapter on
the ‘new document’ came out of discussions with him and other
colleagues in an informal seminar in 1995.
Barry Wheeler, my former colleague at Catholic University, who is now
working to create the digital library at the Library of Congress. During
the time I was writing the first edition, he was the engineer next door
who patiently explained how to use the new tools that constantly arrive.
At the time I was writing the first edition, he insisted that I move to
Windows even though I had just barely begun to manage the strange
world of DOS. Since then he has worked with me through many lunches
where we mused over new technologies and how to make them really
useful. Barry also showed me the difference between training and learning,
and convinced me that in order for technology to be used anywhere, we
needed to develop new ways to bring it into our lives. Noel Dickover
later showed me how Performance Centered Learning can be done.
Sheryl K. Rosenthal worked with me to develop my first records
management database at the Comptroller of the Currency in 1988. When
I worked as a consultant to Cuadra Associates, she invited me to several
demonstrations of STAR software to potential clients who helped me
think through the requirements of automated records management and
archival applications. As a teacher of online searching, she helped me
understand the power of this technology and, when I wrote this book,
as Manager of Research Systems at the Washington Post, she helped me
understand the application of searching technologies in an informationintensive
environment. In her current position at the US News and World
Report she continues to make practical use of technologies described her
to make information accessible to those who need it.
Herb Schantz introduced me to the notions of workflow and showed
its integral relationship with imaging technology and its relationship to
document management. Dr. Letty Schantz did a careful editing job the
first edition that was particularly helpful. Herb and I went on to collaborate
on a book on Document Management and our professional lives have
been intertwined ever since.
In addition, a large number of students, friends and colleagues made
comments on various drafts of the book. These include (but are not
limited to) Clay Cochrane, Fred Jordan, Deanna Marcum, Bob Nawrocki,
Fred Stielow and Betsy Woods (who also assisted with the indexing).
Finally, I must thank my partner of twenty years, Lawrence Tan, for his
patience, understanding and support. As a businessman and accountant,
he tried to make this philosopher as practical as he could make him.
For the second edition, in addition to those mentioned above, several
of whom took the time to read the revised copy, I am gratefully to Deb
Marshall, Marilyn Barth, Dean Harris, Rebecca Weiner, Evie Lotze, Bill
Larsen, John Latham and Susan Brown for their assistance.
Kenneth Megill
Knowledge Application Services
Washington, D.C.