Introduction

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="02c285a1erlcgo.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Kenneth A. Megill</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Kenneth A. Megill"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="the_author___corporate_memory.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The author">The author</A>   |   <A HREF="contents___corporate_memory.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contents">Contents</A>   |   <A HREF="id111.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Forword">Forword</A>   |   <B>Introduction</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="02ad2c00dkelyh.png"> <div> <A HREF="the_author___corporate_memory.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The author">The author</A></div> <div> <A HREF="contents___corporate_memory.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contents">Contents</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id111.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Forword">Forword</A></div> <div> <B>Introduction</B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Introduction</I></div> <div> This book is written for the corporate memory manager of the future.  Information managers in the electronic 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.</div> <bR> <div> 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.</div> <bR> <div> Two colleagues, Carlos A. Cuadra and Judith Wanger, first 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 that original paper. He has also used his extensive editorial skills to help make this work more intelligible.</div> <bR> <div> 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 textbased 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.</div> <bR> <div> 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 costeffective tool for records management. The other was the development of wordprocessing in a networked environment.</div> <bR> <div> 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.</div> <bR> <div> I hope that this book gives a coherent picture of how an organization can begin to manage its records now that they are in electronic form. The kind of information that I am focusing on is what Dr. Cuadra called `corporate memory': the documents and other information kept by an organization for later reuse.</div> <bR> <div> 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, now of Rutgers 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.</div> <bR> <div> Barry Wheeler, my colleague at Catholic University, has always been the engineer next door who patiently explained how to use the new tools that constantly arrive. He insisted that I move to Windows even though I had just barely begun to manage the strange world of DOS. Barry also showed me the difference between <I>training and </I>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.</div> <bR> <div> Sheryl K. Rosenthal worked with me to develop my first records management database at the Comptroller of the Currency in 1988. As a consultant to Cuadra Associates, she invited me to several demonstrations of STAR software to potential clients who helped me think through the<B> </B>requirements of automated records management and archival applications. As a teacher of online searching, she helped me understand the power of this technology and, more recently, as Manager of Research Systems at the <I>Washington Post, </I>she helped me understand the application of searching technologies in an informationintensive environment.</div> <bR> <div> Herb Schantz introduced me to the notions of workflow and <I>showed its </I>integral relationship with imaging technology and its relationship to document management. Dr. Letty Schantz did a careful editing job that was particularly helpful.</div> <bR> <div> 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).</div> <bR> <div> Finally, I must thank my partner of 12 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</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>Kenneth Megill</I></div> <div> <I>Catholic University</I></div> <div> <I>Washington, D.C.</I></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>