Another well produced and timely professional work from CILIP, which addresses some of the interesting and controversial problems and practices present in the evolving world of archives and records management. The author is a well‐respected Professor of Library and Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh and a former Editor of “American Archivist” so he is able to bring considerable knowledge and authority to this work.
I never realised that the subject could be so absorbing, covering such areas of concern as censorship and retention policies, intelligence, security and intellectual property – a really diverse span of topics well worth reading by all information professionals and students. Having just visited the JFK Presidential Library in Boston, the author's account of American Presidential Libraries was particularly illuminating.
The author is concerned about the increasing politicisation of archives and records management brought about by terrorism and the consequent pressures for “security”, sec recy and control and the conflicting desire for Freedom of Information and free access. Resisting the overweening power of the State and its intrusion into our lives might be the role of “Freedom's Guardian” archivists and other information professionals are being thrust into, whether they like it or not. Interestingly, the role of the Internet has led to many more – often visual – records being created and the rise of FOI, blogs and the camera phone has helped whistle blowers and the media counterbalance Government “spin”, control and propaganda. Records and Archives seem to be “buried artefacts” of our civilisation and its bureaucracies and this negative aura needs to be dispelled. Society can be ambivalent about archives and records – seeing them on the one hand as “accumulation of old stuff” or as “memory houses” and vast repositories of valuable information to be mined for commercial and societal profit. The subtle power of the “scribe” in creating, and managing records is well covered, as is the notion of archives as a treasure house of stories – letters, logbooks, diaries, for instance. It seems clear also that those underappreciated and largely unknown professionals – the archivists and records staff – will have an increasingly important and influential role to play in the future of our society.
The book has a good Reference List and is well indexed, well laid out and readable. All in all, an interesting, thoughtful and well‐written work, that grabs the attention of the reader and is never dull or dense. Despite its American bias, it brings to the fore many of the ethical concerns archivists and record managers are faced with in their everyday work.
