The role of records management in ‘business information’ services Available to Purchase

Traditionally, the information profession has been compartmentalised into groups of people called records managers, archivists, librarians and IT specialists, each group having some similar and some distinctive knowledge and skills and offering some similar and other specialist information services. Information users, however, do not necessarily identify these different compartments when they need to find and access information, and it is unreasonable to expect them to know who to go to. Since all of the groups of information specialists are what might be described as ‘business’ or corporate information providers then there would seem to be an opportunity for them to integrate their services and improve the service they provide to their customers. This article discusses the potential for integrating information services, the reasons for doing so, the benefits to be gained and the challenges such a strategy presents for all of the information specialist involved. It suggests that whilst records managers will need to maintain and develop their core skills they are in pole position to lead the integration process.