There is a lively debate currently taking place between the members of the UK Records Management Society listserv on the question of whether the profession (professions?) has too many professional bodies, and what the role of these bodies should be.
It brings to mind the lengthy - and at times very heated - discussions which took place when the Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists were considering merging. Those in favour of the merger and those against it held strong views and expressed these views freely. The end result was eventually the merger of the two bodies to form CILIP.
At the time, one of the most contentious issues was the name of the new body - huge amounts of time and energy were consumed by the question of whether it should include the ‘L’ word. This remains a question that generates very strong views and one which is currently under consideration by the SLA as part of its Align in 09 initiative - their website is worth a visit since they have undertaken considerable research into what executives think about information management.
It’s also interesting to see that some former members of the IIS elected to join the Records Management Society rather than to transfer their membership to CILIP - perhaps now is the right time to reconsider whether the merger of all of the relevant professional bodies would be of benefit to those involved in records and information management.
Indeed, the Society of Archivists, the National Council on Archives and the Association of Chief Archivists are currently working on a merger of the three bodies following a review of the sector which was completed last year.
From my perspective, I understand that individuals identify very strongly with the body which most closely represents their role and responsibilities but I have to question whether this makes sense in the wider world. Potential employers don’t always see the difference between a librarian and a records manager and indeed, many of the contributors to the debate have acknowledged that they hold hybrid roles which span the full range of archives, records and information management.
Given the obvious strong interest in this topic perhaps the time is ripe for a review of whether we would all benefit from having a single professional body to represent us.
Melanie Goody
Director of Consultancy
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