| START Conference Manager |
ASIST 2012 Annual Meeting
Baltimore, MD, October 26-30, 2012
In Search of a Unifying Principle: Archives, Knowledge Management, Library Management, and Records Management
Paul Wester, Peter Chiomenti, Chad Doran, Sandra Hirsh, Julian Warner and Heather Pfeiffer
Sunday, 3:30pm
This session will explore the common and differential responsibilities among
the functions of archives, knowledge management, library management, and records management, as represented by their professional organizations. These
professions are often perceived to have distinct responsibilities: libraries for published information, records management for proprietary information,
archives for "the non-current records of individuals, groups, institutions, and governments that contain information of enduring
value" (using an SAA
definition), and knowledge management in its tacit and explicit forms.
From this viewpoint, libraries, records management, and archives' responsibilities are not overlapping, and are instead mutually exclusive.
Moreover, it suggests that knowledge management supports these activities and even supplies information support not provided by libraries, records
management, or archives. The session will examine how representatives of these information functions define them and how these conceptualizations can be
applied, both separately and in collaboration with one another, so as to enhance research and practice.
Discussion Questions for the speakers and session attendees include:
1. How should archives, knowledge management, librarianship, and the management of records be differentially defined?
2. Why does this matter to researchers, to information professionals, or to managers?
3. In light of this, how can SIG MGT, SIG KM, and the Information Professional Task Force coordinate their activities better?