Welcome & Why

Welcome to Positively RIM. Here I hope to present and give perspective to the profound, curious, and even funny aspects of Records & Information Management.

Why post Positively RIM?

Records & Information Management is a tremendous force for good in the world. Our avalanche of information – physical and digital – is worse than useless if we can’t organize it and find it at appropriate times. Certainly, without RIM, businesses can barely operate. But more than that, society depends upon secure, readily available records and information.

• Regulatory compliance is not just a game. The regulations are there to protect people and ensure justice. Organizations prove compliance by producing documenting records.
• Democracy depends on records management because RIM ensures fair elections. Voter registration/roles, making sure no one votes twice, processing absentee ballots, and more are all dependent on high quality records management. In new democracies, these may be new concepts, and that’s why I support the International Records Management Trust (www.irmt.org). But if we had better records management here in Minnesota, we would have a senator by now.
• Both business and government depend on RIM to function. How confident are you that the Social Security Administration will have accurate records of your work, so someday you may be able to collect a pension? How confident are you that, when the big plasma TV you bought goes blank, the manufacturer will be able to find your warranty registration? It depends on the quality of their RIM.
• Whereas criminal prosecution may turn on, literally, a smoking gun, most civil legal cases turn on the presentation of records. RIM is essential to justice.

In my perspective, RIM is one of the glues that holds society together. The thousands-year-old discipline of records management makes a dynamic, positive contribution to culture. Sure, records managers keep businesses running. But, together with our sibling archivists and our cousin librarians, we encourage the wealth of human culture, fostering peace and justice. There is no end to this endeavor.

Thanks for reading! See you soon.