Spotlight

I’m not sure what the collective noun for a group of records managers should be: maybe a ‘classification’, or perhaps a ‘compliance’? Whatever it’s called, we certainly had one over the past two days at our ‘Building Bridges: the connective power of records management’ conference held at Gateshead College.

Over 70 records professionals from the F/HE sectors and beyond gathered to discuss some of the most challenging issues facing us today and to hear from an array of speakers including leading practitioners, vendors and – critically – representatives from the stakeholder groups that records manager’s either work with or for, including Deputy Vice Chancellors, IT Managers and Administrators. What emerged was a truly 360 degree view of our profession.

Its always a good sign if the discussion continues outside the conference venue and judging by the general hubbub at the evening drinks reception at The Sage Gateshead delegates had found plenty to get their teeth into (aside from the canapés!).

Day 2 focused around the thorny issue of whether records management needs- particularly in the current economic climate - to be able to quantifiably demonstrate its impact. After all, lots of claims are often made about how improvements to the way you manage information and records will reduce overheads and increase productivity, but there seems to be precious little evidence to demonstrate that this is, indeed, the case. A great deal of interesting discussion was had about measuring the impact of records management, focused around a JISC-funded project that we are currently engaged with (of which more in later posts). The general consensus was that we do have a great deal to offer in this regard, but that quantifying it is not easy.

Perhaps, on second thoughts, an ‘efficiency’ of Records Managers is as accurate a collective noun as any!