Corporate Memory Kenneth A. Megill Corporate Memory Records and Information Management in the Knowledge Age 2nd Edition K · G · Saur München 2005 An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra- ries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libra- ries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org ISBN 978-3-11-021808-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-021809-1 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-021806-2 ISSN 0179-0986 e-ISSN 0179-3256 ThisISBN work 978-3-11-021808-4 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License, ase-ISBN of February (PDF) 978-3-11-021809-1 23, 2017. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-021806-2 LibraryISSN 0179-0986 of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ae-ISSN CIP catalog 0179-3256 record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. 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Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Library© 2016Die ofWalter Deutsche Congress de Gruyter BibliothekCataloging-in-Publication GmbH, lists Berlin/Boston this publication Data in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; DruckA CIP catalog unddetailed Bindung: record bibliographic Duck & Co.,for this book data Ortsname has is been available applied in the for internetat the Library at http://dnb.ddb.de. of Congress. ♾ Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier BibliografischePrinted in Germany Information der Deutschen NationalbibliothekU Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliogra- Printed on acid-free paper www.degruyter.comfie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar.© 2005 K. G. Saur Verlag GmbH, München All Rights Strictly Reserved © 2016No Walter part de of Gruyter this publication GmbH, Berlin/Boston may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, Druckor transmittedund Bindung: in Duck & Co., any form orOrtsname by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, ♾ Gedrucktrecording, auf säurefreiem or otherwise, Papier without permission in writing from the publisher Printed Typesettingin Germany by Florence Production Ltd., Stoodleigh, Devon, Great Britain. www.degruyter.comPrinted and bound by Strauss GmbH, Mörlenbach, Germany. ISBN 3-598-24371-5 1111 2 3 411 The Author 5 6 7 81 Kenneth A Megill specializes in transforming organizations – and enabling 9 them to manage their information in order to improve the way they do 10111 their business. He combines a life of theory and practice with a broad 1 sweep of knowledge and experience. He began his professional career as 2 a philosopher, receiving his doctorate in philosophy at Yale University at 3 the age of 26 after studying two years in Europe. He was a successful 4 teacher and published more than a dozen articles in professional journals 5 of philosophy. In his first book, The New Democratic Theory, published 6 in 1970, he brought his philosophical skills and training to the practical 7 pursuits in which he was involved as a political activist. He went on to 8 be a trade union leader organizing and representing 8,000 faculty and 91 professional employees in the State University System of Florida and 20111 moved to Washington, D.C. in 1982 where he continues to live and work. 1 He is a certified records manager, a certified archivist and holds a masters 2 degree in library and information science. He taught in a graduate school 3 in library and information science, but has focused in helping organiza- 4 tions manage the information of value for re-use. He was on the faculty 5 of the School of Library and Information Science at the Catholic University 6 of America in Washington, DC where he directed its Information 7 Resources Management Program. Prior to joining the faculty he was 8 records manager at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a 9 federal agency that serves as the administrator of national banks. He 30111 recently led a three year project to create an integrated digital environ- 1 ment for the United States Air Force. He is now working with 2 Scan-Optics, a thirty-five year old manufacturing company that builds high- 3 end scanning equipment, to build a new business line of Knowledge 4 Application Services. 5 6 7 8 9 40 111 1111 2 3 411 5 6 7 81 9 10111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 111 1111 2 3 411 Contents 5 6 7 81 Preface to Second edition xi 9 10111 Introduction 1 1 Chapter 1: Empowerment 5 2 Information as a resource 6 3 The demise of command structures 7 4 Recycling 8 5 Browsing and retrieving 8 6 A new soul 9 7 8 Chapter 2: The memory problem 11 91 The cost of losing corporate memory 14 20111 Causes of lost memory 14 1 Premature discarding 14 2 Not throwing things away in a timely manner 16 3 Forgetting where it is 16 4 Lack of documentation 18 5 Loss of media 18 6 The price of lost information 20 7 Chapter 3: The corporate memory and Records 8 Management 23 9 What should be part of the corporate memory? 24 30111 Contents of corporate memory 26 1 What should not be part of the corporate memory 27 2 Purely personal information 27 3 Copies 29 4 Some copies of published materials 30 5 6 Chapter 4: The document as a verb 33 7 The questioner 34 8 Beyond storage and retrieval 36 9 Assembling a document 37 40 The disintegration of centralized computing 38 111 Implications for the corporate memory 40 viii Contents 1111 Chapter 5: Valuing documents 41 2 Confidentiality and privacy 42 3 The Question of Worth 43 411 Case files 44 5 Subject files 46 6 Retention schedules 47 7 Rules as guidelines 48 81 Rule of Worth I: Information used by important people 9 is more likely to be important information 48 10111 Rule of Worth II: Information takes on value when it is 1 used 49 2 Rule of Worth III: Vital records are a part of the 3 corporate memory 50 4 Rule of Worth IV: Historical information is valuable 51 5 Rule of Worth V: Information whose retention is 6 required by law or regulation is valuable for the 7 period specified in the law or regulation 52 8 Applying the Rules of Worth 53 91 Chapter 6: The corporate memory manager 55 20111 The records manager 59 1 Librarians 63 2 Archivists 68 3 An Archival Collection 70 4 Preserving for Re-Use 71 5 Records Managers and Archivists 72 6 7 Chapter 7: The technologies 73 8 Requirements for the corporate memory system 74 9 Browsing and searching 75 30111 Enabling technologies 76 1 Relational and inverted index systems 77 2 Thesauri and Communities 78 3 Accessing multiple databases 78 4 Desk-top scanning 80 5 Standard generalized markup language 80 6 Search tools 81 7 Scripts 83 8 The Internet 84 9 Bringing the World Wide Web in-house 84 40 Retrieving from the corporate memory 85 111 Changing technologies 86 Contents ix 1111 Chapter 8: Performance Centered Learning 89 2 Traditional training 89 3 Learning 90 411 Minimize training and support 91 5 The information specialist 92 6 Integrated learning 93 7 Tools 93 81 9 Chapter 9: Workflow 95 10111 The revival of the registry system 95 1 Copying replaced registering 96 2 Management information systems 97 3 Integrating information 98 4 Business needs 98 5 SGML and workflow 99 6 Automating documents 100 7 Strategies for documentation 101 8 91 Chapter 10: Improvements 105 20111 A long-term goal 106 1 Improvement 1: Taking inventory 107 2 Improvement 2: Duplicating copies or index cards 107 3 Improvement 3: Using shared servers 108 4 Improvement 4: Imaging 109 5 Improvement 5: PC-based file-finding software 110 6 Getting started 111 7 8 Chapter 11: Making it happen 113 9 Alternative Starting Point I: People 114 30111 Alternative Starting Point II: Electronic data 116 1 Alternative Starting Point III: Electronic documents 116 2 Alternative Starting Point IV: What comes in the door 121 3 Differing scenarios 122 4 A Knowledge Application Service 123 5 Using the corporate memory 124 6 7 For further information 125 8 Appendix: ISO Standard 135 9 Glossary 137 40 Index 141 111 1111 2 3 411 5 6 7 81 9 10111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91 20111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40 111 1111 2 3 411 Preface to Second Edition 5 6 7 81 Much has happened in the decade since I first conceived this book on 9 Corporate Memory, yet little has changed. Carlos Cuadra and Judy 10111 Wanger introduced me to the term “corporate memory,” when I was 1 working with them to develop one of the first automated records manage- 2 ment software packages.