Leading and Managing Archives and Records Programs: Strategies for Success

Citation

Tough, A.G. (2009), "Leading and Managing Archives and Records Programs: Strategies for Success", Records Management Journal, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 252-253. https://doi.org/10.1108/09565690910999256

This is a refreshingly positive book. Implicitly, the editor and contributors collectively assert that record‐keeping professionals can contribute to the effectiveness of their organisations and, in so doing, promote their own programmes of action. The editor contributes an introductory chapter and two concluding chapters. At the heart of these lies a major piece of work. Evidently Bruce Dearstyne reads management books and articles that few archivists or records managers are ever likely to even glance at. Here he abstracts the results of his labours. This amounts to more than simple reporting of other peoples' publications. Instead he provides a serious review, integrating ideas from a range of sources and highlighting the ideas most likely to prove attractive to the intended readership.

Two of the chapters are from British authors. Kelvin Smith writes about the “seamless flow” process for transferring born‐digital records to The National Archives of the UK. Peter Emmerson reflects, with characteristic candour, on his experiences at Barclays Bank. He gives a cogent account of what he set out to achieve in relation to both archives and records management and provides a sober assessment of what was successful and what did not withstand the test of time. Particularly interesting is his comment that pressure from non‐executive directors concerned about risk management has ultimately proved more important than his own advocacy in securing the place of records management within the bank.

The remaining ten chapters are from US authors. By and large these reflect the influence of the strong historical manuscripts tradition in the USA. Readers who are accustomed to working in the Commonwealth public records tradition may find some unfamiliar assumptions being made in these chapters. It is worth persevering and coming to terms with a different perspective. One chapter is devoted to the challenges of achieving leadership in a university (Leon Stout) whilst another addresses both the higher education and state historical society settings (Mark A. Greene). Two chapters are concerned with leadership in the context of state archives: Christine Ward writes about her experiences in New York State while Gregory Sanford and Tanya Marshall reflect on their own in Vermont. Philip F. Mooney contributes a chapter on corporate archives that complements Peter Emmerson's chapter already referred to. Records management standards are covered by Diane K. Carlisle who gives a succinct overview of the topic and provides brief accounts of both ISO 15489 and the US DoD standard from a neutral point of view.

Two chapters by Eugenia K. Brumm and Carol Choksy address the generic challenges of leadership in records management and another two consider the generic issues around leadership in archives. The Brumm chapter “The records management leader” and the Choksy chapter “Leading a successful records management program” are likely to be of particular interest to the readership of this journal. Both chapters cover some of the same topics: strategy, communications, managing relationships and so forth. Choksy presents a discussion of the importance of good project management also. Two themes that emerge here and throughout the book are the importance of developing domain‐specific knowledge of the environment in which the parent organisation functions and orienting records programmes to the overall objectives of the organisation. The second of these themes points to the need for effective performance improvement strategies, oriented to organisational objectives. On pages 303 and 304 Bruce Dearstyne does address performance management but does so briefly and without dealing with the difficult transition from inward looking technical measures to new objective‐oriented measures. A British reader is likely to regard Carol Choksy's contribution as being on the more practical end of the scale and Eugenia K. Brumm's chapter as being more aspirational. This contrast is epitomised in Brumm's statement that:

… twenty‐first century records management leaders … often force others out of their comfort zones. They possess an unwarranted degree of optimism, expecting success and anticipating positive outcomes that help generate energy and commitment necessary to achieve desired results (pp. 43‐44).