Roadtown, Tortola - Today, the British Virgin Islands joins the global community in marking the commencement of Records and Information Management (RIM) month.  This year’s theme focuses on “The Impact that Records and Information Management has on Global Business.” 

For the past five years, the Archives and Records Management Unit within the Deputy Governor’s Office has brought attention to the importance of Records and Information Management by setting aside a special day in its calendar which coincided with annual Mayday celebrations. 

Records and Information Management is an interdisciplinary field that draws on, and combines skills and resources from librarianship and information science, information technology, records management, archives and general management.  Books and periodicals, data stored on local or remote computers, microforms, audio-visual media, and the information in people’s heads are all within the scope of Records and Information Management. Practitioners are concerned with a number of areas including:

- Classification and coding
- Cataloguing and indexing
- Database designs and structures
- Physical storage of books and records, in paper and electronic form
- Storage of photographic and digitized images
- Information audits
- Documentation for museum and archival purposes

Examples of tangible records and digital information are:  birth certificates, passports, medical x-rays, office documents, databases, application data and email. All of us use these various records at one time or another, and so there is need that they be properly managed.

 
The question could be asked, ‘Why has Records and Information Management become so important in the global business environment?’  Simply put, businesses often operate in complex legal and regulatory environments and the penalties for non-compliance are increasingly unforgiving.  Additionally, with information continuously on the increase both in electronic and paper format, it is important that that information is captured, well managed and properly preserved. Hence the need for a good Records and Information Management programme which could realize important benefits for organizations. Ensuring that information is retrieved in a timely manner, saving space and reducing storage costs, supporting decision-making, preserving corporate memory and ensuring regulatory and legal compliance, are only a few of such benefits.

The Government’s Archives and Records Management Unit has been working towards ensuring that our systems and structures are compliant with internationally-recognized standards of operation.  Toward this end, the Unit has also been involved in several initiatives that seek to raise awareness of the importance of the preservation of records and information.  Some of these initiatives are:

- The drafting of policy and legislation;
- On-line access to information;
-The training of Records Officers and other staff across the Service;
- Out-reach programmes in schools and churches;
- The Archives and Records Management Newsletter; and
- The History Research Awards Programme

The late Management Guru, Peter Drucker, often referred to the period of time in which we live as the information revolution.  In his words, “it is forcing us to redefine what business enterprise actually is, and should be, as it relates to the creation of value and wealth.”  This revolution is now forcing the public sector, the private sector and individuals to ask, what is the meaning of information, and what is its purpose? How should it be properly managed particularly when there is in many cases unlimited space, and unlimited access?  Clearly, the information revolution profoundly impacts the external and internal environments in which businesses now operate.

The often used cliché about the world being a global village certainly holds true for practitioners in the field of Records and Information Management.  When key linkages, decisions and business transactions are made in seconds through the click of a mouse on someone’s computer thousands of miles away, the proper management of this information becomes the lifeline of many organizations.  The emergence of advancing computer technologies in the workplace is now creating a paradigm shift in the management of records and information.

 
As we observe Records and Information Management month in the British Virgin Islands, it is a good time for us, particularly business organizations – in keeping with this year’s theme - to reflect on a course of action to lessen the potentially negative impact that inadequate systems inevitably cause.  It is a good time, too, for organizations and individuals to share best practice that assists in the creation of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, whether we need to preserve our child’s birth certificate or the records of our multi-million dollar company; the savings account of a nine year old or the stocks and bonds of a thirty nine year old.

And so, we are grateful to the staff of the Archives and Records Management Unit, headed by Mrs. Verna Penn-Moll, for their alertness in bringing the whole question of Records and Information Management to the fore during the global recognition of Records and Information Management month.