Modern Records Management

Abstract

S INCE record making and record keeping are indispensable tools of management, and recorded experience is one of our greatest national assets, management, the archivist, the analyst, and the historian have a vital stake in the fact that modern record making is in a dangerous flood stage.Management is primarily concerned with the high cost of mass record making and record keeping which increases overhead and, in private enterprise, raises the break-even point and decreases profits.Records in great volume are less accessible and less practical to use.The management of records in such volume is in itself a problem.Archivists and curators of manuscripts are confronted with a volume of modern records far exceeding any actual and projected capacity of their storage areas.A policy of highly limited accessions is forced upon them.The volume of records which are accessioned is such as to require the development of wholly new types of finding media supplanting the classical inventories and calendars of former generations of archivists.Historians and analysts are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of modern records as materials for research and investigation.Heretofore, access to records was only incidental to a research project.In modern times, finding and mastering the required records is a project in itself.Management, particularly in private enterprise, is at best reluctant to make its records available for research.It is wholly disinclined to establish a project of record searching and assembling to assist the investigator.