Tackling the culture of records management and information

For Immediate Release
Tue, 04/01/2014

Contact:

Rob Christopher

Marketing Coordinator

ALA Publishing

American Library Association

312-280-5052

rchristopher@ala.org

CHICAGO — Exploring how an understanding of organizational information culture provides the insight necessary for the development and promotion of sound recordkeeping practices, “Records Management and Information Culture: Tackling the People Problem,” published by Facet Publishing and available through the ALA Store, details an innovative framework for analyzing and assessing information culture that can be aligned with the specific characteristics of any workplace. Gillian Oliver and Fiorella Foscarini address the widely recognized problem of improving organization-wide compliance with a records management program by tackling the different aspects that make up the organization’s information culture. Discussion of topics at each level of the framework includes strategies and guidelines for assessment, followed by suggestions for next steps and appropriate actions and strategies to influence behavioral change. Among the key topics covered are:

  • background and context;
  • the value accorded to records;
  • information preferences;
  • language considerations and regional technological infrastructure;
  • information-related competencies;
  • awareness of environmental requirements relating to records;
  • corporate information technology governance;
  • trust in recordkeeping systems.

Oliver is an academic at the School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her PhD is from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Her research interests center on organizational culture and the influences this has on the way that information is managed. She is the author of “Organizational Culture for Information Managers,” and a Co-editor in Chief of Archival Science.

Foscarini holds a PhD in archival studies from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Prior to joining the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, she worked as senior archivist for the European Central Bank. In her teaching and research, she uses archival science, diplomatics and genre theory, as well as ideas of organizational culture and information culture to investigate how records are created, managed, and preserved in organizations.

Facet Publishing, the commercial publishing and bookselling arm of CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, is the leading publisher of books for library and information professionals worldwide. ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. Contact us at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5052 or editionsmarketing@ala.org.