Reflection

Records seem to be one of those things in companies that are extremely important, yet many workers do not always think long term about the use of those records. I am a fairly organized person, and so it's important for me to keep my documents organized, with a number of folders within folders on my desktop, on my iPad, and even on my phone. So going into this course, I thought records management was going to focus mainly on organization and I thought that I was good to go.

However, records management is so much more than that. Records and documentation are the ways that businesses keep running, even libraries. Organizations document everything - from small things like the names of partners to large things like the organization's five-year plan. Finance departments and human resource departments hold tons of records that must be kept secure and accessible. Employees at the organizations also harbor records on their work computers and even on their phones that must be sorted and likely must adhere to various rules.

This class supported my understanding of tools that support library work. A lot of the work of records management is also done with the information technology (IT) departments, especially since so many of our documents are digital in today's libraries. Understanding how to use technology to store and access materials was important and I learned that alongside the necessary tasks needed to keep these documents safe and only in the sights of those who need access to them.

My learning artifact was a "memo to management" that I wrote that asked me to think through ideas for merging documents of companies that had different records management methods. This truly made me think of potential ways that any organization could manage their records, regardless of whether they used digital or physical records. This assignment also pushed me to think through the ARMA principles for recordkeeping. When thinking of records management, these principles ensure transparency and integrity in recordkeeping and provide an access point for all organizations to use.

All in all, this class gave me more to think about and research in regard to recordkeeping, especially when it comes to certain records that I must maintain in my workplace. I don't think I know everything there is to know about recordkeeping, but this class gave me a great foundation.