Wow! Russell Joyce's outburst is really telling us. Personally, having been
a pioneer in introducing records management into this country (as late as
1965!), I always found the daily round rather boring. The intellectual bit
of appraisal was very challenging but the rest made me think I needed to get
a life somewhere else. Which is why I perhaps moved around the world as much
as I did.
I became an archivist because I liked reading other people's letters - my
grandmother used to punish me for doing that. That's why I'm not fussy if
I'm catalolguing something really old or checking last week's files. It's
just great being an archivist/records manager.
Have you thought perhaps that people don't fill jobs because they like it
where they are?
Len McDonald
----- Original Message -----
From: Russell Joyce <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2001 3:31 PM
Subject: Lack of archivists


Gosh! How novel to come to work on a Friday afternoon and to have something
to do! But oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! What a sad and sorry tale this
discussion this is turning out to be, doing nothing to improve the image of
a profession already sadly wracked by a reputation of super-massive-novae-
like atavism. But it is neither my intention nor desire to rail against the
archiving profession per se (amongst which there are clearly many doing
sterling work) rather to respond to the original matter of Ms Foster's
recruitment difficulties.

Sorry to say, if it is difficult to recruit archivists it probably is
because the profession is in dire need of a shake up in its image and needs
to move itself into the present, yet alone the future. Amongst my present
and former colleagues are qualified archivists who find the prospect of
working in the profession far from appealing and turn to RM as the more
sexy, swinging-from-the-chandeliers option. Image aside, there is perhaps
also something inherent in RM work that makes it more appealing e.g. the
comparative dynamism and currency of the records but possibly, too, there
is attraction in the generally more ubiquitous readiness amongst RMs to
embrace technology and the associated benefits it brings. The archiving
profession may be concerned with preservation of the past but in some
instances would do well to heed the words of James Joyce -'History is a
nightmare from which I am trying to awake'- and wake-up itself, its
attitudes and its practices into the 21st century if it is to attract
enthusiastic "new blood".

On the matter of the promotion of archives/records management as a career,
it is my experience that most archivists, records managers, information
managers &c drift (like myself) into the profession rather than making a
conscious effort to enter into it. Personally I regard this as beneficial
since new entrants then tend to be more rounded, bringing with them not
only general management and business skills but also an understanding of
the way in which organisations operate and a corresponding, contextual
appreciation of the worth of records.

On the matter of pay. Well, Mr Emmerson is right to comment that well-paid
employment in a merchant bank can prove a graveyard of ambition. I moved
directly from the public sector to an investment bank. In my previous post
as Records Manager at the Serious Fraud Office I may have earned half my
present salary and worked five times harder than I do now but I reaped ten
times the reward and satisfaction. I would gladly forego the enhanced
salary for a more modest remuneration and increased professional fulfilment
but now feel my mobility is restricted by the severely limited financial
rewards and short contract terms on offer elsewhere. It's all very well
relying on those with a vocational approach to their work to fill posts but
if the profession wants to take itself seriously and avoid the teachers'
lot, employers must offer salaries commensurate with the responsibilities
of the post, mindful that experience comes with age and that the
experienced and (middle-)aged amongst us often have mortgages and families
and require a reasonable living wage.

Librarians, Archivists, Records Managers and Information Managers need to
set aside their ill-perceived differences and work together to advance our
lot as a profession through self-promotion: and what better way to achieve
that than for individuals to prove their worth by adding value to their
respective businesses and (as Mr Pomeroy points out) accepting that "a
quiet life" it ain't any longer. The RMS and SoA have already ventured to
bring the disciplines closer together by, for example, jointly producing
guidelines on Data Protection. This is a development and co-operation I
personally welcome as good for the profession. In the meantime, to quote
Robert Hutchison, "Those of us who have the duty of training the rising
generation ...must not inseminate the virgin minds of the young with the
tares of our own fads". Enough of the back-biting.

Regards to all.

Russell JOYCE
Assistant Vice President
MLEMEA Corporate Records Management Group
tel: +44 (0) 20 7867 2531 fax: +44 (0) 20 7573 0561
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
mail: Merrill Lynch (Europe) plc, RMP 05-10, Ropemaker Place, 25 Ropemaker
Street, London EC2Y 9LY