The Society of Archivists, despite the implications of its name, also represents
records managers and archive conservators. The SoA has accredited
professional courses in archives & records management since 1985. The
Accreditation Team visits every programme in the UK and Ireland on a
quinquennial basis, and assesses them against a set of agreed criteria which
are, in effect, the competency standards for the profession. Regular articles
outlining the accreditation process and commenting on changes and issues for
educators & the profession are published in the Journal of the Society of
Archivists - most recently Turner, Margaret D.(2008)'Educational Programmes
in Archives and Records Management in the UK and Ireland:An Overview, 1995-
2007' Journal of the Society of Archivists vol 29 issue 1, pages 73 — 82. May
be available via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00379810802499942 (but you may
need to subscribe). The accreditation criteria can be seen at
http://www.archives.org.uk/careerdevelopment/startingout/postgraduatecours
es/revisedaccreditationcriteriaforpostgraduatecourses.html (or
http://tinyurl.com/krrse3).
Given the comparatively small numbers of people working in the management
of records (by which I include archives) I wonder how long we can sustain the
separate professional bodies all attempting to do similar things. Personal
accreditation is a case in point: recently introduced by the Records
Management Society, the same accreditation of experience was begun by the
SoA in 1987. The SoA's scheme ("registration") has since 1996 focussed on
encouraging continuing professional development rather than the one-off
accreditation of experience bringing it in line with similar CPD schemes offered
by chartered professional bodies including CILIP. Both the SoA and RMS are
too small for chartered status at present.
Along similar lines to the accreditation of professional qualifications, at present
the SoA is represented on the sector skills council Lifelong Learning UK
(www.lluk.org) which includes records management in its footprint. The sector
skills council is "the independent employer-led sector skills council responsible
for the professional development of staff" working in the sector and is charged
with the developments of competency and qualifications frameworks,
apprenticeship schemes etc.
I have worked both in archival and records management roles. I see no
distinction between the skills required and cannot understand why they are
perceived to be two different, distinct professions. The SoA in conjunction
with some of the smaller advocacy bodies in the sector are pursuing a merger -
see http://www.archives.org.uk/thesociety/archivesectorproposals.html
(http://tinyurl.com/lbbzec). The RMS, in common with some other bodies, was
invited to join at an early stage but apparently declined to take part.
Is it our professional background in classification that means that people
working in recordkeeping like to distinguish themselves from one another? My
concern is that if we continue to distinguish ourselves like this then larger,
more visible bodies occupy the space we consider to be "ours", as evidenced
by the BIS job advert posted yesterday. And the more we navel gaze and
distinguish ourselves by the details, the more likely we are to lose sight of the
bigger, more strategic picture - and thus not be involved in the IT related
discussions that affect recordkeeping and the organisations we try to serve
(see previous discussions plus parallel discussion re listservs etc etc)
Sarah
Registrar of the SoA, but also a personal member of the RMS, and who
currently is based in an IT department
writing in my personal capacity/expressing personal opinions...
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