Every time I hear the phrase “the world’s oldest profession,” I have to remind myself that it’s not referring to recordkeeping. Although maybe it should because how would we know about the world’s oldest profession without records to tell the story?
It always seems strange to me that people seem to value and respect recordkeeping as something necessary for historical or modern purposes, for professionals and individuals, and then it’s usually a struggle to get the necessary resources and funding to do a good job of it. Why is this?
Is the lack of concrete consequences the reason why it’s so hard for recordkeeping to be taken seriously in the workplace? And even writing that question, I think of expenses associated with e-discovery, disaster recoveries, time wasted searching for mislabeled information and many other examples, all of which result in costly and concrete consequences. The consequences, however, don’t seem to have an impressive enough impact on business to address the importance of adequate recordkeeping.
What will it take for businesses to recognize the value of their information? I can’t think of any other corporate asset that gets undervalued to the same extent as information, documents, and records. And yes, there are exceptions to this. Certain industries are highly regulated, recognize the value of their information and invest in it properly. But for many others, it’s the same struggle for information professionals to get funding and resources and to be valued as anything more than a glorified file clerk.
Ann Cavoukian, Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, had a key recommendation in the 2013 Annual Report: “New Consequences for Insufficient Record Retention,”(page 15). She writes, “The challenge we face is that there are currently no consequences for poor records management practices or the wilful destruction of records, and I feel that must be changed.” She goes on to say that “…it should be an offence to wilfully destroy records,” before making four key recommendations to enforce compliance with FIPPA (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act) and MFIPPA (Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act). Perhaps if there were stronger penalties for inadequate recordkeeping practices that result in serious and expensive consequences, there would be more support, funding, and validation for the work that we do as information professionals.
I‘m optimistic about the impact this annual report will have on recognizing the continued value and importance of recordkeeping. It’s time for change.