Evolution of information resource management

and consulting experience in the area of information and documentation. The last seven years he spent with various United Nations agencies working in archives, registries, libraries and documentation centres. Information resource management (IRM) has been with us for almost three decades. Numerous articles and monographs have been written about this interesting unconventional field of management. This article sheds some light on the evolutionary path of IRM. Information explosion, pro-liferation of paper and extensive use of information handling technologies are examined as causes for the incep-tion of IRM. An attempt was also made to define relations and differ-ences with other concepts such as records management, data manage-ment and information management. As any other concept IRM had to be put to the test through its use in gov-ernment and military sectors, as well as in private business. In dealing with the historical perspective of IRM this article examines some general and theoretical classifications, searching for the place of IRM in the history of information management. Finally, IRM regarded as a live concept, is studied through different stages of its own development