Records management

In recent years, records have become a matter of increasing concern. For a long time, there have been archival establishments in which valuable records or presumably valuable records have been kept. But modern reproducing methods and natural growth have resulted in more records of less quality for the archivist to deal with. Since World War n, under the leadership of the federal government, there has been a concerted effort to reduce the backlog of old records, to insure the preservation of valuable records, to make records and recorded information more accessible to administrators and researchers, and to create records of high quality. This effort has been directed toward managing the flood of records and paper work that threatens to swamp the activities that create and handle them. There has been discussion for many years about what this effort should be called, and there have been many names applied to it. Since it is concerned with the management of records, the term "records management" seems to be a simple and all-inclusive solution to the problem of a name