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(PDF) In America, litigation often follows success, and the cost of being unprepared for e-discovery can be steep. While organizations are now more accustomed to traditional e-discovery, courts are beginning to expect the collection and production of data generated from corporate mobile devices, offering new challenges to records and information, IT, and legal professionals. To maintain this competitive edge, they must regularly keep up with the evolving communication technology and the e-discovery environment. This article explains why this investment will pay off in the long term.

(PDF) ARMA International officially released its Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles® (GARP®) in February 2009 and the GARP® Maturity Model in 2010. Interest in GARP®, as measured by media mentions and registrations in web seminars and conference sessions, is high. But, not surprisingly for something so new, success stories and war stories of GARP® in records and information management (RIM) are rare, as it is still more a matter of conversation than implementation. Regardless, the need for GARP® as documented in this article has never been greater.

(PDF) Although new formats for creating and managing information will continue to be created, sticking with the fundamentals and following the standardsbased approach described in this article will enable RIM professionals to analyze any new format or tool and devise a process strategy for addressing what information management issues may arise.

(PDF) Recorded information is a strategic asset that makes direct, significant, and indispensable contributions to an organization’s objectives, efficiency, and effectiveness. When properly managed, records will ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, promote continuity of business operations in the event of a disaster, support policy formulation and decision-making, and protect the rights and interests of an organization’s stakeholders. This article is excerpted from Records and Information Management: Fundamentals of Professional Practice, 2nd Ed., which is scheduled for publication in February 2011 and will be available from the ARMA International Bookstore at www.arma.org/bookstore.

(PDF) Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence by Harold Kerzner is a focused presentation on “advanced project management topics necessary for implementation of and excellence in project management.” The future of project management lies in capturing and implementing best practices. If you manage projects, this exceptional book on project management must be on your bookshelf.

Purchase this book from ARMA International's Bookstore.

(PDF) The New Information Professional, Your Guide to Careers in the Digital Age by Judy Lawson, Joanna Kroll, and Kelly Kowatch introduces some of the most cutting-edge career and educational opportunities available. This book stresses the need for people to consider their potential work environment, job function, and the skill sets they have developed and utilized. Equally important is for them to consider other factors, such as job availability, economic trends, geographic location, and educational requirements. The authors identify various resources people can utilize in their career exploration.

Purchase this book from ARMA International's Bookstore.

(PDF) The latest news, trends, and analysis affecting you and your organization. (11 pages total)

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(PDF) Engaging IT, legal, and other business unit stakeholders to create a crossfunctional advisory, collaboration, and liaison infrastructure will ensure records and information management program buy-in, commitment, and support. This article will help you, as a RIM professional, reach out to your business unit customers and build strong cooperative relationships.

(PDF) Most RIM programs have a good handle on how to manage paper records and information. However, managing content in a relational database, or structured data, is more challenging. Read on to understand why any application that is under consideration for purchase should be scrutinized for RM functionality.

(PDF) This article will examine the Principle of Transparency and the Principle of Accountability to determine the extent to which they conform to related legal requirements and doctrines and the potential role they may have in the application of these requirements and doctrines in the real world.

(PDF) Visual analytics (VA) is a relatively new technology that combines analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces. It involves much more than just using visualizations to understand data better. This article will explain why VA has the potential to offer a competitive advantage in the search for ESI.

(PDF) Taming Change with Portfolio Management – Unify Your Organization, Sharpen Your Strategy, and Create Measurable Value is an excellent introduction to portfolio management concepts, with a number of interesting facts, concepts, and processes that may be of use to RIM professionals.

(PDF) The Learning Layer: Building the Next Level of Intellect in Your Organization by Steven D. Flinn explores, in very compelling language, how to transform an organization’s “zombie” IT system into an adaptive and dynamic expertise network. The Learning Layer is available for purchase from ARMA International's Bookstore for $35.00.

(PDF) The latest news, trends, and analysis affecting you and your organization. (12 pages total)

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(PDF) Today’s global business environnment makes it imperative for organizations to be knowledgeable about international standards for their records and information management practices. This article explains how the International Organization for Standardization aspires to create standards with global credibility, ensuring their applicability to all business sectors, regardless of geographic location.

(PDF) When the Red Flags Rule went into effect on January 1, 2011, it brought significant identity theft issues into the spotlight and implications for a wide array of industries. The authors examine what all of this means for the records and information management profession.

(PDF) Standards are fundamental for building and improving records and information management (RIM) programs – and establishing RIM as a profession. This article explains why standards are a key mechanism to gaining understanding of the components of a solid, safe, and functional RIM “house,” or program and indispensible tools for building, improving, and sustaining RIM programs.

(PDF) Today’s information landscape includes a wide range of content formats. This environment creates a tremendous challenge for effectively managing business records and information. This article focuses on how using the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles® can meet this challenge - specifically addressing the principles of integrity and protection.

(PDF) For all the importance assigned to taxonomies, few studies have shed light on what taxonomy design methods are effective, how much should be spent on the design, or how to make designs more successful. Until now. Read on to learn the results of a September 2010 survey, “Records Classification Systems – Taxonomies.” The survey results provide clues about how to improve taxonomy design methods and implementation planning to significantly increase their success rate.

(PDF) Structures for Organizing Knowledge: Exploring Taxonomies, Ontologies and Other Schema is a textbook for students in library and information science. Each chapter lists focus areas at the beginning and thought exercises at the end. This article provides varying perspectives and explains why the book is academic in its approach.

(PDF) How do we translate good RIM from theory into action? In other words: How do we get records management to “stick?” Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, have studied the world of sticky ideas and this article provides an overview.

(PDF) News, Trends & Analysis

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(PDF) As organizations become more dependent on their information resources and the technologies that create them, such as collaborative work spaces, social media, and mobile devices, information professionals are facing new challenges – and opportunities. Discovery and legal requirements are often on the periphery of a chief information officer’s (CIO) concerns. In this article, you will learn how RIM professionals can help CIOs understand these issues (e.g., by emphasizing the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles®).

(PDF) When organizations merge, records and information management (RIM) professionals have a prime opportunity to demonstrate their value by ensuring that information assets are identified, protected, and successfully integrated into a RIM program designed to best serve the newly created entity. To determine which organization’s RIM program will be sustained after the merger, this article will present a series of questions to consider.

(PDF) Expanding your IT knowledge, using GARP® tools to assess your program, and communicating the results and action plan to senior management will help them picture you and your program as strategically important to your organization’s success. This article will present ways for you to look at the situation more strategically and figure out a plan of action.

(PDF) This article examines an Ohio Supreme Court case involving a public agency being sued for violation of state recordkeeping requirements provides valuable lessons about how adhering to the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles® of Compliance and Availability can help other organizations avoid the expense of this type of litigation, as well as monetary sanction and adverse media attention.

(PDF) Part 1 of this series was published in the November-December 2010 issue of Information Management. Part 2 will expand on the idea of document control as a subset of RIM and explain how developing and executing a comprehensive project management plan is the best way for RIM managers to work with senior management to ensure a smooth merger and transition.

(PDF) The Ethical Archivist, a focused and remarkably readable guide for archivists, provides a tidy summary of the profession as seen through the prism of ethics. An explanation is provided as to why this book provides abundant practical information for the professional archivist and provocative food for thought for the general public.

(PDF) The latest news, trends, and analysis affecting you and your organization. (12 pages total).

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(PDF) From paper to smart phones, the simplicity of managing information is long gone. Today's technologies, the electronic information expolosion, and a mobile workforce present unprecedented challenges. Learn about solutions to some of the most common risks organizations are facing today.

(PDF) The discipline of records management is comprehensive, governing information from creation to final disposition. This article explains how the concept of a records life cycle emanates from this as a useful metaphor.

(PDF) Failing to capture and preserve social media activities risks violating any number of compliance, regulatory, and legal requirements. Read on to learn why this risks leave organizations woefully unprepared for producing social media data during e-discovery and what your organization can do about it.

(PDF) One of the common pitfalls inherent in determining proper retention and disposition of records and information is determining whose job is it. Learn how an organization can avoid such catastrophe and stay out of the news by adhering to the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles® (GARP®).

(PDF) The results of the third annual Forrester Research/ARMA International technology
market trends survey highlight the complexity of deploying technology, grappling with high costs, managing e-discovery expectations, and obtaining a seat at the table. Learn the factors driving these findings.

(PDF) Electronic Discovery Practice under the Federal Rules is a detailed chronicle of the federal e-discovery rules and their continuing evolution throughout the digital age. Providing concise summations and extensive bibliographical footnotes, learn why this book serves as a valuable reference for information professionals.

(PDF) KM-WM: A New Vision Based on Conceptual Theories of Knowledge and Wisdom is a review of knowledge management (KM) from the perspectives of information science and business management. Read on to learn the answers to several important questions about how and where KM should be implemented in an organization.

(PDF) News, trends, and analysis.

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(PDF) Though each industry has a unique set of data and operations, John Kain explains in this article how organizations can adapt general records and information management guidelines and procedures to use as the foundation for building a highly skilled document unit to respond to hazardous incidents.

(PDF) The legal department called. Your organization is being sued, and the other party wants to depose a records manager – and that’s you. Now what? Don’t panic. Be prepared. This article provides all the details of the 30(b)(6) deposition and explains why it is especially important in that the testimony binds the organization.

(PDF) In 2011, the records management team of Polsinelli Shughart saw a similar opportunity to use this concept and expand the use of GARP® by creating a GARP® Employee Scorecard. Charity Whan clarifies how Polsinelli Shughart’s GARP® Employee Scorecard works and how utilizing the eight GARP® principles can underscore the desirable traits sought in employees.

(PDF) The world has experienced a great deal of natural and man-made upheaval and destruction in the past few years, including tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, fires, uprisings, terrorist attacks, deliberate and accidental data breaches, and cyber attacks. Any organization that believes it is safe from loss due to a natural or manmade disaster is denying reality. Find out why a business continuity plan is the answer.

(PDF) As a result of the Dodd-Frank Act, many organizations should consider revising their current business and compliance practices to satisfy regulatory reporting requirements. Fred Pulzello and Sonali Bhavsar detail how organizations can best adapt to the new rules and regulations and manage the risks that come with it.

(PDF) Cloud Computing Explained provides excellent introductory material about the types of clouds, the pros and cons of their components, and their similarities and differences, including implications for managing information in the cloud; however, it is not a primer. Instead, Julie Gable explains how the book is a structured approach to assessment, design, selection, and implementation of cloud technology.

(PDF) News, trends, and analysis