Records management education and training at Liverpool: a year of change at LUCAS

Abstract

This article represents a reflection on issues which have arisen in the course of a year of change in archives and records management (ARM) training and education at the University of Liverpool, and reports on initiatives for new records management courses and methods of delivery planned for the near future.1 Any evaluation of vocational education and training must begin with an examination of the nature of the profession itself, which dictates the larger part of the content of such a programme. It therefore begins with a reflection on current developments in records management theory and practice in the UK, before describing how the University has sought to accommodate them. Outside the UK, in Australia and North America in particular, debate about the nature of records management training has been vigorous,2 but in the UK public debate has been rare. In an attempt to stimulate debate this paper therefore also aims to contribute to the establishment of a records management education agenda which educators and the ARM profession at large may fruitfully address together.