Rediscovering the Theoretical Base of Records Management and Its Implications for Graduate Education: Searching for the New School of Information Studies

Abstract

In the Fall 1992 issue of JELIS, Eugenia K. Brumm published a brief description of the graduate records management education program at the University of Texas at Austin Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Brumm attempts to demonstrate to library educators that they should support graduate records management education because it has a theoretical base that is shared with library science. While Brumm's goal is desirable, this article sets out to show that linking records management theory with the broader discipline of information science and its information resource management perspectives is a more fruitful and accurate approach. It will further show that the critical link between archives and records theory is central to records management education, while library science theory is only tangential to it. The author calls for two changes: (1) that information professionals and educators broaden their awareness beyond the library profession to include other information professions and their disciplinary knowledge and theoretical bases and (2) the evolution of new schools of information studies will respect the need for independent degrees based on the distinct disciplinary knowledge that defines and supports each information profession. He strongly endorses the development of graduate degree programs for the nonbibliographic information professions in the United States.