I am always following the latest news and information about the records management space, and I participate in a number of social networking sites, list serves, and discussion groups. I get my news through Google alerts, watch webcasts, etc.

What continues to amaze me is the amount of information available out there and the true talent and passion of people within the records industry. People want things to work better, faster, and more efficiently. They want it to be easy to find what they need for an information request. They want to preserve information for future generations. They want knowledge at their fingertips.

Yet, there is so much information. IDC research sized the digital universe at 281 billion gigabytes as of 2007 and close to 487 billion gigabytes in 2008. (IDC's Worldwide Legal Discovery Infrastructure Taxonomy, June 2009). It's very hard to get your head around those numbers.

But it really doesn't matter because access to information is only a Google or Yahoo search away. Right?

Actually that is only if you are looking for electronic information. Have you ever done a search for a really popular keyword? I am betting it was almost impossible to wade through all of the information that came up in your search. Additionally, I imagine that the results didn't include the wealth of information that is still contained in physical format.

A while back I came upon a great article in the Wall Street Journal about teams of computer scientists, conservationists and scholars who are trying to preserve and digitize literary treasures.

I applaud these historians that strive to preserve our past and preserve information for future generations. Technology can and should be used to discover information so that we can learn from the past.

But we need to remember that not everything we find online is 100% accurate.
The article states:

"Some experts say the push toward online archiving could ultimately hurt scholarly work by creating the illusion that everything is available online, when the digital record remains full of holes. In the age of instant information, physical artifacts seem increasingly at risk of being rendered obsolete."

The ability to determine what is a complete record, what is accurate, and what is authentic is the key to information. A reminder that technology is only as good as the people and process that defines it "“ which makes the records professional key to any organization.