The forgetting curve and the future of records.

In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus published a paper called "Memory: a contribution to experimental psychology."

What he proposed, was what we now call the forgetting curve - a hypothesis about how memory fades systematically through time. It's not perfect - but it's a pretty good heuristic.

The underlying idea is why records exist.

Recordkeeping is the expression of one thing - a desire to work beyond the limitations of memory.

If memory was perfect, unimpeachable and shareable, we wouldn't need records - it's that simple.

Memory isn't perfect - we forget.

It's not unimpeachable - there's lots of evidence now that we make things up and believe that they're true.

And we obviously can't share our memories.

So we record information that will last, maintain its integrity, and that can be shared with other people.

What does it mean to apply a management discipline to something so elementary, something that's such a natural part of human existence?

That's where I think the records management profession needs an honest dialogue with itself.

Is the job of records managers to capture everything that other people are creating afterwards and to make sure that it's then kept at some kind of standard so that we can look backwards effectively?

OR

Is it the job of records managers to look at the reasons that people are trying to work beyond the ability of memory, and to help them do it better?

Which one do you think it is?

What evidence is there that organisations desire that thing?