Where is the records practice boundary?

Where you draw the boundary determines the tools that you have at your disposal, and the value you can provide.

For many years, the practice boundary has been at the point at which someone saves their record in a records system - ie. when the registry entry for the record is created.

The ISO definition asks us to get systematic control of the creation of records - which implies that it wants us engaged somewhat earlier.

My view is that records exist to help people organise themselves and remember beyond the capacity of their working memory.

The boundary we drew around databases that said "not us" means that a whole other group has grown up to manage those records.

Wherever you draw your practice boundary, I'd ask you to do it consciously.

Be conscious of what you exclude.

If you draw the boundary at the system, there's one technical toolset you can use, and people will treat you like a system administrator - because that's what you will become.

If you draw it at the creation point, your toolset is bigger - but so is the scope of your responsibility.

If you draw the boundary at helping people organise themselves and remember things critical to their work - you're at a whole other level of responsibility, and also of ability to help.

This is important for records now, because our boundaries are deciding our future.

Many of us are handling the problem with "records" as a label but changing the label - but if the boundary doesn't change, in the long term the label won't matter.