A brief history of the Information and Records Management Society - United Kingdom

Birth of the Records Management Profession

The human need for text-based information is as old as the art and science of writing things down. The invention of the printing press made possible the production of multiple copies of documents such as business letters, reports and correspondences that were handwritten. Such handwritten documents needed to be catalogued, filed and stored for future reference so that the information they contained would not be lost. 

From 1867, a technological revolution arrived in the form of the ‘typewriter’ and typed documents began to be created. The typewriter produced skilled secretaries, typists, typing pools and clerks whose entire careers were based on the creation, storage and retrieval of textual documents. The combination of these people, the typewriter, carbon paper, shorthand notebooks and filing cabinets could be said to have started the first generation blueprint for a document and records management system for business and government. 

The birth of the records manager evolved at the end of World War II to resolve the chaos of managing the mountains of hard copy documents, folders and storage boxes. The records manager and records management team (in simplistic terms) sat between the filing cabinet and storage area. Their primary role was to pick up storage boxes, catalogue, track, protect, archive and return hard copy folders and storage boxes on request.  

The Evolution of the Records Management Society in the United Kingdom

In 1983, under the guidance of its first Chair Tom LeCompte, the Records Management Society (RMS) of the UK was established and this marked the dawn of professional records managers and records management in the United Kingdom. The primary goal of the Records Management Society was to serve the growing community of record managers. Starting small and growing slowly over the years the Records Management Society took on more and more members and volunteers and provided more membership benefits. It was not until 2011 that the Records Management Society rebranded to reflect the changing landscape and technology drivers to become known as the Information and Records Management Society (IRMS). The following table is a list of Chairs from 1983 to present day, all of whom have volunteered their services, provided leadership to our teams of volunteers over the ages and been drivers towards making the Society what it is today.

Reflecting on the timeline of changes

Reflecting on the timeline of changes marks the start of a new era for record managers. One of these changes goes back as far as 1961 with the introduction of the IBM 7090. It allowed users at different terminals to log into the computer and transfer files they were using onto the computer’s central hard disk thereby effectively using the operating system as a mail box. The sending of text-based messages between computers in this way therefore predates the existence of the world wide web and the internet. 

In 1985, we saw the introduction of the first Microsoft Windows PCs and word processing packages. This was the start of the explosion of hardcopy printed documents and the gradual demise of typing pools. The typewriter and carbon paper became a memory of the past.

The 1990s also saw the expansion of capture, digital storage, scanning, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) and business software applications such as EDRM (electronic document and records management). It should be noted that from the mid-1960s, OCR was being used by companies for tasks such as bill payments and sorting mail. It was now possible to connect OCR systems directly to computers, thus producing data as electronic files. ICR for data extraction from handwritten and textual documents started to emerge as a business tool in about 1993. 

In 1995, the first ‘webmail’ (known today as email) programs were demonstrated, such as Microsoft’s Outlook. IT and business embraced the adoption of webmail as a business communication tool, and the printing out and filing of business-related emails commenced. The combination of word processing and email had an adverse impact on records managers, and these new technologies contributed to the development of new theories, frameworks, standards, policies and guidelines on how to manage and preserve the volume growth of printed hardcopy documents and the associated records management challenges. 

By 1995, 34 years had passed since OCR and Omni-font were available. PCs were now embedded in daily business routines with documents not only being printed, but also saved onto network drives, floppy disks, USB and other storage devices. It would be another few years before digital scanning of hardcopy records was to be considered as IT solution to the growing hardcopy document problem.  

Snapshot of events and a new era for the Information and Records Management Society

The introduction of scanning moved the records management profession towards the concept of ‘digitisation’ and contributed to the changing landscape for records managers in the United Kingdom. From 1995-2007 a great many influences and drivers brought with it some exciting transformations for the Records Management Society. For example:

In Autumn 1983 the Society's 'Bulletin' had its first edition going to celebrate its 100th edition in December 2000 and now (February 2021) on edition 220 and a bigger readership base than ever. 

Between 1995 and 2010, the Records Management Society was growing and actively seeking new ways of attracting new volunteers and members. In 1996 under Chair Philip Jones (1995-1998), the Records Management Society launched its ‘professional of the year’ award. 2003 saw the launch of the popular JISCMAIL Records Management UK Listserv community, which is still going strong to this day. In 2007, the Society found a new home for its Annual Conference at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton under Chair Paul Duller (2005-2009). A home that it would continue to visit for future conferences until 2018 and now travels across the UK. Three years later, the Records Management Society launched the Alison North New Professionals award under Chair Matthew Stephenson (2009-2013) in order to encourage new talent and professionals into the records management industry.

Since 2011, with the acceleration of technological savoir-faire and the disruptive forces of the Cloud, Big Data, and Software-as-a-Service, mobile solutions and evolving technologies have pushed the boundaries of records management. In response to changing needs and to better reflect the needs of its members, two landmark events took place. Firstly, the Records Management Society was rebranded the Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) under the leadership of Chair Matthew Stephenson (2009-2013). Then in 2012,the Information and Records Management Society launched ‘Accreditation’ as a class of membership for those individuals who demonstrate a certain level of skill and experience within the profession. 

2013 marked the 30th anniversary of the Information and Records Management Society, and at the annual conference, Chairs Matthew Stephenson (2009-2013) and Nicholas Cooper (2013-2014) launched the IRMS Fellowship programme and 30 industry professionals were awarded the senior most level of society membership.

In 2016 Meic Pierce Owen (2014-2016) oversaw completion of the IRMS' migration to a new website and membership platform with Scott Sammons (2016-20) expanding the IRMS' digital and membership offering. Scott started off the process for the IRMS to restructure to become a Charity, a process which is now underway and lead by Reynold Leming (2020-2023) and Jaana Pinnick (2023-present) with charity status eagerly awaited for the Society's next chapter!