Facet Publishing announces the publication of Recordkeeping Cultures by Gillian Oliver and Fiorella Foscarini.

As a fully revised and expanded edition of Records Management and Information Culture, Recordkeeping Cultures introduces new original research addressing the widely recognised problem of improving organisation-wide compliance with a records management programme. By addressing the different aspects that make up an organisation’s information culture, the authors provide the insight necessary for the development and promotion of sound recordkeeping practices.

Topics explored include strategies and guidelines for assessment at each level of a refined Information Culture Assessment Framework. This book also provides suggestions for specific interventions to influence behavioural change, and an Information Culture Analysis Toolkit helps facilitate the application of an information culture approach in organisations. Three indicators that enable the identification and assessment of information cultural characteristics: genres, workarounds and infrastructure, are discussed in detail, and readers can also expect further reflections on education and training using the information culture approach.

Gillian Oliver and Fiorella Foscarini said of the text: “The information culture approach is grounded in ‘soft’ systems thinking and relies on ethnographic methods. Both allow a culturally sensitive approach that is essential to understanding and practicing recordkeeping not as a set of techniques or a policy statement, but as a complex, ongoing, human-centred activity. Managing relationships and helping people engage in structured discussions about their organization’s recordkeeping strengths and weaknesses are among the goals of this book.”

Recordkeeping Cultures will be essential reading for information professionals all over the world. Practitioners will find this text an invaluable guide to improving practice and solving the ‘people problem’ of non-compliance with records management programmes, while LIS students will benefit from the application of theory into practice. Educators will find the ideas and approaches discussed in this book useful to add an information culture perspective to their curricula.

Gillian Oliver is Associate Professor of Information Management at Monash University in Australia. Previously she led teaching and research into archives and records at Victoria University of Wellington and the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. Her research interests focus on data cultures, including the information cultures of workplaces and issues relating to the continuity of digital information, particularly in development contexts. She is the author of four books, including Records Management and Information Culture (2014) and Recordkeeping Informatics for a Networked Age (2018) and is co-editor-in-chief of the journal Archival Science.

Fiorella Foscarini is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. She holds a PhD in archival science from the University of British Columbia. Before joining academia, she worked as an archivist and a records manager for various institutions, including the European Central Bank and the Province of Bologna. She also taught archival studies at the University of Amsterdam. Fiorella is co-author of Records Management and Information Culture (2014) and co-editor of Engaging with Records and Archives: Histories and Theories (2016). She currently serves as General Editor of Archivaria.

Recordkeeping Cultures | September 2020 | 216pp | paperback: 9781783303991 | £55| hardback: 9781783304004 | £110