NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS AND ARCHIVES MANAGEMENT
FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
BSC Hons INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY
NAME: PANASHE E CHITAPI
STUDENT NUMBER: N02160040W
COURSE LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
CURSE CODE: IIM 2107
LECTURER: DR A. DUBE
QUESTION: Discuss he importance of a professional association in your profession
Information management and technology is a profession which involves the collection, storage,
management and maintenance of data and other types of information. A professional association
in information management is a body of a knowledge based group whose main concern is the
promotion of technical standards. It is also referred to as groups or people who share a concern
or passion about something they do or learn how to do it better as they interact regularly
(Weckert 2015). According to UNESCO, professional associations are very important in the
profession of information management and technology as they enhance greater networking,
education, career development and financial benefits to the professionals in the association.
Professional associations like International Council Archives, Southern African Society of
Archivists, Society of American Archivists and others of aim to promote, develop, and safeguard
records and archives management as well as information management or occupation. In addition,
they can represent the interests of those working in a profession or field. Professional
associations are also sometimes called professional bodies, organisations, or societies. The
purpose of this write up is to discuss the importance of professional associations in Information
management and technology.
According the UNESCO, through professional associations, records and archives members can
share ideas which in turn are used by the professionals within the profession. This facilitates
networking by having professionals from different backgrounds interacting on records
management issue. This is supported by Moyo (2016) who states that,” a sense of belonging and
a voice is provided by a professional association while at the same time creating a platform to
collate and collect viewpoints on practice and policy”. This, according to UNESCO (1995)
makes a professional association an information repository and powerhouse of professional
expertise from which stakeholders can contain information and direction. In this context, it
should be noted that professional associations provide access a resources for research purposes
and provides answers and solutions to concerns by the professional in the profession.
Professional associations enhance networking which is the ability to share experiences and
information with others in a similar line of work which is the most common reason to join and
remain a member of professional associations. This is as a result of the fact that operating in
isolation, reinventing the wheel and simply mot being sure of the best course of action or
common practices in the industry is a source of frustration. Networking is benefit provided by
professional like ICA associations as a whole by shedding light on common issues in the
information management profession such as preservation, technological obsolescence and others,
providing a venue for ongoing discussions to establish standards and best practices and
disseminating information that is either formally or informally peer reviewed. For example, after
the journalist Cristina Fellaras published the tweet about a woman who claimed to have been
rapped by 5 man known as the “Wolfpack”, the Catalan Society of Archivists decided to explore
a model of societal archive and capture to its contextualization and diffusion (Joseph, 2015). This
resulted in the creation of a community of practice and work worked cooperatively with the
promoter of HT (hashtag), with data journalist and with the team of analytic and data
visualization of the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. This shows that professional associations
help in bringing solutions.
One of the most crucial roles of professional associations in the Information management and
technology profession is providing education. Most professional associations provide some type
of education and or certification and consider it on of their key missions. Once professional
standards and practices emerge, associations can design curricula and being offering classes or
online training (Norton, 2010). The benefits of education, training and certification offered by
professional bodies include showing that one is committed to excellence and interested in
achieving and maintaining a high level of competency. In the educational role, professional
associations provide reading sources, publish journals, magazines, white papers, webinars, blogs,
and relevant information in nearly every form, to ensure that students are enriched with quality
information which sustain their education progress. Examples of reading sources are ESABICA,
IRMT, ISO 15489 and others. These ensure quality education in the management of information
(records) paper based and electronic one, therefore professionals in the Information management
profession are able to effectively manage information in respect of policies and mission
statements.
Professional associations are also very important in the profession of Information management
and technology because it expose information practitioners to a habit of knowledge sharing
(Weckert, 2015). This is in the sense that professional associations like International Council of
Archives provides for its professionals room to communicate and share knowledge relating to the
profession and experiences in the profession via its website. Professional such as archivists,
records managers and information manages write articles and sometimes communicate via zoom
meetings sharing both tacit and explicit knowledge on the platform hosted by the International
Council of Archives hence improving awareness and comprehension around school of thought.
Knowledge sharing enhanced by professional association provide the information professionals
with problem solving skills through knowledge sharing platforms like zoom, google meetings
hosted by the association which provides the greater potential they materialise within less formal
or more structures.
Another Advantage belonging to a professional association is direct financial benefits
(Edmondson, 1998). This is in the sense that, members of the associations such as students and
professionals in my profession (Information management and technology) receive discounted
prices on just about every product or service offered by the association, and quite often just one
product, course, or conference admission pays back more than spent on an individual
membership. Membership to a professional association like Society of American Archivist has
deliverables such as journals or magazines at no extra cost, as well as access to studies and
reports that would otherwise cost hundreds of dollars or more. This Association (SAA) arrange
for discounts on other products as well such as special access to online libraries and even group
insurance especially when most of the members are self-employed.
Conclusively, it is very crucial to note that after having considered all the advantages explained
in the above paragraphs, Professional associations provide real, tangible value to those who
belong to them. They become fellowships and institutions of learning, sounding boards and crisis
counsellors, and authoritative sources of information and nourishment for a career. This is due to
the networking, education, knowledge sharing and others explained above. Therefore the
profession of Information management and technology would not make it a success without the
involvement of professional associations such as Society of American Archivists, Southern
African Society of Archivist, and International Council of Archives and others.
REFERENCES
1. Edmondson, R. 1998. Criteria for professionalism. In: Edmondson, R. 1998. A
philosophy of audio-visual archiving. London: United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organisation
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professionalism-708.html.
3. Norton, A. (2010). 10 things that define a true professional - TechRepublic. [online]
TechRepublic. Available at: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-things-that-
define-a-true-professional.
4. Psc.gov.au, (2015). What is a profession? Professional Standards Councils. [online]
Available at: http://www.psc.gov.au/what-is-a-profession.
5. Totalprofessions.com, (2015). Professional bodies. [online] Available at:
http://www.totalprofessions.com/more-about-professions/role-of-professional-bodies.
6. Weckert, J. (2015). 'Introduction' in Professionalism in the Information and
Communication Technology Industry. [online] Press.anu.edu.au. Available at:
http://press.anu.edu.au/apps/bookworm/view/Professionalism+in+the+Information+and+
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