Integrity in Government through Records Management: Essays in Honour of Anne Thurston

Citation

Eric Boamah (2015), "Integrity in Government through Records Management: Essays in Honour of Anne Thurston", Online Information Review, Vol. 39 No. 4, pp. 591-592. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-05-2015-0159

This book is written to acknowledge Anne Thurston’s exceptional contributions to records management. Her inspiring and determined leadership in mentoring records management professionals in developing countries, as well as driving dedicated experts from advanced countries to develop many records management programmes, projects and training resources over the last 30 years, are discussed in varied perspectives from the contexts to which she has contributed.

Edited by James Lowry from the International Records Management Trust and Justus Wamukoya from Moi University, Kenya, this festschrift consists of 19 essays, stories and case studies, discussing pertinent records management issues and highlighting the practical solutions that Anne Thurston contributed to these issues. The contributors are records management experts who have been Anne Thurston’s former doctoral students and work colleagues.

Ensuring that authentic and reliable records are always available as evidence, for transparency and good governance, is a general challenge in records management, particularly in this digital age. It is therefore hard to imagine records management in poorly resourced developing countries, especially in Africa, where attitudes towards recorded information and its management have been identified as not positive. This makes records management extremely difficult in developing areas. Whilst reading this book deepens our understanding of a variety of record management issues in different contexts, we also become of how professionals, especially in developing countries, can draw inspiration and develop maximum dedication to ensure that authentic and reliable records are maintained for accountability.

The different essays in the book are organised into five parts. How Thurston’s ideas led to the development of the International Records Management Trust and the various ways the Trust has contributed to record-keeping reforms and improvements in Commonwealth African countries begin the discussions. Issues relating to colonial and post-colonial record-keeping in these countries have also been discussed. This is followed by case studies on records, governance and transparency; these look at audit and accountability concerns, land rights protection and the importance of records in the right to information. Also addressed are open data and access to information in various countries. Following the discussion of digital records management and preservation issues in Africa, attention turns to how records and archives management education is perceived in London and how to build bridges between developing countries to enhance record-keeping capacities.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand contextual issues affecting records management in developing countries and to achieve integrity in modern-day records management in this modern age.