In the September/October 2018 issue of Information Management, William LeFevre wrote a piece entitled “Leveraging Legacy Historical Records to Create Organizational Value.”  He explained that the “data explosion” has blurred the lines between active and inactive records that typically divided records managers from archivists.  He encouraged information management professionals to consider additional uses of records beyond their typical administrative, fiscal, and legal uses, including:

• marketing and communications
• employee training and education
• strengthening corporate identity
• documenting mission and history
• data mining

He pointed to success stories from Coca-Cola and Ford to justify the retention of historical corporate records and suggested it may be appropriate to engage external appraisers (i.e., archivists) in identifying records.  He concluded,

“Telling stories through corporate records can enhance efforts to brand or rebrand, advance the organization’s mission, boost employee loyalty programs, enhance training efforts, and improve community outreach efforts, all of which will bolster the organization’s internal and external brand.”