Serie N° 90: Archivística para Bibliotecarios: Puente conceptual entre dos mundos.

Abstract

In Chile the results of the Transparency and Access to Information Law adopted in 2009 have shown the need to improve records management practices in public institutions. However, there is still a lack of formally trained and experienced records managers and archivists to lead the process. For this reason many entities recruit librarians for these jobs, librarianship being the nearest available professional profile. This paper is an introduction to records management and archives aimed at Chilean librarians who are approaching this field for the first time especially in state institutions. In the text I try to make a "conceptual bridge" from the logic of librarianship towards the logic of records/archives management, highlighting particular issues that may be sources of misunderstanding among the "librarian/archivists" because they are new concepts foreign to the standard librarian´s world view.