Records Retrieval and Information Governance - A Personal Example

I was working in my home office yesterday, and during a conference call, happened to look up at my bookshelf and saw what appeared to be a VHS tape.

Marveling at both my eyesight and my tendency to save stuff because we might need it "someday" - which is also the information governance strategy many organizations employ - I took it off the shelf, dusted it off, and gave it a look.

The title was intriguing - Images of Change - as was the creator - AIIM - and the date - 1989, seven years before I got there. And given that we've been engaged recently in a bit of an industry history quest, as well as searching for intriguing AIIM Conference #TBT posts, I decided last night to embark on a quest to our basement and see if we still owned any devices upon which to play this VHS beast and see what was on this tape.

Low and behold, in another testimony to my "someday" skills, I found an old GoVideo player, hooked it up to the TV, positioned my phone in front of the TV to capture the video, posted the video to Youtube, and voila -- digital preservation. Well, sort of.

Here are some of my favorite parts in the movie:

1. Transmitting images via what was likely a 4800 bit/second modem.  This must certainly have been fun.
2. No email or web CTAs for more information on AIIM ("Call us or write us for more information.")
3. The mean guy who thought he had been "stood up" for the appointment.
4. The curious fact that the main character goes to Dulles Airport to fly to Washington, DC.
5. Re the medical scene, this was obviously pre-HIPAA.
6. The cucumber-cool "Murder, She Wrote" jewelry lady.
7. The Guy With the Spider Tattoo.
8. They had secretaries.