Scholars at Beijing’s Archives College have been studying the Western records continuum theories, and traditional and electronic challenges for recordkeeping. College Associate Professor Dr Xiaomi An brings an Oriental focus to the debates.

The paper identifies a course of development for records and information management to the end of the second decade of the 21st Century. It sets out four crusades of endeavour for records and information managers, the development of internationally accepted codes of practice, standards, retention schedules and management software, in what is perceived as an inevitable revolution to harness and control the soaring paper and electronic record usage in society. It becomes an allegory, describing a records and information fictional (R.I.-fi?) but, it argues, attainable world where “Information Strategy” (IS) has achieved the status of directorship in commerce and the IS Director controls policy and actions on a multi-level business platform.