It has been accentuated. An organization is a system consisting of: people, material resources and information, being the last, the nerve center of the previous two that allows the survival of these. This statement refers to the most recent conceptions defended by the Information Management (IM), in the sense that organizations should be considered primarily as information systems.
Lynda Woodman's definition of IM states that "management is everything that refers to obtaining the right information, for the right person, at the right price, at the right time and place, to make the right decision."
As for the MIR, part of the assumption of recognition that information is a resource, a value that should be managed like any other, because among the similar characteristics we have:
* acquired at a cost and chargeable in money
* has specific and measurable characteristics
* control of the cost of information,
* has a life cycle,
* ability to be processed and refined, etc.
For Elizabeth Adams "the MIR is a function of top management, to develop a series of policies, programs and procedures to effectively and effectively plan, manage and control the information needs and support resources of information management." In this directive task, the components that participate and the areas in which the person responsible for it must operate are:
1.- information resources: that is, identification, evaluation and use of these, not only internal but also external.
2.- Appropriate technology: to collect, store, retrieve or disseminate information.
3.-management: general planning, human resources, communication, accounting and marketing.
In today's world, there is a tendency to grant special treatment to everything that is related to information; and it is this situation that gives rise to the importance of the management / management of information resources (MIR).
This era of information, characterized as significant changes, flexibility, uncertainty and the "great battles" (for competitiveness, leadership, competition, reduction of uncertainty and risk, etc.), it is necessary to keep updated as soon as to the significant changes that occur in the technology of products and processes, as well as in their management and competitiveness patterns.
We live in an era where the common denominator of progress will be the wise application of information, science and technology, in the production of goods and services for the satisfaction of social needs, as well as the adequate use of resources to increase the wellbeing of society and man. In others, words, we are talking about the correct management of information.
Information management is the new name of the development. Are the professionals (librarians, documentalists) ready to accept the challenge? We believe that information professionals are in an adequate situation, have knowledge, resources, capacity and conditions to maintain a sustainable leadership in the organization of information, but they have to determine what they believe their position should be and fight for it. We must start from the basic criteria, restructure the concept of the information scientist to adapt it to the new, complex and changing needs of the organization and the community.