A Logan City Council employee has won a prestigious industry scholarship to further develop her knowledge in records and information management.
Meryl Bourke says attending the 2023 International InfoCon conference in the United States in October is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a highlight of her 37-year career.
The opportunity comes through the Records and Information Practitioners Alliance (RIMPA Global)’s inaugural International Scholarship.
“I pride myself on professional development and the importance of sharing stories, experiences and knowledge,” Ms Bourke said.
“It will be an amazing experience to represent the RIMPA Global community, gain valuable insights and discover future industry trends that I can bring back to RIMPA and Logan.”
In applying for the scholarship, Ms Bourke needed to demonstrate her RIMPA and industry activities from the past 10 years and provide a video talking about the benefits of attending INFOCON.
More than 500 delegates are expected to attend the conference in Detroit, Michigan, from October 8 to 11.
“I am keen to learn, listen, observe, build relationships and continue to advocate for best practices in information management,” Ms Bourke said.
“I am also passionate about raising awareness of the importance of records and information – it can influence policy locally, nationally and internationally.”
Ms Bourke – Logan City Council’s Records Management Program Leader – has been a member of RIMPA Global since 2000. Council has been a corporate member since 1988.
When she started as a Records Officer in 1985, records were paper based with physical files and correspondence circulated across the organisation.
“A key skill of a classifier was attention to detail, knowledge of all business activities and a great memory,” Ms Bourke said.
“Our classification index, commonly referred to as the classifier bible, remained in use until the early 1990s and consisted of approximately 60 pages neatly stored in a lever arch folder.”
Council introduced digital records in 1999 and there are now more than 16 million documents within Logan’s electronic records and information management system.
