ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the nature and characteristics of information management as a key corporate activity in a global information-based economy and society. Information is a major element in global competition, present as content and product and as enabler and facilitator in both information-based and more traditional businesses. Information management is management of the information resources of an organization in pursuit of its aims and objectives. In its current incarnation, information management began as a response to the flood of paperwork in the United States Federal Government. The information value management (IVM) approach touches upon certain fundamental problems which are common to information management projects and environments. It could be argued that in the age of the laptop computer and the Internet, information management is no longer necessary at the institutional level, and that technology is making everybody, in effect, their own information manager.
