Information Awareness Month in Australia

The purpose of Information Awareness Month in Australia is to increase public awareness of the breadth of the information industry and the importance of properly maintaining good records and information as it relates to everyone from global Corporations through to small business and even the homemaker – in other words “connecting information and people”. 
Each year sees a theme common to all involved information based groups and Association’s, for example:

• 2006 “Personal Records”
• 2007 “Technology as a Tool”
• 2008 “Safety : Security : Privacy”
• 2009 “Diversity”
• 2010 “Access Across the Generations”
• 2011 “Information overload: Finding the tree in the digital fores”

Information Awareness Month has grown into a collaborative event between various bodies within the records/archiving/information management community including:

• Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIMPA)
• Australian Society of Archivists (ASA)
• National Archives of Australia (NAA)
• Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA), Institute for Information Management (IIM)
• Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)
• Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) 
• and supported by several State Authorities

This commonality of purpose reflects the fact that the various bodies identified are recognised as some of the most widely respected professional bodies in the information management community within not only Australasia but worldwide.
“Information Awareness Month (IAM) will be a major collaborative event on the annual calendar.  It showcases the various streams of information management and highlights the specialist areas.  The ultimate goal of IAM is to ensure the importance and value of information management to the community and to the world as a whole.” said RIMPA’s CEO Kate Walker.
Events are being run throughout May in all states and territories.