Document management and records (based in part upon materials by Frank Upward and Robert Hartland)

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1 Today s lectre IMS1603 Lectre 21 What does docment management entail? Docment management and records (based in part pon materials by Frank Upward and Robert Hartland) a Thinking more abot records as particlar kinds of docments to manage 2 What is docment management? Docment management is the efficient and effective storage of recorded information in the form of docments so that it can be sed in or actions and thinking, and provide knowledge abot past actions and thinking Records are particlar kinds of docments 3 Bt first, revisiting a key term According to the Commonwealth Evidence Act 1995, the term docment encompasses: (a) anything on which there is writing; or (b) anything on which there are marks, figres, symbols or perforations having a meaning for persons qalified to interpret them; or (c) anything from which sonds, images or writings can be reprodced with or withot the aid of anything else; or (d) a map, a plan, drawing or photograph (qoted in Kennedy & Schader 1998: 7) 4 And another: records (information byprodcts) The critical characteristic is that a record has to be linked to doing something it is inherently transactional in its natre (Reed 2005: 102) And now, a story On 4 March 2005, an Italian jornalist held captive in Iraq for 30 day was released into the cstody of two Italian secret service agents. Docmentation concerning what happened in the following hors contines to be dispted by a range of parties, inclding the Italian and US governments. 5 6

2 Records management Records, like archives Recordkeeping systems captre the content of docments, re-present their strctre, and link related docments together. They retain the information content and strctre of records in reconstrctible relations, and make adit trails abot their sbseqent management, access and se always reslt from deliberate and partial acts of selection, accmlation, classification and description, acts that contribte to bilding social and organizational strctres of remembering and forgetting (McKemmish 2005: 17) (McKemmish 2005: 9) 7 8 Goals of records management Goals of records management Define the recordkeeping needs of the nit Develop bsiness rles and standards to spport the creation and captre of complete and accrate records Develop systems and controls to ensre the captre of complete and accrate records (Kennedy & Schader 1998: 14) Develop systems and services that will provide efficient and appropriate access to records Set p processes to monitor compliance with external and internal recordkeeping reqirements Ensre the organisation is appropriately prepared for adits of records by external reglatory bodies (Kennedy & Schader 1998: 14) 9 10 Making docments evidential To be evidential, Evidence i.e. what happened? Legal view (bt it is more than this) Transactionality what activity was taking place? Identity who was involved in the activity? 11 docments need contextal information! What happened? Is there compliance with legal reqirements? What activity was the transaction part of? Who was involved in the activity and transaction? What is the natre of the recordkeeping system in which the docments aggregate? 12

3 Records Records Have evidential qalities Set down or register something in a persistent form (even if they persist for only a short time) Are fixed (althogh copies of them can be drawn down in flid form for frther se) 13 Are retrievable in their original state Provide information that we want to memorialise 14 Records need to be reliable, to help s to nderstand what has been done previosly in the corse of completing [certain] actions, check if something was done correctly, answer qestions asked sbseqent to the actions that took place, jstify actions, provide precedents for acting consistently, provide assrance to people external to the action that those actions were appropriate, enable external scrtiny to show what happened in particlar instances, and enable the information content of the record to be resed as reqired (Reed 2005: 106) 15 Paper verss electronic storage There are advantages and disadvantages with both media: For the first time in 3,500 years of archival activity we prodce records that do not exist to the hman eye nlike Babylonian clay tablets, Egyptian papyrs, Roman and medieval parchment, modern paper, even microfilm (Cook, qoted in Li 2004: 280) 16 Captre strategies inclde Captre strategies inclde Placing docments in a transactional seqence in a file, electronic directory etc. which cannot be rearranged withot there being evidence of this Registering docments dring action processes which provides evidence of the existence of records in a recordkeeping system and the seqence in which it was placed / sed within that seqence 17 18

4 Captre strategies inclde Bsiness record aggregations Workflow control which can provide evidence of: Where docments are located Action otstanding Actors involved in transactions When action took place What recordkeeping transactions have been ndertaken on the record Aggregations inclde files, folders, dossiers and series. NB. Bsiness records depend pon the qality of the means by which a record is captred A record in aggregated form Main types of record aggregations can be both fixed and flid becase it can grow and: be sed in different transactions sed in parts FILES arrange and classify docments and hold them together (physically or otherwise) DOSSIERS are similar to files bt sally a bndle of docments on the same sbject a person or object SERIES are docments similar in form and sed repetitively for the same kinds of administrative prposes (Reed 2005: 109) The records life cycle model The records life cycle model It has long been common to say that records pass throgh a particlar life cycle: Creation Distribtion creation distribtion se maintenance disposal (Kennedy & Schader 1997: 9) Disposal Maintenance Use 23 24

5 Criticisms of the records life cycle model as docment-centred rather than secentred Some see the process as even simpler By placing disposal, inclding the identification of records of contining vale, as the last stage in the records life cycle, a life cycle model does not emphasise the need to design systems which ensre the captre of these records of contining vale in the first place (Kennedy & Schader 1997: 10) A different model of records life cycle Sees three stages throgh which records can move: Active Semi-active Inactive Active The active stage of a record is when it is initially created, for example, when a file is made p or a memo is transmitted sing electronic mail. The record is reqired qite freqently by the records ser. It is therefore necessary for the record to be stored close to the work area of the branch, section or agency. (State Records NSW 1996) Semi-active Inactive Semi-active. As time goes by, the need to se a particlar record diminishes. The records ser may environment in which it operates. It is at this stage where the record is semi-active or semi-crrent. Semi-active records may be stored away from the work area at an off site storage facility, and activities sch as appraisal and sentencing are often carried ot at this stage in the records life cycle model. (State Records NSW 1996) 29 As more time goes by, the administrative vale of semi-active records diminishes even frther, to the extent that there is no need on the part of the records ser to refer to them. It is at this stage that records are disposed of. Most records are destroyed, while a small percentage with contining vale are retained as archives. (State Records NSW 1996) 30

6 The records continm approach encompasses the whole extent of a record s existence. Refers to a consistent and coherent regime of management processes from the time of the creation of records (and before creation, in the design of recordkeeping systems), throgh to the preservation and se of records as archives. (Standards Astralia 1996, qoted in Kennedy & Schader 1997: 10) Frther reading Kennedy, J. & Schader, C. (1998) Records management: a gide to corporate recordkeeping. Second Edition. Melborne: Addison Wesley Longman. Z. Li (2004) The evoltion of docments and its impacts, Jornal of Docmentation 60(3). McKemmish, S. (2005) Traces: docment, record, archive, archives, in S. McKemmish et al. (eds.) Archives: Recordkeeping in Society. Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Stdies. Middleton, M. (2002). Information Management. Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Stdies, Charles Strt University. Reed, B. (2005) Records, in S. McKemmish et al. (eds.) Archives: Recordkeeping in Society. Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Stdies. State Records New Soth Wales (1996) The Records Continm, For The Record 12, November, accessed 13 May