Well, its only filing isnt it

1
 Well, its only filing isnt it ?

• Margaret Procter
• Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies
  (LUCAS)
• NWRAC 22 Nov 2002

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No? What exactly IS records management then?

• Field of management responsible for the efficient
  and systematic control of the creation, receipt,
  maintenance, use and disposition of records
• Records contain information thats a valuable
  resource and an important business asset
• 
  ISO/BS 15489

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WHY organisations should manage their records

• Efficiency
• Accountability - audit
• Compliance - minimise risk
• Evidence-based decision-making
• Protecting stakeholder rights
• High quality research resources including
  publicly accessible archives

4
HOW organisations should manage their records

• square pegs in square holes
• standards
• tools
• sticks and carrots
• it doesnt involve re-inventing the wheel

5
The downside no RM

• Failures in accountability
• Lack of audit trail
• Lost of stakeholder rights
• Inefficiency
• Wasted resources time, money
• A loss of corporate memory
• A loss of cultural identity
• Of course, it couldnt happen here ..

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loses gas leak records

• The Guardian June 18, 2001 Police
  investigate Transco records as part of fatal gas
  blast inquiry following a gas explosion in
  Larkhall, Scotland, in 1999, in which a family of
  four died. "It has been drawn to our attention
  since Larkhall that their records are not that
  accurate," said ... the HSE's hazardous
  installations directorate.

• The Guardian May 8, 2001
• Transco, the privatised monopoly that operates
  Britain's gas pipe network, has admitted that it
  has lost its regional records of the number of
  gas leaks left for repair.

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TRANSCO the lessons

• No control of maintenance and use of records
• Failure to include corporate records within
  business reengineering process
• Inconsistency , lack of audit, lack of
  stakeholder accountability
• Operational disaster
• Loss of life

8
The Dome all publicity is good publicity?

• National Audit Office 2002 found
• No complete contract management database
• Terms of contracts not recorded
• Variants of contracts recorded inconsistently

the absence of adequate records increased the
timescale and cost of the Companys tasks
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Well, its only the Dome

• Well, its only your money

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The regulatory environment

• a major factor in designing an organisation-specif
  ic RM programme
• what do we HAVE to do?
• legislation
• regulation
• standards/codes of practice
• community expectations

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Could this be the end for Sellafield?

• All that began to go badly wrong last
  September. It was then that falsified documents
  were discovered in the plutonium plant at
  Sellafield. These were not safety documents but
  quality controls ... requested by the Japanese
  customers to make sure that when the fuel pellets
  were loaded into Japanese reactors they performed
  perfectly...

March 25, 2000The Guardian
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Data Protection Paedophile interview
police tape left on tip

• A CONFIDENTIAL police interview tape
  containing harrowing allegations about the
  alleged rape of two young sisters has been
  discovered on a Mersey-side rubbish dump.
• Daily Post Oct 24 2002

Fabricated welder Martin Dylan, from Seaforth,
found the tape at a Sefton Council dump in
Maghull. Mr Dylan, 41, said Those sort of
things should be filed away.
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Criminal intent

• Prof Baker was unable to reach firm
  conclusions on how Shipman obtained all the
  diamorphine he used to administer lethal doses to
  the patients whose deaths were suspicious. The
  doctor did not maintain a prescribed drugs
  register.

• The DoH report found Shipman's
  record-keeping was consistently poor. "His
  writing was sometimes illegible, but of greater
  concern was the lack of detail he recorded about
  patients presenting complaints and his clinical
  management."
• January 6, 2001The Guardian

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E-records or Well lets just scan it all then

• Electronic archive plan
• PAPERWORK could become a thing of the past at
  Liverpool's city archive. Information from
  millions of dusty files is being transferred to
  computer discs. About 700,000 documents in 160
  filing cabinets have so far been transferred to
  just 20 compact discs.

Daily Post Feb 23 2002
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Yippee, technology!

• or what the Daily Post should be interested in
  on behalf of council tax payers
• Is the information retrievable when needed?
• Freedom of Information
• Did it need to be retained at all?
• What preservation strategies are in place?
• How long do compact discs last?
• Is the information Data Protection vetted?
• How will it be destroyed?
• Do staff understand their own responsibilities?

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HOW

• square pegs for square holes
• any RM programme supports the organisations
  overall aims
• implementation defined by organisations
• culture,
• structure
• regulatory environment
• generic framework and processes

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ISO BS 15489 2001

• Standard for Records Management - a benchmark or
  starting point
• Accompanying Technical report and series of
  Effective Records Management publications
• Strategies for implementation - making the case
• Practical steps to implementation following
  Australian model (DIRKS) - where are you now?

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Making the case (1)

• Translating that seems like a good idea to
  something a little more robust
• An energy sector example
• reducing space in a new HQ building
• improving speed of access to power station
  records
• providing higher level of productivity through
  easy retrieval of relevant records
• supporting safety regime

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Making the case (2)

• a financial services company
• higher level of access to client investment
  records
• competitive advantage by having information
  organised effectively
• providing better service - at any location
• a national museum
• improving quality rigour of collections mgt
• releasing information in previously inaccessible
  records
• fulfilling corporate aims of education,
  interpretation access

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Tools for the job

• related information management standards
• BS7799 Information Security
• BS DISC PD10 Principles of good practice for
  Information Management
• BS DISC PD8 CoP for legal admissibility
  evidential weight
• information legislation and guidance
• DPA 1998
• FoI 2000 Codes of practice
• LGA 1974 Section 224 guidance

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Specialist guidance

• PRO standards and guidance series
• and on website
• Codes of Practice - Data Protection, FoI
• accessible textbooks
• professional societies
• training opportunities

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In conclusion ...

• effective records management matters
• make the RIGHT case
• sticks or carrots?
• what are the alternatives?

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Any questions?