C.C.C - Chapter 1

Hi Team,

I hope that you were able to read through chapter one without any difficulties.  For some of you the information in Chapter 1 may be a refresh of what you already know, while for others it may be a whole new world.  As discussed in class, there are a lot of different acronyms that you might be introduced to within this subject.  My suggestion is to make your own dictionary & keep a note of them.  To start you off here are some:

• BCS – Business Classification Scheme
• EDRMS – Electronic Document Records Management System (eg TRIM or Objective)
• GDS – General Disposal Schedule (GDS15 used for State Government, GDS20 for Councils)
• RDS – Records Disposal Schedule (specific to the agency. Mainly implemented & used by State government)
• NAP – Normal Administrative Practice (more about this in upcoming Disposal subject)
• SARKMS – South Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Standard (more about this in Chapter 3)
• GLAM – Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums 
• GILF – Government Information Licensing Framework 

Please feel free to add to this list & share with our team.

Power Point Slide homework emailed last week

Today's lesson we started off with looking at the PowerPoint that I sent you last week.  Some of the discussions that were raised from the slides included:

Newspaper Vs File
Both of these contain information that may be relevant to certain stakeholders.  If there is an article regarding your agency or your line of business then that may be relevant information that needs to be captured as a record.  The rest of the newspaper that does not pertain to the aforementioned is information.  We are constantly bombarded with information and we need to be mindful that our records are derived from this information in a variety of formats from audio to micro-fiche to paper to electronic.

Puzzle Women
If you did a Google search, not too much info comes up.  However the puzzle women (and men) are a group of German individuals piecing together the shredded and torn documents that were left behind from the Stasi.  The Stasi ("secret" East Germany  State Security Service) collected and kept confidential files on approx 6 million East German Citizens.  Once the Berlin Wall came down (1989) the Stasi tried to destroy these files (electronic shredding, burning, hand torn), leaving behind approx 400 years of work to restore the files!  Sounds interesting?!  Then check out the book "Stasiland: Stories from behind the Berlin Wall", by Anna Funder

Records in Container
Seen something similar in your agency?  Surprisingly shipping containers in the car park are not an adequate, or responsible, area to store your records.  No doubt you can imagine the possible OHS&W issues by storing records in this way. Some of the issues raised were the degradation of records being stored with no climate control, no visible filing system, no order to the files and documents, they appear to be stacked a few deep as well as high making document locating almost impossible – dang! There goes the timeline for the FOI request!

Responsible for records
Unfortunately it is not one individual in the photo - it is everyone's responsibility.  Being a Recordkeeping professional means that you have to get others on board to see the value of creating, capturing and maintaining records within the agency.  Understand that this isn't always easy.  One thing that you might consider is photocopying the nine questions on page 17 and handing it out to your internal customers.  It helps them to identify what a record is and in the long run, hopefully help you!

Twin Towers
This slide highlights the need for a Disaster Plan.  Have you considered the records within your agency and how secure they are.  Some people were not aware if their area had a Disaster Management Plan.  So part of your homework this week is to investigate if you have one and where it is located!  Maybe the details need to be updated.  

We don't have to look too far from home (Queensland floods 2011) to see that a disaster can strike at any time, and the excuse of "it won't happen to us" is like putting your head in the sand!  

Al Capone
Ahh if only he had his receipts and records up to date!  Mr Capone was jailed for tax evasion as he didn't have the necessary documents to support his claims.

Chapter 1

For this chapter we covered the foundation of Records Management (RM). 

As students of this subject it is important for you to get RM awareness up and running with your internal customers.  Pay particular attention to the "Roles and Responsibilities" of everyone within your agency (pg 26-27).  Everyone has a role to play in recordkeeping, you just have to help them with their lines!

Fig 1 Simple reminder of "what is a record?"
Some examples of what could be handed out to your colleagues

It was suggested to create a little “aide memoir” or pocket sized aid card with the nine questions (p17) on it to assist staff to identify if what they are looking at is a record or something that is just for information.  Have a look at the great examples that some agencies have handed out to their staff.  Maybe something fo rthe next staff meeting perhaps :)

So, the points that we discovered about records…

They come in three primary formats

• Hard copy – paper, photographs, diaries, maps, letters, application forms, Minutes, timetables etc
• Electronic – images, data on USB sticks, internet, intranet, email, diaries, Google maps, blogs, application forms, Minutes etc
• Audio/Verbal – recordings of discussions, audiovisual footage recorded by the police at a crime scene etc.

There are four main types of record that you may encounter at your agency

• Active – open and being used
• Inactive – closed and even though the file can still be referred to,  nothing can be added to it
• Archived – these are permanent value records and ideally would be stored at State Records of South Australia
• Vital – these are the records that your agency must be able to access in order to continue business – they are the records that are crucial to continuing operations should a disaster occur.

We create and capture records for the following reasons

• Historical – to capture the history of important events in time
• Administrative – to capture the corporate knowledge of our agency or business, provides customers with a level of transparency into the administrative operations of our business should procedures or decisions be questioned, and 
• Legal – our records serve as evidence that can be used in a court of law.  They show how decisions were made and the events that lead up to that decision

Information becomes a record if it…

• Relates to my work
• Forms part of the organisation’s transaction/business
• Adds value to an existing record
• Shows how a transaction was dealt with
• Shows how a decision was reached
• Shows when and where an event happened
• Indicates who was involved and what advice was given
• Requires someone to action it
• Relates to a formal draft of a cabinet submission, an agreement or legal document
• Is the original document created by my agency as part of its  business transaction

Agencies take carriage of producing their own Records Management Programs. To be used in conjunction with relevant legislation and the Adequate Records Management Framework.  The agency RM Plan should cover these points.  (detailed in length starting p.23)

• Records Management Policies and Procedures
• Business Classification Scheme
• Thesaurus
• Disposal Schedule
• Disposal Program
• Training and Education
• Corporate Records Management System
• Disaster Preparedness

The Business Classification Scheme (BCS) is a hierarchy of terms that are derived from the functional analysis of our business (this is covered in length during the Certificate IV training so don’t feel freaked out by this).  

Just remember that the terms within the BCS are a hierarchy of terms. 

These terms determine how we title our records – the “Keyword AAA” (terms that are common to all state government departments/agencies) or the “Local Government Thesaurus (LGT - common to all of local government).  They also determine how we dispose of our records using a General Disposal Schedule (GDS) or a “Record Disposal Schedule” (RDS).  See the diagram below.

Fig 2 By conducting a functional analysis, you can then determine the agency's BCS 

We also covered the importance of maintaining out records to ensure that the integrity of the data is not lost over time – I used the old Commodore 64 cassette tapes as my example.  Who even has a cassette player at home these days that can play music, let alone one that reads computer data written in an outdated computer language?  It is imperative that electronic records are migrated and evolved to reflect advances in technology!!!  For those of you who aren’t familiar with a Commodore 64 check it out here . And no it isn’t a car that Holden made back it 1964!

Assignments

As discussed in class it is a requirement that the Chapter Review is to be completed and submitted as per the following:  

Please note the following dates into your diaries for the C.C.C. subject.

• Chapter 1 - DUE 26/03
• Chapter 2 - DUE 16/04
• Chapter 3 - DUE 9/04
• Chapter 4 - Not required
• Chapter 5 - DUE 7/05 - submit Q4 only
• Chapter 6 – DUE 14/05  Depending if you work for State Govt or Council please complete the following:
• State Government students; activities on pages 105 - 107 AND pgs 111-115 [activity 1 – 5] AND pg 121
• Council students; activities on pages 105 - 107 AND pgs 116 – 120 [activity 6 -10] AND pg 122

Remember to include any other resources or reference material that you may have used.  We will endeavour to have your assignments marked with feedback attached within 2-3 weeks of the due date.  

Ciao,
Melisa Z-G