Access - Chapter 3

Hi Team,

What a lovely two week break.  Hope that you are well rested & ready to tackle the rest of Certificate III in Recordkeeping.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel, we are all so close on finishing! 

Chapter 3

We covered Chapter three and there were a few things that we discussed as a team (Web technologies) that aren’t in your workbooks.  I have tried to include them as part of the blog, so be sure to click on the links. 

Fig 1 - Map of FOI

To kick off the lesson I asked for one volunteer.  They were asked to leave the classroom for a short period of time.  The rest of us  played "Hide & Seek - RM style".  This involved hiding some chocolate bars around the room.  The first volunteer was given helpful advice like "hot, cold, boiling" etc to help them find the chocolate quickly.  The second volunteer was given conflicting information from the greater group.  This made it confusing and more difficult to locate the chocolate bar.  Finally the third volunteer received no info at all.  After a while they were successful in finding the chocolate with no assistance from the group.

So why hide chocolates for people to find….? Consider that it is a bit like trying to find records.  Sometimes you are provided with info from your colleagues to locate a record and this can be helpful.  Other times we might get conflicting info about a record and it can set us on a wild goose chase and finally sometimes we get no info at all.  As RM personnel no doubt you have been confronted by these three types of scenarios.   FOI Officers are confronted with similar experiences when trying to locate info within the 30 calendar days timeline.

We also had a look at the DECD site and how they request records.  Check out the following link http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/rmp/ (if you work for private organisation or local government you may not be able to access the website).  Some agencies are setup like DECD where the requests are electronic, some smaller agencies (SRSA included) have a "verbal" request to locate and retrieve records.  Consider what you use and what you could do better to help yourselves and your customers. 

In this week we also touched on Web 2.0.  Wow what a minefield that is . . .

Fig 2 Evolution of the web

There is a handout (Fig 2) that explains the differences between Web 1.0, 2.0 & 3.0.  Do yourself a favour and also read through the following article & have a look at the "Web 3.0 - Explained with a stamp" presentation  http://www.labnol.org/internet/web-3-concepts-explained/8908/  It might help you when conversing with your IT guru! 

I also discussed the capture of electrical records born digital.  Consider the implications for your agency in years to come.  I would be interested to hear from anyone who is experiencing the capture of Web 2.0 records and how you are doing it!  Do a Google search for Web 4.0 as this is fast approaching.  As RM practitioners we need to ensure that we are up to date with new technologies . . .however more about that in our future subject Information Management.

Enjoy the week,
Melisa Z-G

Access - Chapter 2

Hi Team,

It looks like i've got my dates mixed up!  This week is school holidays, however your schedule says that you should be reading chapter 2.  OOPS!!  Anyway here is chapter 2 wrap up. 

Chapter 2

Did you know . . . .

• FOI Act, 1991 only relates to SA's local & state govt agencies and the universities;
• FOI applications must be made in writing and submitted to the agency with the necessary application fee;
• You are not allowed to question the reason of the applicant's application;
• FOI Applications need to be responded to in 30 calendar days;
• An Australian postal address must be specified on the written application.  I checked with the FOI team and PO Boxes in Australia can be used;
• Application fees can be waived by the agency;
• FOI applications can include the access to various types of records, highlighting the importance of ensuring that data migration from technologies that are fast becoming redundant is always forefront in our minds when preserving records (think audio cassette tapes, it is almost impossible to buy a walkman these days) 
• That if an applicant identifies that an agency's record/s are incomplete, incorrect, out-of-date or misleading, the applicant has the right to apply for an amendment;
• Check out Part 6, section 52, pg 30 of the Act

Fig 1 - What are your thoughts?

This chapter was a review on what we previously covered in the "Creation, Capture & Control" subject, however it goes into a lot more detail of the Freedom of Information Act, 1991.  The Act in itself is not very long, compared to some others, so i encourage you to have a read and discuss it in more detail. 

Within our class there are not a lot of students who have had to directly deal with an FOI application/request.  In most agencies the FOI Officer and the RM Officer are two different people. Sometimes the FOI Officer sits, or is situated within/near the RM team.  If you don't know who your agency's FOI Officer is, find out who they are.  Make yourself known to them.

The Freedom Of Information Act, 1991 is only applicable to local & state government & universities within SA.  It does not apply to federal or interstate government agencies or to the private sector.  Each state and the commonwealth have their own FOI legislation.  Further details are available on our website.

The objectives of the FOI Act is to promote openness in government and facilitate more effective participation from members of the public.  This means that information concerning the administration and operations of government are readily available to the public. 

FOI Applications can impact quite heavily on an agency and not having your records and documents in order can only add to the frustrations!  Did you know that once an FOI Application is received by the agency, that the agency has only 30 calendar days to respond!  It might sound like a long time, but calendar days also includes weekends and public holidays. 

Imagine juggling a couple FOI Applications that access determinations need to be finalised.  To add to the tight deadline, the Act also identifies that postage of the access determination will take 5 calendar days. . . Before you know it you are looking at a 25 calendar day turnaround! 

If you think that you are not going to make the 30 day deadline, you have 20 calendar days in which you are to advise the applicant for an extension. This extension must be provided in writing to the applicant (another 5 days for postage!).  Ideally you would put your business efficiency skills to use & contact the applicant on the phone, advise of the delay, negotiate a mutually acceptable time frame and advise that a letter to that effect will be sent to confirm the new arrangement. 

There are some agencies that are excluded from the FOI Act (Schedule 2, pg 39), meaning that they do not need to provide information under the Act.  Could you imagine organised crime groups putting in an FOI Application with the SA Police in regards to certain manuals on how police activities/operations are carried out? 

This info (and a lot more) is available on our website.  If you have any detailed FOI questions direct them to your FOI Officer or the State Records FOIP team on 08 8204 8786.

Article of the week

While doing some research on what articles are out there in relation to RM I came across this
http://www.zdnet.com/vic-govt-makes-its-spatial-data-available-to-public-7000017739/?s_cid=e551&ttag=e551  

Some interesting reading.  What are your thoughts on making records readily available to the community, rather than putting in an FOI request?  Would this process make it easier, or harder for the community to access records created by the government?  I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy your school holidays & hope to see people on 30/7 for Chapter 3.

Please let me know if you are unable to make the class.

Ciao,

Melisa Z-G

Access - Chapter 1 & 7

Hi Team,

Welcome to the new subject, Access.  Hope that everyone is keeping well 

Chapter 1

Fig 1 - Access Denied!

Welcome to the first week in Access.  To kick off the subject I started with an "Access Denied" activity.  Students were locked out of the classroom until they had successfully collected all of the information I was asking for.  It was interesting to see who provided what information and how easy/difficult it was to draw that info from the class.  How would you have responded to the questions asked?

Students questioned "why" the info was required & wondered how this linked into Access.

Q1 - Relates to Archives Search & some of the future assignments require you to access Archives Search

Q2 - Most people provided this info as this info would be fairly easy to "get" in the real world.

Q3 - Most students flatly refused for me to have access to this kind of information.

Q4 - Identified that you are unable to discriminate access to information/records based upon the person’s occupation or visible characteristics.  Further details will be covered in an upcoming FOI session

Q2 & Q3 Tried to identify that in the real world info has different levels of "restriction".  Some info is easily accessible and "open" to view while other info is closed and "access is denied".  This will depend on what the info is and who wants to gain access to the info.

Fig 2 - Access has an impact on all areas of RM

Some things that you need to consider is that access falls into the many categories of a record's life cycle (Fig 1).

•  Creation - How the document has been titled.  If not titled correctly is can be difficult to locate & retrieve

•  Capture - the physical storage of the document for future retrieval.  Is it on an old "floppy disk" or physically locked away in a filing cabinet in the manager's office

• Control (maintenance) - so that the document can be accessed when required.  Easy retrieval, the info is not lost

• Disposal - inappropriate disposal can result in a loss of important info

Group Activity (articles)

Fig 3 ZD Net article

Students were divided into two groups & each group received an article related to RM, Access.  Each group then read the article & answered the question.  Students then presented their article & findings to the greater group & discussions were held.  Read through the attached articles and consider your workplace.  It is interesting that we save records, documents information etc to CD, however how often do you go back to check that the CD is working and the info hasn't been lost.  What migration strategy does your agency have in place . . . . If any!  Don't forget the CDs that you have at home with your precious holiday snaps, or your children's first day of school photos, how often do you pull them out to have a look at?

You will not be able to use any of these three articles for Chapter 7 assignment submission!

Fig 4 Article from IQ 

Chapter 7

For this chapter we looked at the main points involved in writing simple documents.  You may be thinking "How is this linked with Access?"  The answer is that even though there may not be a "direct" connection to access it is something that you are no doubt doing on a daily basis.  It could be writing an email about upcoming casual day, responding to a customer complaint, drafting a report to submit to your manager.  Whatever the reason someone will be viewing the information and assessing it's content.  So in a way write simple documents is linked with access as you are giving someone access to certain information.  Just make sure that you are giving the right person the right access!

As discussed in class, there were examples given when incorrect access to certain information was given.  Ever sent an email to the wrong person in your contact list, or sent an email to a larger than required group of people?  The point is that you need to double check everything before it leaves your desk/computer.  Check out the following link to see how wrong some people can get it   http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/845713/leaked-entertainment-books-email-transcript

Within your assignments you have written a lot of information in various formats.  These documents will all serve a particular purpose.  Be sure that when you are writing a document that you follow the four steps carefully (ref to Fig 5):

1) Plan the document - "Fail to plan is planning to fail!"

2) Drafting the document - Rough copies are necessary to ensure you have included all the key points

3) Review the document - Have fresh eyes read the document to ensure that it is clear for your intended audience

4) Write the final document - And then make sure you proofread the final.  Spell check will not pick everything up!

For this assignment all you will be required to fill in the table on pages 130 & 131.  Dot points are enough.  Consider the following example in relation to the article “Burned CDs Not a Long Term Option”:

An email sent out to staff communicating that official records are not to be stored on CDs.  An official policy is to follow

WHO: Staff within State Records.  No external "customers"

PURPOSE: To advise staff of new policy that will be implemented in relation to official records being burnt on to CDs. 

FORMAT: Email with State Records logo, attach new policy

KEY POINTS: Date when policy is effective, Why policy is being implemented, Appropriate action 

ORGANISATIONAL REQUIREMENTS:  Need to be approved by State Records Director

METHOD OF COMMUNICATION: Email then follow up at next staff meeting (verbal & included in minutes). Formal communication will require approval from manager & director

MEANS OF COMMUNICATION: Discuss at management team meeting, discuss at team meetings, send email to all State Records employees

OTHER: Print & save email to file for record

You will then be required to produce a document (approx 300 words) based upon your article taking into consideration the three dot points on page 129 of the review.

Assignments

You will notice that there are three due dates for your review/assignments.  To help out with Chapter Seven review you will need to find an article related to access.  There are a lot of articles out there on the net & there are some websites solely dedicated to accessing information, or the security relating to the access of information.  Do a Google search & you may be surprised.  However check this article that was recently on ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/firm-facebooks-shadow-profiles-are-frightening-dossiers-on-everyone-7000017199/?s_cid=e036&ttag=e036

For this unit of study (Access subject) I will want to see only the three assignments as indicated in my 26/06/2013 email.  It will not be necessary to include your "activities" as part of your submission.  Hopefully with the course notes sent to you as a word document it will be easier to fill in the activities and review sections. 

Have a great weekend,
Meilsa Z-G