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