I think, for once, Tony misses the point in his posting.

Go back to what Peter said.  Records are created out of the exercise of
functions, and a functional structure has to be employed.  The medium is
irrelevant to this argument, a record is a record no matter what form it is
in.  The only significant difference between a paper record and an
electronic one is that the former has a physical structure, the latter a
logical one.

Using the FAT (function, activity, transaction) or FAPT (function, activity,
process, transaction) analysis seems to me to be easier to explain to record
creators, based on what they do and how they do it.

Surely, most request for information under FOI will be about what we do and
why.

Robert Chell
Records Manager
West Glamorgan Archive Service
Swansea


> ----------
> From:         Tony May[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     The UK Records Management mailing list
> Sent:         14 March, 2003 11:35 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: What do you call it?? - Local government classification
>
> A number of points have come up in the discussion one of the most
> important
> is before we decide what to call it we need to decide what will it BE.
>
> The options around this that I can think of are;
>    scheme for grouping/structuring information in Paper (ie using a
>    property based grouping, a people based group, a subject based group)
>    scheme for grouping/structuring information in electronic (functional
>    based, subject based, organisational structure,  document type based
> and
>    than having the ability to link to a person, place or specific
>    case/issue)
>    scheme for grouping/structuring all information ( paper, databases,
>    e-docs, web forms, digital tv pages etc)
>
> Who should it be directed towards ?
>    district councils (planning, leisure, waste, predominantly place based
> )
>    county councils (schools, roads, social services,  predominantly people
>    based)
>    unitary authorities (all of the above)
>
> Who should eventually use it?
>    all staff for all records created as part of business activity (sounds
>    like something from an ISO)
>    admin staff only as we can't expect managers to do this
>    records managers as we can't expect anyone else to care
>    or maybe we can automate the whole thing and no one will have to do it
>
> also as part of this question can we make them use more than one?
>
>
> Tony May
> Documents Manager
> Hertfordshire County Council
> Phone: 01992 556 729
> Comnet 26729
>
>
>
>
>                       Fresko Marc
>                       <[log in to unmask]         To:
> [log in to unmask]
>                       >                                   cc:
>                       Sent by: The UK Records             Subject: Re:
> What do you call it?? - Local government classification
>                       Management mailing list
>                       <RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK@JISC
>                       MAIL.AC.UK>
>
>
>                       13/03/2003 17:24
>                       Please respond to The UK
>                       Records Management mailing
>                       list
>
>
>
>
>
> Tony
>
> My first reaction is that there is a lot of difference between a fileplan,
> a
> classification scheme, a taxonomy and a thesaurus.  What you call it will
> be
> important, but much more important is what it will BE.
>
> Do you have clarity on this?
>
> As far as fileplans go, "fileplan" is a good name and, importantly, it is
> the term used by both the Public Record Office and the Office of the
> e-Envoy
> in their guidance (both of which should be seen as important references).
> I
> have one client who opted for the term "Business Information
> Classification
> Scheme" instead to reflect the intention that it will be more
> all-encompassing than mere files, and to avoid the file/folder
> controversy.
> And "classification scheme" is the term used by MoReq.
>
> Marc Fresko
> EDM & ERM Consulting Services Director
> Cornwell Management Consultants plc
> Home Barn Court, The Street
> Effingham, Surrey
> KT24 5LG
>
> [log in to unmask]
> Tel. 01372 456086
> Fax. 01372 450950
> www.cornwell.co.uk
>
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>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Tony May [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: 13 March 2003 15:37
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: What do you call it?? - Local government classification
> >
> >
> > As mentioned previously the Local government Group of the RMS
> > is interested
> > in creating a common file plan/classification
> > scheme/taxonomy/thesaurus.
> > With this e-mail I am attempting to get an idea of what is required.
> >
> > Firstly what should it be called? Taxonomy (big word that
> > lots of people
> > use but are never sure what it means), file plan (sounds a
> > bit confusing
> > are we filing a plan or planing a file?), or classification
> > (reminds me of
> > the idea that people classify insects).  Any other ideas? As
> > this is one of
> > the main tools that we need staff within or organisations to use and
> > understand to group information together, we should call it
> > something that
> > they can relate to.
> >
> > The next thing to decide is how we are going to organise the
> > scheme. Should
> > we be good and follow records mgt practice and use functions,
> > or perhaps it
> > should be organised by subject. If we did use subject as a
> > basis we could
> > more easily link into the other national programmes for
> > sharing info. For
> > example the government category list (GCL) sort of compulsory
> > under the e
> > government metadata scheme which we should all be following.
> > Then there
> > are a number of  schemes around for local government info on websites
> > seamless (or something similar) from Essex and aplaws (from newham i
> > think).
> >
> > Once the scheme is created will it just stand alone or should
> > it be linked
> > to other initiatives eg GCL, seamless, aplaws, life events, electronic
> > service delivery process list from the iDeA ?
> >
> > So what does everyone think?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Tony May
> > Documents Manager
> > Hertfordshire County Council
> > Phone: 01992 556 729
> > Comnet 26729
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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