Dear All,
I am newly subscribed to the list and, as encouraged, am posting a
message to introduce myself.
My name is Hamish Lithgow. I am visiting the UK from Australia and am
currently working as temporary Records Manager at the University of
Durham. I am on leave from my ordinary post, which is that of Operations
Manager, Records Management Office at the University of Newcastle,
Australia (see http://www.newcastle.edu.au/services/records/)
I have worked in records management since 1996, which was about when
Newcastle implemented its first computerised RM system. As a member of
the RM team I think I can claim to have helped the advance made from
running a small central repository that stacked the dead and dying
records of the senior executive to operating a proactive service
providing a source of records management expertise, establishing
policies and procedures, as well as registering, tracking, and
facilitating disposal of active, semi-active and inactive records (both
of the central administration and a growing number of non-central
units).
In 2001 I managed a project to convert the University's original RM
system to Towersoft's TRIM solution, which the University continues to
use (upgraded to TRIM Context [see
http://www.towersoft.com/files/context_overview.pdf] earlier this year).
The use of computerised RM technology has been very successful at
Newcastle in organising paper records efficiently and making the records
service more visible and trusted, but the next crucial jump to EDRM
still hasn't been made. What has been achieved is the establishment of a
framework of business rules within a solution which has the capacity to
be scaled up and deployed as a comprehensive EDRM system, when resources
allow (and unfortunately they don't and haven't for some years at this
point).
The great challenge (or so I've observed) with getting support for
proper EDRM (Electronic Document and Records Management) is the
distracting attractiveness of cheaper EDM (Electronic Document
Management), email, workflow and content, etc, alternatives. Apart from
the powerful "gee-wiz!" factor it is the seductive promise of rapid
roll-out and set-up without the bother of the [perceived] "over-kill"
work of surveys, functional analysis, information maps, etc (required by
ISO 15489 and the Australian DIRKS methodology) that excites the IT
people and presses the right buttons for those charged with getting
immediate results within minimum budgets.
I suppose the truth is that many simple EDM systems DO fulfil much of
the immediate demand for business improvement, DO often represent a huge
leap forward from the status quo and DO improve the efficiency of
individuals and sub-units while allowing them to muddle along in their
old familiar ways. Exactly where such systems fail probably depends on
the nature and frequency of crises faced by the organisation. In any
case, the hasty deployment of EDM systems seems inevitably to cause a
virtual recreation of the current problems with the paper records:
multiple and incompatible stores of information arranged in a muddled
and unmanaged state (most containing records of low importance, but some
also containing unrecognised records of vital importance), numerous
potential for breaching privacy laws, loss of information context, etc,
etc. BUT, on the other hand a virtual mess has the advantages of not
taking up valuable office space, of being superficially solved by
clicking 'delete', and most of all of being comfortingly out of
sight!:-)
But no doubt I rant tediously to the converted.
I joined this list because I would like to hear from records managers
(or officers with equivalent responsibilities) working in UK
Universities. My hope is to get a better sense for where others are up
to with implementing modern records management standards. I know
legislation has been a useful spur with the full introduction of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, but I am interested to learn how far it
has actually moved things along in other Universities.
Hamish Lithgow
(The above contains my personal opinions, not necessarily shared by
either the University of Durham or the University of Newcastle,
Australia)
|