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It's always helpful if you are very clear from the outset about the purpose of the survey. Is it to construct a comprehensive inventory of all records and information sources (your colleagues probably won't distinguish between them) so that you can construct a comprehensive business classification scheme? Is it to identify vital (business critical) records/information sources? Is it about information governance? Is it about future growth of your records centre? Or all of these things - or other things?! The purpose of the survey will affect the kinds of questions you ask and the way you ask them. You also need to think about what you will do with the information and how therefore you will need to handle and interrogate it afterwards. It sounds obvious I know, but a word document questionnaire will usually need lots of analysis, but you might get richer responses. With survey software you need to get the questions right at the beginning to be able to get unambiguous and useful answers although the analysis is quicker/easier. An online questionnaire needs a lot of chasing/ringing around to get a reasonable response rate. I've found that an initial survey, getting to know main contacts in departments and their information/recordkeeping needs etc, works best with a questionnaire which you complete together in discussion. I tend to send it a week in advance, when I confirm the meeting date/time. There is obviously a time commitment from both you and them, so it's helpful for them to get something tangible out of it too - eg. often face to face you can deal with things like those niggling data protection or retention queries, which they might not have got around to ringing you about but "while you're here...". So this means that you have given something as well as taken up time. Don't forget to thank them for it! It can also be helpful to decide explicitly about being seen as "the police" or "one of us" which affects your tone in the questionnaire, demeanour at the meeting etc. If you are doing an audit as opposed to a survey they should get a short report and you'll need to follow up on any actions (both yours and theirs) later. You will also need to think about the ideal responses so that you have a consistent means of comparing the reality and can make reasonable recommendations for improvement as well as praising/acknowledging existing good practice. And don't forget the usual caveats about top management support, planning and allowing yourself enough time etc. In case a practical example is useful, Huddersfield has 7 Schools and 10-12 central Services plus 2 University Campuses; around 2,500 staff and 22,000 students. (Not playing top trumps, but to give an idea of the size/complexity of the organisation to set the context) I did an information audit last year, focussing on data protection but also gathering some information for business continuity and forward planning for our EDRMS. Data protection was on senior management's radar in the wake of HMRC etc, so there wasn't too much difficulty in getting approval. The audit consisted of 24 interviews, which each lasted between an hour and two and a half hours (a School with a lot of DP queries about medical records and research data). Most interviews were with two key members of staff in the area, who were nominated by the Dean/Head of Service; some had one and one had four. About half were people who were already in the records management network of key contacts, but about half were not (which was interesting). Each area received a short (1-2 sides A4) follow-up report within 1-2 weeks, and I'm now doing a round of formal follow-ups. I'm just finalising an institution-wide report on the whole audit which will go to top management shortly - no-one is being named & shamed in it but it does draw out issues common across the organisation with recommendations. I don't think this list permits attachments so the questionnaire isn't attached, but will happily send direct if anyone is interested. Hope this helps Sarah M Sarah Wickham, MA, MA, Registered Practitioner University Records Manager University of Huddersfield +44 (0)1484 473 935 http://www.hud.ac.uk/cls-bin/cls.pl?c=98/100/236 http://www.linkedin.com/in/msarahwickham Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to. On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:30:02 -0000, Stock, Sara <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Dear all > > > >Does anyone have a straightforward form they use for >surveys/audits/inventories of records held in departments that they >could share with me, please? I've got a very basic one but the wording >on it (judging by the responses I've had) is ambiguous and misleading. I >could just rewrite it, but you know what they say about reinventing the >wheel.... (I've just looked at the National Archives one but I'm not >convinced that will be that useful to people who don't know the records >management jargon. If anyone has found it useful then please let me >know). > > > >When conducting such audits do people normally send the forms out and >wait for replies, or is it better to actually go out with the forms and >fill them in with the participants? > > > >Thanks > > > >Sara > > > >Sara Stock > >University Records Manager > >University of Essex > >Wivenhoe Park > >Colchester > >CO4 3SQ > > > >Tel: (01206) 874853 >E-mail: sstock > >(non-Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk to create a full e-mail >address) > > > > >For any technical queries re JISC please email [log in to unmask] >For any content based queries, please email RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK- [log in to unmask] > For any technical queries re JISC please email [log in to unmask] For any content based queries, please email [log in to unmask]