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]
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