Council on archives international records management trust
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Institutional CapacityA capacity assessment should also be carried out to explore the capacity of the national archives and other stakeholders to manage the electronic records effectively in relation to the needs identified. This should take into account the existing budget and human resources and the budget required.
Activity 19 Attempt to answer the questions about institutional capacity in relation to your organisation. BudgetAs with any records management activity, an electronic records management programme can only be sustained if appropriate funds are available. This is a long term commitment and therefore it is important that management is aware of the financial implications and that appropriate allocations are made to the recurrent budget. Adequate and ongoing funds are required to administer an electronic records management programme satisfactorily. It is difficult to calculate the likely long-term costs of keeping electronic records with any precision. This is because the technology is changing rapidly and so are the costs. This makes any cost/benefit analysis for adopting an electronic record-keeping system problematic. However, here are some of the factors that will need to be taken into account:
Although estimates of the long-term costs are difficult to calculate reliably, it should be possible to arrive at a reasonably accurate figure for the short-term costs of a programme. These reflect the cost of establishing the infrastructure for managing electronic records. The short-term costs are likely to be significantly higher than the equivalent cost for paper records. This largely reflects the scarcity (and thus high salaries) of specialised IT staff, as well as the cost of purchasing, maintaining and upgrading computer facilities, software and equipment. Archives and records programmes will need to learn how to prepare business cases justifying why funding sources should invest in their proposed electronic records programmes. In preparing these it may be useful to seek out partners who would be willing to not only invest a certain amount of the funding but who would also help to persuade others. Potential partners can be drawn from those ministries that are facing problems managing their electronic records and who are in need of solutions. Human ResourcesThe nature of the human resources needed to run an electronic records programme has been much debated by the archival profession ever since it became clear that computers were transforming the way governments are doing business. Although every organisation has its own requirements for electronic records and the field of information technology is constantly changing, a number of broad principles have become clear. Staff need to have good records management skills and a team approach to manage electronic records programmes well. First, the main principles and discipline of records management and archives administration apply whatever the medium. Good records management skills are essential. Second, managing electronic records is a team effort. The skills needed are too diverse for any one individual to master completely. The archival institution needs to build up a team that together has all the skills required. The European Commission’s DLM Forum has identified what it calls ‘core competencies’ (skills, knowledge, abilities and so on) these involve an in-depth understanding of the subjects listed below. This work on core competencies should not be misunderstood as a kind of curriculum for a training programme. No training program could cover all these different aspects completely. Furthermore, the skills on the list are very demanding and can probably only be reached at a very advanced level. The core competencies for electronic record keeping, as set out below should be seen as a high-level list of qualifications for professional profiles developed by a human resources department as background to individual job descriptions. These core competencies need to be converted into job descriptions and statements of qualifications that may, in some circumstances, radically change the occupational profiles of those currently employed in the records or archives programme. A records or archives programme will have to identify, define and even develop special training and education programmes. Also, it will have to establish recruitment plans to hire those who can meet the skill and knowledge requirements regardless of their professional or technical backgrounds. Where the archives is unable to build up such a team within its own organisation, it should consider bringing in outside expertise to supplement any gaps. This could involve other government bodies, such as the national computing bureau or it could mean contracting for specific services from the private sector or other relevant bodies, such as university data processing departments. The key point to take into account is that this group of competencies are the minimum range of skills needed to create a sustainable electronic records programme. Where these are not available the long-term success of the programme will be in question. How should the team be organised? Increasingly national archives are looking at ways of incorporating the principles of managing electronic records into the mainstream activities of the organisation. This has many advantages, including fostering a consistent treatment of records, whatever the medium and ensuring that all of the staff can make some contribution to this specialist area. In practice however, there is usually also the need for a specialist unit within the national archives to liaise with key partners, to provide a focal point for expertise about technical standards, to manage specialised repository facilities and to carry out specific processing procedures.
Consider the competencies shown in the figure below. No one person is expected to have all the core competencies listed in this section. Which individuals in your organisation could be brought together to satisfy these requirements? Which competencies could not be easily filled from within your organisation? How would you propose to fill the gaps?
basic concepts and terminology of archival science record-keeping function/archival function authenticity principle of provenance definition of a record (including a electronic record) concept of continuing value records management and record-keeping practices and systems appraisal description of electronic records description standards and practices contextual information long-term access to electronic records
data protection and information technology security privacy legislation copyright and intellectual ownership access and freedom of information archival law and ethics legal evidence/juridical aspects of electronic records
information management organisational dynamics and change management information policy: records/information as organisational assets resource sharing roles and responsibilities policy formation information technology and management in public administrations business process redesign (BPR) in relation to the use of information technology interaction between working processes and records/information
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