Recordkeeping Forum

The partnership between Archives New Zealand and Agencies

2001 - 2009

Presenter: Dianne MacaskillChief Executive Archives New Zealand

“I think there is a world market for 5 computers”

Thomas J Watson 1948

IBM founder

“This is the century of information. Our ability to compete in the global economy, to protect ourselves against crime and terrorist attack, depends not just on natural wealth or on walls or fences but on our ability to use information”.

Speech by the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Liberty, October 2007.

President Barack Obama's speech at Cairo University 4 June 2009

• We will open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia and appoint new science envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, grow new crops.

New Zealand 1998

reforms

downsizing

uncontrolled

E-information

reforms

disestablished records programmes

outdated law

few resources for recordkeeping

Starting Out

• Enthusiasm• Records knowledge• Research• Doing It• Persistence• Products and standards• Relationships

Challenges for Archives New Zealand from paper prepared by Dianne Macaskill in Sept 2001

Then

• Outdated legislation (1957 Archives Act did not anticipate digital records)

• Need to raise the importance of recordkeeping• No capability or capacity for digitisation• Few professional training opportunities• No formal advisory structures and few advisory groups• Status of recordkeeping to be raised• Need for a community role• Significant Auckland storage needs• No electronic record and document management system• No online catalogue

Archives Approach to Recordkeeping

• Information Management solutions and practices must meet business needs

• Information management practices need to be practical to implement and not provide more than an organisation needs

• Archives needs to work collaboratively to find solutions to information management problems

A History of Government Recordkeeping Forums

• 2002 DIRKS methodology Electronic records

• 2003 Developing a recordkeeping policy Disposal

• 2004 Digitisation Disaster preparedness and vital records

• 2005 Disposal under the PRAPUBLIC RECORDS ACT• 2006 Electronic recordkeeping standard• 2007 Email• 2008 Emerging technologies• 2009 Technology: its influence on the public sector information

landscape• 2009 Communicating information management

Wide Range of Continuum Products

• 2009• 18 fact sheets• 19 guides• 5 GDAs• 8 standards (incl. 3 mandatory standards)• Digital continuity action plan• Audit tool• Training courses

• 2004 - launch of Continuum• Approximately 18 products

Public Records Act 2005

• Democratic accountability (Crown to the public)

• Management accountability (Agencies to the Crown)

• Collective memory and historical heritage

• Good management

Public Records Act – strong powers to direct agencies on core business practices

• NZ public recordkeeping system is a mix of support and compliance

• Independence of the Chief Archivist on disposal• Mandatory standards

• Storage• Create and maintain• Storage

• Reports to parliament• Inspection• Directions to report

Products developed through collaboration and meeting business needs

• Need to consult with every affected agency before issuing a mandatory standard

• Many agencies have contributed to the development of Archives products

• Public Records Act 2005 developed with broad input from agencies and other stakeholders

• Working with agencies has been valuable e.g. incorporating recordkeeping metadata into business systems

Challenges for Archives New Zealand from paper prepared by Dianne Macaskill in Sept 2001

Now• Public Records Act 2005 – set the public recordkeeping framework• Recordkeeping is accepted as a key tool for effective business

management • Staff skilled in digitisation; using volunteers• More professional training opportunities• Archives Council, Te Pae Whakawairua, all significant government

recordkeeping work developed with broad input• Status of recordkeeping professionals raised• Community archivist and The Community Archive/NRAM launched last

week• New Auckland building• Archives and many agenies have established EDRMS. Recordkeeping is

being embedded into business sytems as they are redeveloped• Archway is the online catalogue

Our challenges

• Large volumes of paper being created at the same time as digital information volumes are exploding (the amount of information generated by organisations is doubling every 19 months – Gartner)

• Public sector workers, work flexibly and remotely e.g. Blackberry, iphone, wiki, blog

• Many digital recordkeeping methods are still based on paper methods but we no longer have a digital version of the paper world

• Current recordkeeping systems can make recordkeeping time consuming• Business systems need to automate recordkeeping• More digital recordkeeping education and training opportunities are

needed• Technology moving very fast and changing

AND Our solutions are still based on paper

methods

We need to have more intuitive ways of managing electronic information – intelligent business records

Mainly working agency by agency - next focus is assessing value for government through joint solutions e.g. digital continuity action plan

Dianne Macaskill Farewell Speech – June 4 2009

. “Our mandatory standards are picked up by other countries and our programmes such as the digital continuity action plan and the public recordkeeping audit framework have been jointly developed and widely accepted.

Collaboration can be hard, but recordkeeping and information management collaboration is working well in the New Zealand public service and making a real difference to the effectiveness of government’s information management.”