Developing a Records Management Programme

Citation

Lilburn, R. (1998), "Developing a Records Management Programme", Asian Libraries, Vol. 7 No. 6, pp. 140-141. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1998.7.6.140.5

New records managers are often desperate for advice on where and how to begin a records management programme. Does this guide meet that need? It is well laid out and easy to read. Despite a lack of illustrations, there are handy sample forms for a records audit and a retention schedule. Good footnotes accompany each chapter. The glossary, list of professional associations and annotated bibliography, with references to Australia, the United States as well as Britain, should also be useful.

The material is divided into eight chapters. Many functions of a records management programme cannot be covered in such a slim publication, but the new records manager is given sound and sensible guidance on the essential elements of a programme, such as a records audit and a retention schedule. Benefits of records management and the arguments for a records management programme are well stated.

The authors are both senior lecturers in the Department of Information and Library Management at the University of Northumbria and edit Aslib’s Records Management Journal. Their understanding of current professional concerns is reflected in the guide. The life cycle concept is employed as the framework for the development of a programme, but the newer continuum model has obviously influenced the discussion on the records creation stage. However, they expound on one hand about the evidential role of records for ensuring accountability of organisations, while on the other hand saying that “information is at the heart of records management” (p. 14). Thus confused messages about the true nature of records and the focus of a records manager’s work are sent.

Material is sometimes misplaced. The discussion of assessing the value of paper records (appraisal) in an early chapter would be better integrated with similar material in a later chapter on retention scheduling. I doubt that a new records manager could conduct such an assessment based solely on the poor advice in the guide. Furthermore, the appraisal process is confused with classifying the importance of records for the purpose of a vital records programme, which is not explained further. New records managers will also find little help on electronic records, imaging and document management.

There is much of value in this guide but, for the price, you would receive better value from purchasing a more comprehensive text on records management, for example, Kennedy and Schauder’s Records Management: A Guide for Students and Practitioners of Records and information Management (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1994).