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4. Records management

4.1. Introduction
4.2. Filing systems
4.3. Records storage
4.4. Records storerooms
4.5. Records retirement
4.6. Archivist and records management
4.7. Records centres
4.8. Records appraisal
4.9. Access to records in records centres

4.1. Introduction

Records management is a relatively new discipline whose beginnings can be traced to the early years of the twentieth century and which only firmly established itself in the post Second World War period. Records management is concerned with the generation, receipt, processing, storage, retrieval, distribution, usage and retirement of records. It encompasses a wide variety of activities and sub-disciplines each of which has arisen to cater for a specific need such as the management of mail, correspondence, reports, copies, forms and directives. Records management is multi-media embracing many types of media from paper, to audio tape' video tape, magnetic tape, magnetic disk, optical disk and microfilm.

While records management as a distinct discipline is a twentieth century phenomena, the generation and handling of records has of course been in existence since records themselves began to be created in Ancient times. Records are created in the transactional processes of Government as laws are made, budgets prepared, surveys conducted, reports made, instructions formulated and issued, letter received, responses given to inquiries, statistics compiled, staff recruited, promoted, demoted and retired, births, marriages and deaths registered' taxes and other dues levied, economic plans formulated, licenses issued, nurseries and schools built, certificates of educational attainment issued and as various governmental processes are carried out.

Records exist primarily because of the need to keep a record of transactions carried out. The process by which they are created, the manner of their creation, the way in which they are handled will differ from institution to institution, from country to country and from one geographical region to the next. The methods of handling records have also undergone changes over time from the days of the registry system in early Modern Europe when all items were entered in registers on being received to today' s situation in which mail can be electronically controlled. It is difficult to describe records management on a world wide basis because records management practices are closely tied to the peculiarities of Governmental and institutional processes which differ from country to country and from region to region. There are however certain core practices on which a degree of generalisation can be made within the limitations mentioned above.

No Government can function without records. If the records exist and they are not well managed it is equally difficult to achieve efficiency. The level of efficiency of the operations of the governmental machinery is closely tied to the effectiveness of the records management programme. Records management encompasses several main elements.

4.2. Filing systems

As mail is received and as records are generated internally within an organisation there must be a mechanism for handling them. The mail must be sorted. It must be filed so that related items and subjects are brought together in order that they can be dealt with, put away after actioning and retrieved when required. If the records are misfiled. or if related subjects are separated it becomes impossible to respond to inquiries or to make the decisions required. Outgoing correspondence as well as a great deal of documentation produced for internal circulation and usage is made in multiple copies the most common being the one plus two copies configuration in which the top copy is sent out and the two bottom copies are retained for the records. Of the latter one copy is usually put on the relevant file while the third copy is put on the what has become commonly known as the running file.

For the records to be grouped together however it implies that there is a filing system which facilitates this grouping together. To begin with the filing system must have a coherent structure that enables broad distinctions to be made in very much the same way that someone going to a library is directed from the broad to the specific i.e. he is able at the broadest to distinguish between the main subjects of science and the humanities is led to the more specific distinction between geography and history and in approaching the shelves with the history books is able to distinguish between books on Ancient history and those on Medieval or Modern history, and between the history of Africa and that of Asia. The filing systems whether they are numeric, alphabetic, alpha-numeric or geographic aim basically at leading the person to the specific file in which the subject material is to be found. In a commercial organisation the broad distinctions would separate the main activities of finance from marketing, general administration, production and human resource management. In human resource management there would then for instance be subdivisions into personnel management and training.

Once a filing system is in place, that filing system must be used to facilitate the government process. It must enable information to be rapidly processed and distributed to those who must see it. The file titles must be meaningful and accurate enabling those who must file the information as well as those who must use the information to find with ease the information that is required. Whether the filing system is manual or automated the need for accurate filing is not diminished. In Government, decision makers rely on being able to receive information timeously so that they can respond to the issues and so that decisions can be made. And yet we find that the Governmental process is often hampered because of the following problems.

4.2.1. The system for processing incoming and outgoing information becomes cumbersome and unweildly. It takes a long time before information reaches those who must have it. Officials sometimes find themselves attending meetings or responding to inquiries with only partial information available or come back from meetings only to find that the information they had needed for the meeting is now on their desk, and to all intents and purposes useless for what it was required for.

4.2.2. The filing system can become so difficult that officials spend time chasing information that cannot be located. The file structure might have become inadequate with illogical file divisions and inaccurate file titles. Everyone will remember that the information did come in or was generated but no one knows where it was subsequently filed.

4.2.3. Files required by more than one official at the same time can pose problems. If the distribution and circulation controls are weak it becomes difficult to identify who in the first place has the file and secondly to give several officials access to the same file at the same time. And yet fragmentation of the file may not be possible or may lead to an incomplete aggregation of the information required to make sound and meaningful decisions on the particular issue.

A basic requirement for sound governmental administration is therefore that all decisions must be made on the basis of utilising or consulting all known and available information. Without access to all the information the decision making process becomes impaired.

4.3. Records storage

Once information has been processed, distributed and used, it must then be stored for future use. In a manual records system that information is then stored in some filing units such as filing cabinets while in an automated system it is then stored on magnetic tape or disk. The information is however not stored for the sake of storage. It is stored on the premise that it is still needed and it is in this respect that serious problems can arise.

A basic principle of records management is that information should be distinguished and separated as it moves through three distinct phases of its life cycle. At its creation and through its active usage, the records are said to be current. As their rate of usage declines from the frequent to the infrequent, they move on to the semi-current phase and from there on to the non-current stage. In the latter stage a decision has to be made as to whether or not the records should be disposed of. A mistake is often made by equating non-current records to archives because the two are definitely not equivalent. The various stages of the life-cycle of records should also be distinguished by differences in where the records are to be found. During the current stage the records are kept in the office or registry where they can be accessed with ease as required. As the records become semi-current they should then be retired from the office and registry into some storage area. In general the first point they are moved to is the storeroom or strongroom within the premises of the creating agency and from there they are then transferred to a Records Centre. The retirement of information from active to semi-active use is however full of its own problems and it is quite often this point that is critical in the life-cycle of a record.

4.4. Records storerooms

Many people pay attention to the transfer of records from the creating agency to the Records Centre without realising that there is the grey area of the storeroom and strongroom, a transitional period in which control can be lost altogether. It is unrealistic to expect that records can be transferred direct from the registry to the Records Centre, especially in those cases where the Records Centre is not part of the creating agency or it is physically located some distance away from the creating agency. Where this in fact happens without the use of an in-house storeroom or strongroom it only means that the records will be retained in the office and registry well beyond their active or current life. Many archival institutions indicated that records were retained in the creating agencies until they were some 15 to 25 years of age.

The transfer of records from the office and registry is however often unsystematic and uncontrolled. It is little realised that there are certain preconditions to this activity. To begin with, as with all record movements and transfers, there must be a mechanism for identifying what has been moved and to where it has been moved. In most instances records are merely dumped in the storeroom without any controls at all. The result is that once in the storeroom or strongroom it becomes a nightmare to try and retrieve any of the records and it is this loss of control and the difficulties of retrieval that make most people reluctant to transfer records from the office or registry.

There are two basic requirements for the transfer of records from the office to the storeroom. In the first instance a records transfer or transmittal list must be used to record details of the records being transferred and of the new location or storage area and position where they are to be found. The second requirement is that the storeroom must be organised and arranged.

4.4.1. It is essential that some form of shelving be used to facilitate storage. If there is no shelving it becomes difficult to locate the records required.

4.4.2. It is also necessary that the shelves be numbered in one way or another. In this respect, there are two main methods that can be used.

4.4.2.1. One way is to extend the office or registry filing systems into the storeroom so that if for instance it is an alpha-numeric system then the same alpha-numeric arrangement is found in the storeroom. In this way a file that is no longer in the filing cabinet in the office or registry is found in the equivalent position in the storeroom.

4.4.2.2. The above storeroom arrangement can however pose problems in that it is difficult to forecast the rate of expansion or accumulation of certain records series. To overcome this problem a location system can be used where the storeroom shelves are merely numbered sequentially and records shelved in the order in which they are retired and put on the shelves. The position of the records on the shelves is then recorded on the records transfer or transmittal list which becomes the primary instrument for the location of records. This indirect access system overcomes many problems and is simple to use even when some of the records are destroyed and shelf vacancies arise. It is the system that is used in most Records Centres.

4.5. Records retirement

The main problem that is faced however is knowing at what point to retire records from the office or registry to the storeroom or strongroom. The surest mechanism is the assessment of the rate of usage of the file and thus determining the point at which the rate has declined from the frequent to the occasional. This rate can be assessed by looking at the out cards or the mark-out books or whichever will be the system that is used to control the movement and issuance of the records to the users. Research has shown that the active life of any given records is a relatively short one which some estimate to be no more than 90 days. It is however not possible to move records from current to semi-current status using this period as a yardstick simply because these records are filed together and cannot thus be separated on this basis.

For those who are unable to determine the rate of usage of records a second method is the periodic examination of the files to determine the date when last something was put on the file. While this may seem a rough and ready measure it can be used as a reasonably accurate way of retiring records from active to semi active use. In a manual system dominated by use of conventional A4 file folders it is usually possible to discern the following pattern of file activity. At one end there are very active files on which material is regularly received and filed. Such files become full very quickly and require that they be closed. Such files do not pose any problems for they literally close themselves. The problem comes with inactive or thin files on which nothing happens for inordinately long periods of time. Because the files are there and often neat looking, since they are not in much use, the files do not bother anyone and are just left to stay in the cabinets. Such files can be seen to follow a triangular pattern of activity with the majority of the documentation relating to the initial period in which the files were opened.

Typical profile of inactive files.

That they have remained open for such a long period is nothing but a reflection of their inactivity because if they had been active they would have filled up and been closed. The reasons why this happens are many including the discontinuance of the subject and the occasional receiving of a related inquiry. It could also be because the file title is not accurate and therefore related material is finding its way to other files or it could be that the subject has through time changed and new files have along the way been opened to cater for the other material. Whatever the reason it can be seen that such files need to be dealt with and retired accordingly.

The retirement of records from the office or registry to the storeroom or strongroom is an absolute must for the better functioning of any records system. Unless it is done the system becomes burdened and over loaded by information that should not be there. The removal and retirement of this information and its eventual transfer to Records Centres is the pivotal justification behind the Records Centre concept which aims at unburdening offices and registries by receiving and storing in lowcost storage areas records that would otherwise be stored in expensive office accommodation and even more expensive filing equipment. The retention of semi-current and non-current records in offices and registries slows down the rate of retrieval of information. A guiding principle in retrieval is that the more the number of items that must be retrieved from the slower the rate of retrieval. Put simply, it is faster to retrieve a file from a cabinet that has fifteen files than it is to retrieve a file from a cabinet with one hundred and fifty files. Equally it is faster to retrieve from two filing cabinets than from fifty.

The retirement of records from the office and registry to the storeroom or strongroom has important implications for the decision makers. If the transfers are done systematically with appropriate and requisite controls and documentation, then there is no period during which decision makers find difficulties in retrieving information that is needed. The use of such tools as transfer/transmittal lists also means that information is available on what was transferred and is in the storeroom, on what has subsequently been disposed of and on what has been transferred to the Records Centre. The transfer/transmittal lists also serve as the basis for the making of disposal - retention decisions since they will identify and isolate the records coming out of active use thereby requiring decisions as to their disposal or retention. While the disposal and retention of records should be controlled by the archival authority in the country to ensure that records with archival value are identified and preserved, it is nevertheless necessary that after such consultation, mechanisms be introduced for the automatic disposal at creating agency level of records that have outlived their usefulness. it is futile and wasteful to retain records whose usefulness will have expired. There is no sense for instance in transferring to a Records centre running or 3rd copy files or of sending messenger delivery books.

The point that has repeatedly been emphasised above is that it is necessary to have a transitional period between active use and storage of records in offices and registries and their transfer to Records Centres. In this transitional period the records should be transferred and kept in storerooms and strongrooms within the premises of the record creating agency. During this period, the archivist must of course have an interest to ensure that no unauthorised destruction takes place and to ensure that the records are organised. in a way that will make transfer to the Records centre easy. It is interesting to note that of those archival institutions that indicated involvement in the management of semi-current records, 35 said that they had control over records being stored in the strongrooms and storerooms of the creating agencies. Thirty one responded in the negative on this point.

4.6. Archivist and records management

Debate has over the decades raged fiercely over the extent to which archivists should be involved in records management. At one end there are the traditional archivists who argue that records management is for records managers, that it is a distinct and separate discipline far removed from archival work and that it is negligence of the highest degree to seek to extend the role of the archivist to embrace the management of current and semi-current records when the archivist is barely able to undertake adequately the traditional and accepted duties of acquiring, processing and preserving archives and servicing the needs of the users. This view has tended to be more typical of those societies with long histories of archive keeping and where perhaps the functions of the archivists have been defined and isolated over many generations.

This view however is countered by those who argue equally fiercely that the quality of archives is crucially dependent on the way in which the records have been managed during the current and semi-current stages. They argue that a passive role on the part of the archivists is counter productive and that it is useless to wait for nature to take its toll because by the time the archives reach the archivists, if at all they do, they will have been so damaged and mutilated that the archivist can no longer really play a meaningful role. They see the involvement of the archivist in records management as a natural extension of his role and duties. Within this group however there is also a wide spectre and divergence of views in terms of the actual extent of the involvement. On one hand there are those who have come to accept involvement but only to the extent that semi-current records are the concern of the archivist who should thus provide Records Centre facilities. Even in this respect there will be the difference between those who use the Records Centre to act as a filtration plant under the full control of the archivist and others who merely provide Records Centre facilities as a means of providing storage space only. The example of the limbo repositories in the United Kingdom is pertinent because the records while stored there are still administered by the staff of the creating agency. There are yet others who see the involvement extending to the creation and generation of the records to the filing systems and filing equipment, the receipt and processing of mail, the circulation of information, the design of forms and the control of copies.

The fierceness of the controversy over the involvement of archivists in the management of current records can thus be seen when viewed against this background. And yet a surprisingly high number of archival institutions are now involved in this area. Forty two institutions indicated that they were involved in the management of current records. Forty two institutions, as opposed to only nine felt that such involvement was a legitimate pursuit of their institutions. An even greater number, fifty nine, were involved in the management of semi-current records compared to only seven who were not. In the area of current records management it was interesting to note the responses in terms of the actual extent of involvement.

The responses above show clearly that archivists have over the years extended their involvement in the management of current records. While some institutions qualified their response by saying that they did so when requested, it is nevertheless significant that they were able to assist which implies that they have developed the capacity to assist. That capacity could only have been built up by either employing records managers or people with records management experience or training archivists and giving them the necessary expertise.

4.7. Records centres

After records have been in the storerooms and strongrooms of the records creating agency for a period of time, when such formalities as audit have been done and when the rate of usage has declined from the occasional to the once in a blue moon, then the records should be transferred to a Records Centre. It goes without saying that Records Centres are not there to store records which are still required by the creating agency on a rather frequent basis.

The Records Centre concept is a self-justifying one. Office accommodation generally outstrips the ability of offices, registries and storerooms to store records and yet the records are required for varying reasons and varying periods of time and need to be retained for some time. In these circumstances it becomes necessary to provide a Records Centre. The Records Centre can be there to serve the in-house needs of a single and specific organisation or it can be created in order to meet the needs of several records creating agencies. There are certain basic concepts related to Records Centres.

4.7.1. They are built away from city centres in areas where land is relatively cheap.

4.7.2. They are situated in areas where there is minimal atmospheric pollution.

4.7.3. They utilise high density shelving in order to maximise floor area usage and lower storage costs.

4.7.4. They provide secure accommodation for records, protecting them from dust, dirt, heat, humidity and sunlight.

4.7.5. They provide access facilities enabling depositors to request and use the records as need arises.

4.7.6. They are also able to act as filtration plants, enabling records of an ephemeral and short term value to be identified and disposed of and those of a permanent and enduring value to be protected and preserved.

The extent of involvement of archival institutions in the management of semi-current records differs widely as the responses below show.

4.8. Records appraisal

Records Centres enable a number of processes to be carried out on records. One of the most basic and fundamental principles of managing records is that each record must have a clearly identified and specified destination. The absence of such specification is the equivalent of boarding a bus or train without an identifiable destination. All records must be appraised to determine the duration of their value. The appraisal process examines both their primary and secondary values and takes into consideration a multiplicity of factors ranging from their usefulness to the creating agency, the necessities of fulfilling various requirements of a legal or financial nature to their usefulness to researchers and others. Records appraisal is an absolute necessity and out of it should emerge a clear set of standing instructions for continuing series of records that enable such records to be dealt with in the manner specified. Records appraisal is a complex process with many far reaching implications and there must be a mechanism that ensures that as many factors and requirements as possible are brought into consideration before decisions are reached. The primary instrument for doing this is usually a Records Committee which brings together people from different levels and sectoral interests and includes representatives of the creating agencies and of the archival institution.

Decision making is partially based on precedent. Precedent is contained in the records of past transactions. It is however often difficult to determine in advance those records which contain precedents that will be useful at a later stage. For this reason it is important to have a properly constituted appraisal system as this is the only way in which decision makers can be assured that records are disposed of after the most thorough consideration. The absence of an appraisal mechanism has serious adverse consequences on the decision making process. Even in the best of circumstances it has always been difficult to decide what constitutes a record copy. It is also difficult to decide if various drafts of a report for instance should be kept or only the final copy. Uncontrolled disposal results in the destruction of records which may have been of paramount value at a later stage.

Deposit of records at a Records Centre facilitates the appraisal process. Not only does the Records Centre ensure that appraisal is done, but the transfer of the records leads to their listing and description which is an essential part of the appraisal process. In an automated Records Centre system, there is also an important off spill.

The system may be able to identify records of a similar nature or subject that have previously been deposited or it can show the absence of similar records and therefore point to the need to retain such records. The system can also have far reaching implications for the decision makers. One of the greatest difficulties for the decision makers is to know if relevant information exists or is held by other ministries or departments. The magnitude of this problem can be appreciated if it is realised that even within the same ministry or department it is not always easy to obtain access to the records of other units. Petty jealousies as well as fierce competition often results in restrictions on the availability of information. At a higher level ministries and departments are often in competition with each other. vying to be seen to be the most innovative and to get credit and recognition for undertaking certain projects. While, indeed, depending on the political systems, there is an exchange of information at for instance Cabinet level, nevertheless each ministry and department wants to justify its existence and to secure a larger allocation of the available resources. In these circumstances information must be strictly guarded and thus to a large extent those operating in other ministries have little access to much needed information.

4.9. Access to records in records centres

When records from different ministries and departments are deposited in a Records Centre there will be an aggregation of records from various creating agencies A cardinal principle of Records Centre management is that the records that are in the Records Centre remain confidential and exclusive to the depositing agency. This is as it should be. There are even cases where this is taken to unfortunate extremes with such records remaining the property of the depositors who are thus free, for instance' to withdraw the records permanently. Whatever the situation however the Records Centre provides a unique opportunity for decision makers to widen their decision making base. Whether in a manual or automated Records Centre System the records transfer lists will be there to show which other records have been deposited. In an automated Records Centre System it becomes easy to locate relevant records which exist in other ministries and departments. Such a facility should be made available to all decision makers with the important provision and restriction that when records are located access is not directly given by the Records Centre but that those then seeking access are directed to the relevant creating agency to obtain permission.

It can be seen therefore that a systematic records retirement system and the deposit of records in Records Centres is important to the decision making process. The problem that seems to exist at the moment is that the mechanisms for facilitating the decision makers access to such information are to a large extent non-existent. To begin with, as noted previously thirty-four of the respondents did not even have Records Centre facilities and even more importantly those who had did not have facilities to publicise the existence of such information to those decision makers who had need for it.

A key service that Records Centres should provide is enhanced access by decision makers to information contained in records and archives. In most instances the main instrument by which records creating agencies know what has been transferred to the Records Centre or Archives is the copies of records transfer lists which are retained by their own registries. Forty six institutions indicated that there was easy access in the record creating agencies to the records transfer lists while sixteen institutions indicated in the negative. It was also interesting to note that only nineteen institutions with Records Centres were able to affirm that they had facilities that enabled decision makers in the ministries and departments to know what material had been deposited by other ministries and departments in the Records Centre. Thirty six institutions did not have such facilities meaning that decision makers by and large had access only to those records that they themselves had created. Computerisation of the finding aids is of course a pre-requisite for the facilitation and widening of access to records and archives. And yet only eighteen institutions had automated or begun to automate their finding aids. Forty seven institutions had not. This situation is obviously most unsatisfactory especially when viewed against the cost of Information Technology that has significantly come down in the past ten year. When businessmen today can afford to travel on an aeroplane with a portable Personal Computer, there is no real reason why archival institutions should not embrace the modern technology and begin the process of automating the finding aids. It is accepted that the information to be input requires a large disk or tape storage capacity but it should be possible to make a start somewhere even if that is by automating the indexes to the descriptive lists or by inputting summaries of titles of the records held.

To the decision makers the message is simple. The Records Centres contain a massive wealth of information which is needed in decision making. This information is at the moment by and large inaccessible and this has impaired the decision making process leading to decisions based on incomplete information or to the duplication of effort. The Records Centres need to be encouraged to facilitate access by decision makers to this information and they need to be allocated the resources to enable them to modernise their facilities and thus improve access. Any such investment would cost justify itself in terms of savings that will be made as for instance duplication of effort is reduced or eliminated and as costly errors are avoided. Some of the consequences of failure to access required information have already been demonstrated.

It has become generally acknowledged at various international forums that the greatest need in providing information to decision makers is affording access to the wealth of unpublished and inaccessible information that is contained in Records Centres and Archives. Published information as is found in books' periodicals and articles is readily available thanks to the librarians who have developed sophisticated methods and infrastructures for the dissemination of this information. Today it is easy and basic routine to identify all publications that have been produced in a given country. Bibliographies, indexes and abstracts have ensured that the availability of information is publicized to the fullest extent. It is relatively easy even to trace publications that were produced many years previously, to identify where they were published and to check if such publications are still in print.

That is not so with the unpublished information held in Records Centres. As has already been indicated, not only are Ministries and departments unaware of what information other ministries and departments have produced but even within the same ministries and departments there is often little knowledge of who has what information and of what is held in the offices. registries, records storerooms and Records Centres.

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