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'The preparation of records management handbooks for government agencies.'
UNESCO, via the International Council on Archives, commissioned us to carry out a study with the above title in order to produce a model for a handbook of directives for the introduction of a records management programme. This study therefore covers all aspects of the regulations that concern the different parts of such a programme. Regulations relating to the processing, storage and distribution of records of permanent value (archives) are consequently not covered.
The reader will not find ready-made directives but rather the ingredients needed for drawing up those he will require and will have to develop having regard to his environment. The study thus begins at the stage prior to the preparation of directives as such and this, it was felt, would make it far more useful.
We have not sought, either, to list or compare the various handbooks and trends to be found in the member states of ICA. The scale of the research and analysis that such a project would entail are well outside the scope of this study.
While the directives presented below form a consistent whole, an organization might choose only some of them on account of its specific administrative environment. Similarly, it could choose to lay stress on particular parts of a records management programme and so develop the corresponding directives at greater length than we have done.
The approach adopted in this study is akin to a centralized management model where the directives issued by the central body are binding. This approach is often the one that is preferred in North America. We nevertheless readily acknowledge that administrative records management may assume a less restrictive approach, in which the central body plays only a consultative role and does no more than lay down guidelines.
We hope that this document will serve as a useful reference work for our colleagues who have to develop a records management programme in the government agencies where they work.
André Frénière
Director of Records Management
Ministry of Finance
Quebec, Canada
Murielle Doyle
Head of the government
agencies service
National Archives of Quebec
Quebec, Canada