Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Records Management Journal, Volume 18, Issue 3
Last year’s themed issue of the Records Management Journal was devoted to research. Caroline Williams, Head of Collections and Research at The National Archives in the UK, opened its opinion piece with the statement that“research is an important professional responsibility” and contended that “that if practitioners do not consciously engage with ‘research’, they do not deserve the epithet of ‘professional’” (Williams, 2007 p. 150). So it seemed highly appropriate to choose professional research-based practice for this year’s themed issue and, for the first for time in the RMJ, to focus on a single organization – the European Central Bank (ECB)[1].
The ECB, home of the European currency the Euro and based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is 10 years old this year. Despite creating an archives function from its inception, partly to capture and make accessible material inherited from its predecessor organizations, including the European Monetary Institute,the ECB recognised the need to manage its information more effectively in the electronic environment and, in 2002, embarked on a new strategic approach to achieving this. Part of the approach included the appointment from within the Bank, of six Records Management Specialists who came with different knowledge and experience from within the Bank and different educational qualifications. None had specialist knowledge, experience or qualifications in records management but were required to undertake formal academic study in the discipline. This is how I first came into contact with the ECB and its Records Management Specialists. Having been privileged to work this remarkable group of people who, with strong support from management and other ECB colleagues,embarked on a new career to support significant change and studied alongside this, I believed there was much to be learned not only from what they have achieved so far but also from the senior management team’s vision for managing the ECB’s records.
The issue opens with the customary viewpoint from Stuart Orr who was appointed as Head of the Archives and Records Management Section in 2006. He provides background on the history and development of the ECB and its new approach to records management, reflecting on why and how that approach has been successful and if it is a model that other organizations can adopt. The five articles have been written by the six Records Management Specialists and are drawn from work-based projects, some of which were the focus of their academic study and all of which are research or evidence based.
How often does one find oneself balancing the needs of different parties or stakeholders? That is precisely the situation that two of the ECB’s Records Management Specialist found themselves in when rolling out an EDRMS. Maria Luisa Di Biagio and Bernice Ibiricu share lessons learned from their experience in different business areas, working alongside business analysts, the overall project team and end-users in a phased approach to implementation. Locating records managers “prominently between technology and business needs” is a deliberate tactic “to ensure that the preservation of institutional memory is the centre-piece of its information policy”. Each implementation comprises four phases – discover, design, develop and deploy – prior to going live in the particular business area. Some of the lessons learned parallel those reported by others but, in their conclusions, Luisa and Bernice particularly highlight the importance of proactive management support, the role of “key users” and of training as critical success factors for an EDRMS implementation. Very helpfully for others about to or having embarked upon any form of enterprise content management system implementation they also discuss the issues still to be tackled moving forward.
Beatriz Garcı´a Garrido’s article focuses on one of the many crucial factors to any system implementation, that of user needs. Through interviews and direct observation she investigated whether user needs and preferences in organizing electronic information had been properly identified when implementing folder structures in the ECB’s EDRMS, and to what extent they correspond to records management best practices. The results of her case study are fascinating but I will leave you to discover them for yourself and, instead, highlight the emphasis in Beatriz’s article on what she describes as “the necessity of prioritising user needs as the best way to achieve records management objectives”. User needs analysis is a vital principle in any type of systems analysis, design and implementation but not always actioned in practice. Why?
Continuing the user focus Sara Julibert examines the sometimes rather delicate issue of employee attitudes to information sharing. Though information access is clearly a core aspect of records management, it is not one that appears to have been addressed by published research in our discipline, though it appears in the literature of a wide range of other disciplines. Sara’s analysis of the drivers and inhibitors to information sharing from the results of research in some of those other disciplines, which she includes as a valuable summary in her article, informed her study of a small but diverse group of ECB employees in non-managerial posts. She concludes that the factors which play a role in employees’ attitudes towards information sharing are diverse and their inter-relationships often complex. Even though the employees interviewed valued information sharing for themselves and the organization, some were mindful of the potential dangers of opening up access to information in the workplace. It would be extremely valuable to see more sharing, through published articles like this one, of the reality of information sharing in organizations.
Paloma Beneito-Arias explores retention scheduling, another of the core elements of our discipline, and does so in a different way. Focusing on statistical records, she gathered data on retention value from both records creators and records managers via a Delphi study. From the experience she makes recommendations on how to approach the identification of validated retention periods as well as presenting the findings from the practical use of the approach. She concludes that involving end-users to gather feedback and attempt to reach a consensus of opinions on retention periods was successful and helped in gaining their support in implementing the schedule. Her article will be of interest not only to practitioners developing retention schedules but also researchers interested in using the Delphi research method.
In complete contrast Leena Fritzke explores an area that appears to have received little attention in the records management literature in the past, viz. what is the impact of records on the value of an artwork? She presents an analysis of the views of a small group of experts on the role and impact of the presence, absence and quality of records of provenance, authenticity and investment value, on the financial value of artworks and their importance for accountability. In light of publicized disputes over ownership of artworks,soaring auction prices for some works of art and the importance of having accurate records when making insurance claims following a disaster, this article on value is not only timely but valuable itself. Leena’s research demonstrates that assessing the financial value of artworks in part depends on complete records about them, as well as various market factors, and highlights that art records are increasingly important for accountability, risk reduction and investment value which, in turn, is important for large organizations who have art collections. She makes a series of recommendations to support accountability and the trustworthiness of the assessment of the value of an artwork and calls for further research in this area.
In addition, this issue contains three resource reviews. The first is of the much awaited update of MoReq (Model Requirements for the Management of Electronic Records) – MoReq2 – which is freely available on the Web. The other two are additions to the expanding collection of books in our field. One is on information rights for non-legal professionals, the other on long-term preservation of electronic documents for managers.
As always I hope that you find much of value in this issue, which is uniquely focused on a single organization, and that the content inspires and/or provokes you into sharing your own opinions or work. (See submission information at: www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/rmj/notes.jsp).
Julie McLeod
Note1. All of the articles were invited and peer reviewed in accordance with editorial policy.
