Jason Bell
Competency E
Understand the system of standards and structures endorsed and utilized by the recordkeeping professions, particularly in the areas of electronic records and digital assets management.
Introduction
The importance we the people place on having a record of our cultural past is demonstrated by the many national and international agencies devoted to establishing the best possible standards and guidelines to be followed by record keepers and the organizations they work for. Organizations like the International Organization for Standardization, the Society of American Archivists, and Association of Records Managers and Administrators are but a few that go beyond listing the standards and make the extra effort to provide the tools that organizations need to develop solid records management systems that will work the best for their unique attributes–be they medical, legal or records that require special care. Established standards ensure the integrity of the record and that they will be cared according to best practices.
Standards and guidelines are changing all the time. ISO standard 13008 Digital Records Conversion and Migration Process is a response to the large amount of electronic recordkeeping taking place today. Efforts were and still continue to be made to guide organizations away from becoming overwhelmed in information. Rather, the goal of these standards and guidelines is to pave the way for record keeping professionals to recover important information to an organization while developing a timely disposal routine.
The Society of American Archivist demonstrates exceptional documentation and resources for record management including an exhaustive library of texts devoted to caring for photographs to texts that walk you through setting up an Information Governance plan.
The Generally Accepted Records Principals established by Association of Record Managers and Administration (ARMA) has provided much help by establishing very direct goals that deal not only with physical paper records but with electronic records as well.
Supporting Evidence
In the development of this writing I came to realize that there is much to be gained by organizations once they have overcome their fear of masses of information. Information Governance is not a one size fits all plan and can be tailored to various record keeping organizations. As organizations differ from one another widely– so too will IG policies–there is no one solution to establishing the perfect policy. Regardless of how IG policies are developed and implemented, information created through social media, large amounts of stored data in the cloud, and the increased use of mobile technology for work has forced record managers, IT, and legal professionals to move in the direction of a comprehensive, sustainable policy. From this assignment I took away that some policy is better than no policy. I also gained a perspective on how important it is to have a solid understanding of what important issues are required to make during the development of an IG policy that shows legal conformity and after some time will be able to show the organization profit. For example, strong leadership, dedication from everyone in the organization to work as a team, as well as, understanding putting in place any information management plan requires time
Keys to Setting in Place an Information Governance (IG) Plan
This is a PowerPoint presentation that illustrates my ability to review an organization, find the key stakeholders, and developing a records management plan that works for the whole organization. My first move would be to introduce the risks and rewards of establishing an IG plan. Also introduced in this PowerPoint are factors to consider before the development of the plan.
Conclusion
Managing an organization’s records takes much forethought most importantly meeting with all levels of staff in order to discern the needs of the workers so as to make this plan work for them instead of the plan working them. It is critical that an information management plan not be derailed by the people it is being designed to help. It is equally important to plan for those times when things are not going as desired. It is during the times of hardship that having an information management plan in place will protect or even save an organization from such things as information leak, natural disasters, and legal claims. These all will require that documents from a specific date and time can be produced at a moment’s notice. Most importantly, creating a records management plan of one sort or another will require a team effort throughout its development and during implementation.
Reference
Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Practices. (2015). ARMA International. Retrieved from http://www.arma.org/r2/generally-accepted-br-recordkeeping-principles