Records
Management Network Meeting Records
Management Network Meeting
Victorian Archives Conference Room
99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, ph 9348 5600
Carparking available via 112 Macaulay Road
Prov News (esp managing Privacy update)
An opportunity for members to speak on their projects and activities (incl. Whitehorse City Council, Department of Human Services, City of Yarra, Department of Infrastructure, Darebin City Council)
Speaker: Barbara Flett, Deputy Director, Land Registry, Land Victoria.
Barbara will be presenting the key elements of the Land Titles Automation Project. This $92 million project involved the conversion of paper based title records to electronic format and the simultaneous development of a new electronic business operating system – the Victorian Online Titles System.
Speaker: David Leaney, Principal Consultant, Opticon Australia.
David will be presenting the key elements of his recent presentation to the Institute for Information Management Conference in Brisbane. David emphasises that people and process can’t be treated with a lower priority than technology. In addition, David will provide an overview of the recent IIM Conference and the issues raised.
david.fowler@dpc.vic.gov.au ( 9348 5600
Welcome
Ross Gibbs opened the meeting at 9:30 AM and welcomed the 55 members present.
Members’ Issues and Update
Tim O’Grady - State Library Victoria
Despite being at the SLV for a short time (just five weeks), Tim reported on the $200 million upgrade to the SLV and the re-opening of the Dome Reading Room in 2003.
He also reported on the lack of a comprehensive recordkeeping system at the SLV and the amount of work to be done in this area, particularly in setting up the infrastructure and instilling a culture of recordkeeping.
Carolyn Stephens - Department of Human Services
Carolyn reported that the Department of Human Services is responsible for health, welfare and housing in Victoria. In 1999, the Department’s plan for an integrated service was put to tender and filled by Solutions6 and TowerSoft. In this process, 59 different databases were amalgamated into one Trim system. So far the records management has remained paper-based, with the full rollout of an EDMS expected to cost $20 million. The Department will investigate VERS in making its decision about a full EDMS.
Catherine Nolan – City of Yarra
Catherine explained that the City of Yarra takes in the suburbs of Richmond, Fitzroy and Collingwood. The Corporate Records Unit is located at the Collingwood Town Hall.
The council has established the Yarra Electronic Records Strategy (YERS) to scan all inward correspondence and to email them to the responsible officer. They are currently working on a Trim Context rollout, preceded by a Windows2000 rollout in December. This will mean all employees will have to use TopDraw to register outgoing correspondence.
The Corporate Records Unit has also been working on its own pages on the council’s Intranet. These pages include advice (including the PROV advice relating to email) and a checklist.
Graham Davies - Frankston City Council
Graham reported that the Frankston City Council has provided funding to improve the Corporate Information Management structure. The project is in two stages involving customer tracking and the implementation of an EDMS. The next few months will be devoted to developing procedures and policy before implementing the EDMS. The project has had a favourable reaction from staff.
Alison McNulty - Museum Victoria
Alison reported that Museum Victoria includes the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks.
Alison reported that in the records management area, Museum Victoria have introduced a Trim system to deal with both hard copy and electronic records. So far this has been rolled out to key areas, and an investigation into the reorganisation of infrastructure and how the rest of the organisation will comply is under way.
Alison also reported on the project involving eight museums and galleries across Australia to develop a collection management functional thesaurus and disposal authority. She reported that there is almost a draft authority ready to show PROV.
Tim Weston - Department of Natural Resources and Environment
Tim reported on the project to implement an integrated records management system. This will include an EDMS, which will include paper and electronic records. A project team has been established and KPMG have been brought in to deal with the change management aspect of the project.
Other elements of the project include a BCS and thesaurus and a records disposal authority. The project is running to a five-year plan.
Toula Varvarigos - Department of Infrastructure
Toula reported on the three-year plan to implement VERS. The aims of the project are to achieve a corporate approach to recordkeeping, to educate clients, better manage reporting processes and to develop technology and document management strategies.
Helen McLaughlin - Victoria Police
Helen reported that the Victoria Police has a number of disposal authorities, but these are out-of-date. They are looking to write more functions-based authorities and hopefully reduce the overall number of authorities from nine or ten to two or three. In relation to the secondary storage facilities in Collingwood and Oakleigh, they are in consultation with PROV staff to develop procedures to better run the repositories, including the checking in and out of records and manual handling procedures.
PROV News and Reports
Michael Pummell (Senior Archivist, Archives and Records Services)
Michael reported that an email inquiry service had recently been set up by PROV to answer records management queries from agencies. The service will be maintained by Archives and Records Services and checked regularly. Queries will be referred to the most appropriate person and they will contact the agency with a response. The address is prov.agency.queries@dpc.vic.gov.au and it can be found on the records management part of the PROV website.
Rachel U’Ren (Project Officer, VERS Centre of Excellence)
Rachel reported that State Records South Australia has purchased the licence to the PROV version of Archives One. They join Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania as Archives One clients. She also reported that she is currently doing a post-implementation review of Archives@Victoria and comments and feedback are sought. Please contact Rachel directly.
In regard to VERS, $8.2 million funding has been secured to assist inner budget agencies to develop VERS capability. This includes funding for consultancy advice, development of business cases, training and the development of an electronic repository.
The VERS Centre of Excellence is made up of:
Upcoming training events include:
4 November – half day – Introduction to VERS and
25 – 26 September – Getting Ready for VERS.
Further information is available on the VERS toolkit, www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/toolkit or contact Rachel or Kathy.
David Fowler (Archivist, Archives and Records Services)
David is the new RMN Coordinator. He asked that members let him know their updated details.
David Brown (Manager Regulation and Compliance)
David reported that in terms of nominations for the Hamer Awards, this is the most successful year ever. The nominations have displayed a wide array of entries, including some from local history societies. He stated that announcing the awards early in the year during Archives and Records Management week contributed to the success.
Ross Gibbs (Director, Public Record Office Victoria)
Ross reported that the requirements within the Information Privacy Act to destroy or de-identify personal information had raised some issues relating to public records.
Legal advice is currently being sought to answer the following questions relating to the Act:
In conjunction with the Privacy Commissioner, PROV are working through these issues. This will culminate in an advice to agencies.
Land Titles Automation Project - Barbara Flett
Barbara was recently appointed Director, Land Victoria Corporate, but she moved back to Victoria in 2001 to take up the role of Deputy Director, Land Registry. It was in this role that she oversaw the Titles Automation project.
Barbara reported that Land Victoria’s functions have existed since the 1850’s but they were only brought together for the first time in 1996. One area in this amalgamation was the Land Registry.
The Titles Automation project, which cost $92 million and took four years to complete, was a way to improve the Land Registry’s services by converting paper records into electronic format and developing new business software. The aim of the project was to provide faster service, remote online access and a platform for e-commerce. The project also ensured that the electronic records were secure, which Barbara compared to the level of protection offered to the paper records in the 1870s. In those days, making sure the building was not made of wood and that the land next door was vacant, ensuring there were no fires provided the best protection.
The project involved scanning documents on site and beaming these images to the text capture location in Ardeer. The text capture process was done twice which delivered a 99.96% accuracy rate. This also ensured that data that was incorrect in the paper register was corrected and the data is cleaner now than ever.
The data migration was done at Christmas/New Year 2001 and was delivered eight minutes within schedule. The project would have taken one person 21 years to complete (8000 person days) and the documents scanned would be one and a half times the height of the Rialto if stacked.
Barbara’s presentation is available on the RMN website.
Wisdom, Knowledge and Other Information Management Myths - David Leaney
David Leaney is Principal Consultant, Opticon Australia
David began his presentation by admitting that he felt he was preaching to the converted, particularly as Victoria is at the leading edge in the records management area. He delivered this presentation to approximately 200 delegates at the IIM Conference in Brisbane this year.
The alternative name for the presentation is "the Forgotten Role of People and Business Processes". David stated that the most common mistakes made by organisations are to see technology as a driver, rather than as an enabler and to put aside few resources for change management and training. A great slide used to illustrate some of these mistakes involved a picture of a dog (the organisation) with a rocket attached to its back (the IT system). As David said, it is no use having an IT system that goes like a rocket, if your organisation runs like a dog!
To ensure better business processes and access to information, organisations need to show support and commitment, provide training and to use the carrot and stick approach to intellectual capital management/knowledge management. An example of the carrot approach is the IBM intellectual capital database. In order to get a bonus, employees must add to and use items from this database. This is one effective way of ridding an organisation of a culture of knowledge hoarding.
David also provided a great slide to demonstrate the difference between support and commitment from an organisation. In relation to providing a plate of bacon and eggs, the chicken is supportive, but the pig is REALLY committed. To ensure success, organisations need to be committed to their people and business processes, not just supportive.
David’s presentation is available on the RMN website.
Next meeting
The proposed date of the next RMN meeting is 9 October.
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