Establishing a high standard for electronic records management within the Australian public sector
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09565690210454761 |
| Pages | 79-86 |
| Author | Kathryn Swan,Adrian Cunningham,Anne Robertson |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Establishing a high
standard for electronic
records management
within the Australian
public sector
Kathryn Swan
Adrian Cunningham and
Anne Robertson
The benefits of good record keeping
Good record keeping is fundamental to
government accountability in a democratic
society. However, at an even more basic level
than that, records are essential in order to do
business. They provide evidence of what an
organisation has done, how it does its
business and why it took certain actions and
made certain decisions. Good record keeping
is critical to the health and efficient operation
of day-to-day business.
Knowing what records to create, ensuring
that they are created consistently and to a
high level of quality, capturing records into a
record-keeping system, maintaining records
appropriately and ensuring the accessibility
and retrievability of records has many
benefits. Some of them are:
.increased efficiency and effectiveness of
business activity because relevant and
timely information is available;
.improved compliance with legal and
regulatory requirements and community
expectations;
.improved knowledge sharing and
retention of, and access to, corporate
memory;
.better management of evidence-related
risks;
.improved capacity to explain, and provide
evidence of, an organisation's actions and
decisions;
.appropriate management of records
consistent with their retention
requirements; and
.decreased storage, material and labour
costs.
Background
Australia has a federal system of government
consisting of the national-level
``Commonwealth Government'' and a range
of State and Territory Governments governed
through a Westminster system of
parliamentary democracy. The State
governments trace their origins back to British
colonies that existed before 1901, when the
Australian Commonwealth Government was
created by an Act of British Parliament.
Each jurisdiction, Commonwealth, State
and Territory, has its own government
archives authority. In most cases the
operations and responsibilities of these
archival authorities are codified in legislation.
In recent years some jurisdictions have
The authors
Kathryn Swan is Assistant Director, Record Keeping
Implementation, Adrian Cunningham is Director, Record
Keeping Standards and Policy, and Anne Robertson is
Assistant Director, Record Keeping Standards and Policy, all
at the National Archives of Australia, Canberra, Australia.
Keywords
Record keeping, Standards, Australia, Public sector,
Archives
Abstract
Using as its basis the Australian Records Management
Standard (AS 4390 ± now superseded by the International
Records Management Standard, ISO 15489), the National
Archives of Australia (NAA) has developed an extensive
range of detailed and practical standards, guidelines,
policies and manuals to assist Australian public sector
organisations to implement strategies to make and keep
full and accurate records. The NAA committed to this
course of action in response to evidence of widespread
poor record keeping in the Australian Government, the
result of changes to work practices in the public sector
including the spread of electronic business systems and
the devolution of managerial responsibility. This article
describes the major components of the ``e-permanence'''
suite of best practice record keeping guidance and
discusses implementation strategies pursued by the
Archives in support of these products.
Electronic access
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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
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79
Records Management Journal
Volume 12 .Number 3 .2002 .pp. 79±86
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0956-5698
DOI 10.1108/09565690210454761
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