Establishing a high standard for electronic records management within the Australian public sector

Transcription

1 Establishing a high standard for electronic records management within the Australian public sector Kathryn Swan Adrian Cunningham and Anne Robertson 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Australia, Public sector, Archives Abstract Using as its basis the Australian Records Management Standard AS 4390 ± now superseded by the International Records Management Standard, ISO 15489), the National Archives of Australia NAA) has developed an extensive range of detailed and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 workpractices 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 The research register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at Volume 12. Number pp. 79±86 # MCB UP Limited. ISSN DOI / 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

2 overhauled their archives legislation to incorporate explicit requirements for public sector organisations to make and keep full and accurate records of their decisions and activities, in accordance with policies and guidelines issued by the archival authority. The National Archives of Australia is the archival authority of the Commonwealth Government. Although it has existed in one form or another since the 1940s, the National Archives of Australia's mandate and responsibilities are codified in the Archives Act, This Act gives the National Archives powers to authorise the destruction of Commonwealth records and to preserve and make available those records that are deemed to be of enduring value. This legislation gives the Archives few powers in relation to the making and keeping of records by Commonwealth Government agencies. History of record keeping in the Commonwealth Government Historically, the Australian Commonwealth Government has been good at record keeping. Before its demise in 1987, the Public Service Board set the standard for what records should be created, who was responsible for ensuring that those records were created and how record keeping would be performed. The general quality of records dating from the first 70 or so years of the twentieth century in the collection of the National Archives of Australia are evidence of the success of this approach to promoting good record keeping as a key enabler of good Commonwealth governance. Since the demise of the Public Service Board, however, there has been an absence of centralised record-keeping policy guidance in the Commonwealth government. Commonwealth agencies have been left to themselves to determine the most efficient and effective means of creating and maintaining records of their business activity. The decentralisation of record-keeping responsibility coincided with a number of other major changes affecting the Commonwealth public service. These included the introduction of personal computers, electronic documents and electronic mail, outsourcing of government functions and activities to the private sector, ``multi-skilling'' of public servants and a general devolution of managerial responsibility. 80 Over the past 20 years the Commonwealth public service has suffered a loss of basic record-keeping skills, procedures and systems and lost much of its understanding of the importance of good record keeping. Two authoritative sources provide evidence in support of this statement. In 1998 the Australian Law Reform Commission described the state of record keeping in the Commonwealth as ``unregulated'' and ``parlous'' Australian Law Reform Commission, 1998, p. 27). Moreover, a survey of Australian National Audit Office reports published between 1996 and 2000 reveals that more than half of the reports commented adversely on the quality of record keeping in government agencies[1]. In a survey conducted in 1999, it was found that only 40 per cent of public servants felt that Commonwealth staff have a good understanding of the importance of record keeping, less than 35 per cent felt that staff are provided with sufficient training in record keeping and more than 80 per cent expressed a desire for consistent records management guidelines and standards across the Australian Public Service ORIMA Research, 2000). In the late 1990s, the National Archives set out to fill the void caused by the loss of the Public Service Board and to redress inadequacies in Commonwealth government record-keeping practices. AS 4390 and ISO The Australian Standard for Records Management AS 4390, issued in February 1996 Standards Australia, 1996), presents strategies and operational guidelines for the introduction of practices that will ensure that records satisfying business, legal, and fiscal requirements are managed in an efficient and accountable manner. The Standard promotes a best practice records management regime extending from the design of a record-keeping system, to the creation of records and their use for as long as they are required to meet business and community requirements. The National Archives of Australia endorsed the Australian Standard soon after its release and has been committed ever since to developing standards and policies that draw on, and expand, the advice provided in the Standard. In 1998 the International Standards Organisation began work to develop AS 4390

3 into an international records management standard. In October 2001, the new international records management standard, ISO 15489, and its accompanying technical report, were released ISO, 2001). In February 2002, Standards Australia adopted ISO as an Australian Standard, thus superseding AS ISO retains most of the main components of AS The most visible change is a structural one. The international standard is made up of two parts ± the standard that outlines the high-level principles of records management and the technical report that provides more practical guidance. Standards Australia is now developing an Australian compliance standard based on ISO Establishing standards for Commonwealth record keeping Since 1996, the Archives has taken steps to establish itself as a standard setter for Commonwealth government record keeping. This has involved developing a suite of standards, policies and guidelines for Commonwealth record keeping and helping agencies to implement those standards. This suite of Web-based policies, standards and guidelines was launched in March 2000 under the title ``e-permanence'' National Archives of Australia, 2001a). The question that the Archives is now asking itself, after four years of development and implementation of e-permanence, is: ``Has it succeeded in establishing a standard for Commonwealth record keeping?'' In order to answer this question, however, it is necessary to describe the main components of the Archives' suite of standards and guidelines. DIRKS: a strategic approach to managing business information The methodology for designing and implementing record-keeping systems, known by the acronym DIRKS, underpins the Archives approach to record keeping. It steers agencies towards systematic, enterprise-wide, business-driven solutions for record keeping instead of the ad hoc practices that have flourished since the decentralisation of record keeping responsibility. The DIRKS Manual National Archives of Australia, 2001b) expands on the design methodology outlined in AS 4390 and ISO to help agencies establish a record-keeping infrastructure policies, procedures and organisational framework) and tools business classification scheme, records disposal authority and record keeping system) appropriate to their business needs. The manual helps agencies identify the records they must create and retain and provides a process for developing and implementing strategies to meet those needs. It encourages agencies to make risk-based decisions on all aspects of their recordkeeping activity. The manual was developed in collaboration with the State Records Authority of New South Wales in response to a mutual recognition of a need to put flesh on the bones of AS 4390 so that government agencies could better understand how it might be applied to their circumstances. The DIRKS Manual was revised by the National Archives in 2001 and re-released in September. The Archives has received expressions of interest to use or adapt the DIRKS Manual from the Public Record Office UK), the National Archives of France, Hong Kong and Korea, the Canadian government's Department of National Defence, the Ministry of Justice in The Netherlands, regional chapters of ARMA International, as well as private sector companies in the USA and Canada. Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth agencies Record-keeping metadata ensures that the records captured in office systems possess the necessary qualities to serve as evidence of an organisation's activities. The Recordkeeping Metadata Standard defines 20 metadata elements that will help agencies identify, authenticate, describe, manage and retrieve their records in a systematic and consistent way National Archives of Australia, 1999). The Standard can be applied to both electronic and paper-based office systems. The Standard outlines the generic characteristics, or properties, that records and systems must have. Together with the DIRKS Manual it provides a comprehensive framework for agency record keeping. The Standard was developed collaboratively with software vendors specialising in electronic document management systems, government agencies and other experts. In particular it drew heavily on the conceptual research undertaken in a number of academic institutions in Australia and overseas, notably

4 Monash University, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of British Columbia[2]. The Recordkeeping Metadata Standard was awarded the Australian Society of Archivists Mander Jones Award in 2000 for the ``publication making the greatest contribution to archives or a related field in Australia written by or on behalf of a corporate body'' and it has informed the development of jurisdiction-specific standards in New South Wales, Victoria and Minnesota. The Standard is being reviewed during 2002 and it is anticipated that an expanded and updated version will be issued in late Australian Government Locator Service AGLS) metadata standard AGLS provides a framework that agencies can use to create online descriptions of their services and information in a consistent way, so that those services and information sources can be found, accessed and used. The standard comprises a set of 19 elements that describe the creators and owners of the resource, its intellectual content and its electronic or physical manifestation. AGLS is based on the Dublin Core resource discovery metadata standard, but extends that standard with the addition of four elements and a number of qualifiers that are relevant to the Australian environment[3]. AGLS has attracted much attention locally and overseas. It has been endorsed by all Australian governments at Federal, State and Territory level and has recently been endorsed, with local variations, by the New Zealand government as its resource discovery metadata standard. AGLS is currently being considered for adoption as an Australian standard by Standards Australia. Archiving Web resources The dynamic nature of online activities presents special challenges for agencies. The first challenge is to recognise that Web resources are a form of publication and are therefore records for archival purposes) and that Web sites may also generate records, particularly if they provide an interface for the provision of goods or services through the use of e-commerce. The second challenge is to decide what records agencies need to create of their Webbased activities, when and how to create them and how to maintain them so that they remain accessible and meaningful as long as they are required. The policy, and supporting 82 guidelines, produced by the Archives encourage agencies to explore these challenges using the DIRKS methodology as a framework National Archives of Australia, 2001c). Record keeping within authentication frameworks The Archives is also currently developing guidelines on keeping records of electronic communications and transactions that are created using online authentication and encryption processes and technologies such as Public Key Infrastructure PKI). These guidelines will enable agencies to identify and negotiate the technical difficulties inherent in keeping authentic, reliable and accessible records arising from business conducted over unsecured public telecommunications networks such as the Web). Has the Archives succeeded in establishing a standard for Commonwealth record keeping? The plaudits that the Archives has received from the professional and archival community suggest that it is on the right track. The Archives suite of e-permanence standards provide a best-practice approach for all elements of records management ± development of record-keeping systems, creation and capture of records, their maintenance, disposal and accessibility. So, to return to the question posed at the beginning of this section, the answer would appear to be yes, the Archives has succeeded in establishing a standard for Commonwealth record keeping. But the Archives cannot rest on that achievement. There is an ongoing need to ensure that the standards remain relevant and comprehensive. For the next few years the main push in Archives is implementation of the e-permanence standards. Implementation The next important question is ``Has the Archives succeeded in establishing a standard for Commonwealth record keeping that is implementable?'' This is a very difficult question to answer at this point in time. The Archives launched its e-permanence series of standards and policies only two years ago. To some, two years might sound like a long time. However, we know that records management ranks reasonably

5 low on most organisations' list of priorities. It takes time for agencies to obtain the support and resources they need to undertake any sort of records management project, let alone one that will have far reaching effects throughout the agency and which will require significant resourcing. Since March 2000, the Archives has been helping agencies to implement the e-permanence standards. This assistance takes many forms. The first, and arguably most important, implementation strategy the Archives employed was to take the e-permanence cause to the senior management of the Commonwealth government. The Archives has done this by developing and delivering seminars, producing promotional material and corresponding regularly with the nominated senior officer in every Commonwealth agency. A total of 131 agencies or 78 per cent) have nominated a senior officer responsible for record keeping in their organisation as a primary point of contact with the Archives. To date, the overwhelming majority of agencies are interested only in obtaining disposal authorisation for the records they create. This is the core of the Archives regulatory power in records management. At present the Archives has limited powers to compel agencies to conform to its standards and guidelines. It can obtain leverage in only three ways: 1) Through the disposal provisions of the Archives Act 1983 that enable the Archives to define the type of information agencies must provide in order to obtain authorisation to destroy or transfer records. 2) Through a Cabinet mandate, announced in April 2000, that requires all agencies to implement metadata standards for the description of Web-based resources and to comply with the Archives' guidelines for making and keeping records of Web-based activity National Office for the Information Economy, 2002). 3) Through directions issued by the Public Service Commissioner pursuant to the Public Service Act 1999 that places an obligation on agency heads to take reasonable steps to ensure that they understand and operate within the government's accountability framework. The existence and maintenance of good record keeping systems is cited as an indicator to demonstrate that agencies 83 have followed due process in their actions and decisions Public Service and Merit Protection Commission, 2000). Agencies can satisfy their disposal and online obligations by identifying their recordkeeping needs using elements of the DIRKS methodology. The Archives is encouraging agencies to use these obligations as an opportunity to review all of their record keeping needs and to modify existing systems or design new systems to better meet their responsibilities. Experience so far After two years of implementation, how successful has the Archives been in helping agencies to implement the e-permanence standards and policies? At present the Archives is helping 55 approximately 33 percent of) Commonwealth agencies, including 12 of the 17 portfolio departments, to undertake the first part of DIRKS and develop functions-based disposal authorities. A small number of these agencies have indicated an interest in going on to develop better recordkeeping systems once they have completed the first stages of DIRKS. To date, the Archives has issued six functions-based disposal authorities, including one for a portfolio department. Since 2000, the Archives and the Commonwealth agencies on the work plan have learnt a lot about implementation of the e-permanence standards aimed at developing disposal authorities. During 2001, the Archives revised the DIRKS Manual to take into account this implementation experience. A range of changes were made to DIRKS, largely aimed at simplifying the methodology, reducing the quantity of documentation required and providing better and clearer advice in key areas, such as the analysis of business activity. However, the Archives has not ceased its development activities and its attempts to be a relevant and authoritative standard-setter for Commonwealth government. The Archives has simply moved into the next phase ± the development and provision of implementation assistance. The Archives has developed a range of products and strategies aimed at providing implementation assistance to agencies. The

6 products and strategies include giving advice, providing training and developing tools. The DIRKS Manual is the foundation of all of the Archives standards and policies. The strategic and practical importance of the DIRKS Manual, and the current focus of agencies on developing disposal authorities which requires agencies to undertake the first three steps of DIRKS, has led to the Archives developing several major implementation strategies to help agencies. DIRKS training The Archives has developed several training courses in DIRKS. The first of these is a general overview aimed at senior managers that introduces participants to the DIRKS methodology, each of its steps, and outlines the various ways in which the methodology can be used to improve records and information management. There are also a series of DIRKS workshops, each one focussing on a step of the DIRKS methodology. The workshops are supported by a case study and take participants through the issues involved in undertaking that part of the methodology. As of March 2002, the Archives has conducted 48 training courses since March 2000, which have attracted 720 participants. DIRKS database In early 2002, the Archives released database software that agencies can use when undertaking the DIRKS process to capture and manage the resultant information. It was developed in response to a recognised need in agencies for help in recording DIRKS analysis. The database generates output documentation that is required by the Archives from those agencies seeking disposal authorisation. This tool is considered to be one of the most useful in the Archives' arsenal of implementation strategies. The majority of the 55 Commonwealth agencies currently doing DIRKS are expected to use the database. The Archives has also received various enquiries about the database from organisations nationally and internationally and initial feedback from users has been extremely positive. The Archives is currently considering making the database available to the Australian Council of Federal, State and Territory Archives, for possible use in other Australian jurisdictions. 84 DIRKS advice/assistance The DIRKS Training and the DIRKS Database are two methods by which the Archives is helping agencies undertake DIRKS projects. Nevertheless, the most commonly used strategy at the moment is the assistance of Archives staff. Archives staff research each agency doing DIRKS, attend meetings with those agencies, comment on drafts of business classification schemes and record keeping requirements and conduct on-the-job training. The resource burden of this implementation strategy is a heavy one, but assisting agencies is not the only reason we provide this support. The Archives has a regulatory responsibility to authorise the disposal of Commonwealth records. The close relationship maintained between the Archives and those agencies developing disposal authorities ensures that high quality analysis is undertaken and that quality disposal authorities are issued. As agencies build experience and confidence in applying the DIRKS methodology, the Archives expects its involvement in DIRKS projects to decrease. So, to return to the question posed at the beginning of this section, ``has the Archives succeeded in establishing a standard for Commonwealth record keeping that is implementable?'', the answer is a qualified yes. The Archives must continue, for the foreseeable future, to invest time and effort into helping agencies to implement its standards. Future directions: where is the Commonwealth headed? The National Archives will continue to:. work towards its goal of setting a high standard for Commonwealth record keeping;. help agencies implement its standards;. work with agencies in convincing their senior management that record keeping is vital for strong corporate governance and accountability; and. implement procedures for accepting digital records into archival custody and preserving and providing access to those records for as long as they are needed. In order to get record keeping onto the agenda of many agencies, the Archives will be stressing the linkages between record keeping and information management, knowledge

7 management and e-business ± areas of activity that are currently enjoying success in obtaining agency resourcing. The Archives will also look at developing strategic partnerships that will advance the status and resourcing of record keeping in the Commonwealth. The most important of the Archives existing strategic partnerships is with the Australian National Audit Office. During 2001, the Archives and the Audit Office conducted a ground-breaking audit into the record-keeping practices of four Commonwealth agencies. The record-keeping practices of those agencies were assessed against the National Archives range of standards and guidelines. The report of the audit was tabled in Parliament in May 2002 Australian National Audit Office, 2002). The audit examined record-keeping practices in four Commonwealth agencies. The objective of the audit was to first, assess whether agency record-keeping policies, systems and processes accord with requirements under the Archives Act 1983, relevant government policies, and accepted standards and record-keeping principles; and second, identify better practices and recommend improvements. Significantly, the audit used the National Archives suite of e-permanence products as benchmarks for assessing agency practices. None of the agencies reviewed fully satisfied the audit criteria. The audit report makes six recommendations relating to:the assessment of record keeping needs; the development and implementation of appropriate control environments; records capture and classification; records disposal and preservation; record-keeping skills and awareness; and the need for regular monitoring and review. A second round of record-keeping audits is due to commence in July 2002, with the Archives again assisting the Auditor-General. It is hoped that the attention of the Auditor- General in this vital area of corporate governance will give record-keeping in the Commonwealth an increased importance and that this, in combination with the Archives' other strategies, will result in improved record keeping practices in the Commonwealth. Finally, the issue of the management and preservation of digital records in archival custody is one that the National Archives has devoted a great deal of attention to over the past two years. A research and development project underway at the Archives has 85 proposed that the Archives keeps both the original bitstream of the digital record as transferred to the Archives and also ``normalises'' a copy of this original bitstream into archival data formats based on XML and other open standards. These ``archival data formats'' are either developed or selected by the Archives for long-term use. They are based on open standards and their specifications are or will be) publicly available. This means that anyone can create applications that can view or process the archival data formats on any platform. The original bitstream is kept so that future researchers who have the interest and technological capacity to use or re-create original processing environments can access copies of the original data object. Copies of the ``normalised'' data object can be used in any software application that conforms to the particular archival data format specification. The Archives is developing a cross-platform Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X) application that will be able to provide a read-only view of all the data formats that it designates for preservation use. Conclusion In the relatively short time since the National Archives of Australia committed itself to playing a proactive role as a standards setter for record keeping in Commonwealth agencies, much has been achieved. Using the conceptual foundations of AS 4390/ISO 15489, the Archives has developed an extensive range of standards, policies, manuals and guidelines which are designed to provide agencies with detailed practical guidance on how best to meet the challenges of digital record keeping. These tools are constantly being revised and supplemented as implementation experience is assessed and as our own understanding of record-keeping strategies improves. It took many years of neglect and environmental change for the current parlous state of Commonwealth record keeping to develop and it will take many years of concerted effort to redress the situation. Nevertheless, the National Archives of Australia, in cooperation with other key strategic allies, is committed to following through on the work that has been done to date to help ensure that current and future generations of Australians enjoy the benefits of efficient, transparent, accountable and well documented democratic governance.

8 Notes 1 Based on an examination of 182 Australian National Audit Office ANAO) reports published between 1996 and 2000 conducted by Archives staff in June ANAO reports can be found at: 2 For an overview of the Monash University's SPIRT project see S. McKemmish, G. Acland, N. Ward and B. Reed, ``Describing records in context in the continuum: the Australian recordkeeping metadata schema'', in Archivaria, Number 48, Fall 1999, pp A summary of the research report can be found at spirt/index.html. The development of the National Archives' Recordkeeping Metadata Standard proceeded in tandem with the SPIRT research project, in which the National Archives was an active industry partner. Both projects benefited through interaction with the other. References to the Pittsburgh and British Columbia metadata projects are cited in the McKemmish et al.) article. 3 The AGLS home page can be found at: References Australian Law Reform Commission 1998), Australia's Federal Record: A Review of the Archives Act 1983, Australian Government Publishing Service, Sydney. Australian National Audit Office 2002), Assurance and Control Assessment Audit ± Record Keeping, Audit Report No , Australian National Audit Office, Canberra, available on the ANAO Web site at: accessed 31 July 2002). ISO 2001), Information and Documentation ± Records Management ISO 15489, International Standards Organization, Geneva. National Archives of Australia 1999), Record Keeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies Version 1.0, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, available at: keeping/control/rkms/summary.htm accessed 31 July 2002). National Archives of Australia 2001a), e-permanence Made Easy: A Manager's Guide to the Strategic Management of Records and Information, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, available at: naa.gov.au/record keeping/overview/e-permanence. pdf accessed 31 July 2002). National Archives of Australia 2001b), DIRKS: A Strategic Approach to Managing Business Information, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, available at: keeping/dirks/ summary.html accessed 31 July 2002). National Archives of Australia 2001c), Archiving Web Resources: Policy and Guidelines for Keeping Records of Web-Based Activity in the Commonwealth Government, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, available at: record keeping/er/web_records/intro.html accessed 31 July 2002). National Office for the Information Economy 2002), Government Online Strategy home page, available at: accessed 31 July 2002). ORIMA Research 2000), Attitudes, Perceptions and Current Behaviour Toward Recordkeeping in Commonwealth Public Sector Organisations, Canberra, June/July, available at: record keeping/overview/survey_report.html accessed 31 July 2002). Public Service and Merit Protection Commission 2000), Values in the Australian Public Service, Public Service and Merit Protection Commission, Canberra, available at: values6.htm accessed 31 July 2002). Standards Australia 1996), Australian Standard ± Records Management AS 4390, Standards Australia, Homebush. 86