32 results
Network insiders and observers: who can identify influential people?
- ROBIN GOMILA, HANA SHEPHERD, ELIZABETH LEVY PALUCK
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- Journal:
- Behavioural Public Policy / Volume 7 / Issue 1 / January 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 May 2020, pp. 115-142
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Identifying influential people within a community to involve in a program is an important strategy of behavioral interventions. How to efficiently identify the most effective individuals is an outstanding question. This paper compares two common strategies: consulting ‘network insiders’ versus ‘network observers’ who have knowledge of but who do not directly participate in the community. Compared to aggregating information from all insiders, asking relatively fewer observers is more cost-effective, but may come at a cost of accuracy. We use data from a large-scale field experiment demonstrating that central students, identified through the aggregated nominations of students (insiders), reduced peer conflict in 56 middle schools. Teachers (observers) also identified students they saw as influential. We compare the causal effect of the two types of nominated students on peer outcomes and the differences between the two types of students. In contrast to the prosocial effects of central students on peer conflict, teacher nominees have no, or even antisocial, influence on their peers’ behaviors. Teachers (observers) generally nominated students with traits salient to them, suggesting that observer roles may systematically bias their perception. We discuss strategies for improving observers’ ability to identify influential individuals in a network as leverage for behavioral change.
6 - Commissioning of Healthcare Through Competitive and Cooperative Mechanisms Under the HSCA 2012
- Edited by Pauline Allen, University of Manchester, Kath Checkland, Valerie Moran, University of Kent, Canterbury, Stephen Peckham, Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent
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- Book:
- Commissioning Healthcare in England
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 03 March 2021
- Print publication:
- 25 March 2020, pp 83-102
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Summary
Introduction
Competition and cooperation are the two fundamental mechanisms of service procurement in the NHS and represent the tools for ‘getting things done’. This chapter presents empirical findings from a longitudinal, qualitative case study research project into the use of competition and cooperation by local NHS commissioners following the HSCA 2012.
As outlined in Chapter 2, the economics of markets (and their opposite, hierarchies) in conjunction with more sophisticated theories of cooperation underpin the analysis of competition and cooperation in the NHS quasi-market. For a market to operate competitively, there needs to be sufficient numbers of buyers and sellers of goods and services. A key assumption is that purchasers have sufficient information about the goods or services to make rational choices and maximise their utility. The market will produce value for money by allocating resources to the best use at the most efficient price (Allen, 2013).
Competition in the NHS is realised through several models. Competition for the market is a result of tendering processes whereby different providers compete to deliver a particular service and one provider wins the whole market. Competition within the market exists when a number of providers are accredited to provide a particular service and they compete to attract patients. An example of the competition for the market is tendering out of community health services, and an example of competition within the market is the patient choice of elective secondary or community-based care.
In order to analyse cooperation the theory of ‘co-opetition’ and the work of Elinor Ostrom (2005) are utilised. Co-opetition suggests that organisations can compete and cooperate simultaneously to mutual benefit (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1996). Ostrom suggests that individuals can self-organise to solve collective problems, without direct control by the government, and can establish and enforce rules limiting the appropriation of common pool resources.
In terms of defining cooperation, there are a number of closely related terms such as collaboration, coordination, integrated care, networking and partnership. Integrated care implies the coordination of separate but interconnected components which should function together to perform a shared task (Kodner and Spreeuwenberg, 2002).
nine - Co-productive research in a primary school environment: unearthing the past of Keig
- Edited by Helen Graham, University of Leeds, Jo Vergunst, University of Aberdeen
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- Book:
- Heritage as Community Research
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 27 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 13 March 2019, pp 187-208
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Summary
Introduction
In the Introduction to this book, Vergunst and Graham argue that heritage is ‘about relationships created through inquiry, between past, present and future, between people, and between people and things’. Here, we explore how this definition of heritage challenges attitudes and beliefs in relation to what school is for and the nature of curricula. Archaeology in the school-based community opens up possibilities for learning beyond the limitations of a content-driven model of learning. This chapter also considers the impact of the historical investigations carried out by children as heritage interpretation in the wider community.
We present a contextualised case study of work carried out in a small rural primary school in North-East Scotland. This work saw a community-based landscape researcher's commitment to the full engagement of non-experts in the planning, investigation and dissemination of landscape research being taken up by a head teacher, her staff and pupils. Participants recognised and valued the strength of putting children in charge of shaping what and how they learn. The experiences of all concerned resonate with Margaret Carr's (2005: 42) argument that ‘education is an ontological project’ because it is not just knowledge and skills that are generated, but also ‘shifts and developments in identity’.
Elsewhere in this book, discussion of community and co‑produced heritage research have problematised issues of power in relation to knowledge, skills, decision-making and voice. In this chapter, ways of knowing through co‑production and enskilment are explored through the narrative of a school investigating the history of their village with the support of landscape researcher Colin Shepherd, a head teacher, Jane Murison, along with her staff and pupils at Keig Primary School, and a lecturer from a School of Education, Liz Curtis. Using this material, we argue that the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) (Scottish Executive, 2004) is brought into being as a dynamic lived experience for all participants.
The ongoing nature of the work discussed here is significant. It began in 2011 as an element of the ‘Bennachie Landscapes Project’ (see Vergunst et al, Chapter One, this volume) that grew to incorporate a series of Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities projects.
one - Shaping heritage in the landscape among communities past and present
- Edited by Helen Graham, University of Leeds, Jo Vergunst, University of Aberdeen
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- Heritage as Community Research
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 27 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 13 March 2019, pp 27-50
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Summary
Introduction
Can community-based archaeology achieve different outcomes from more traditional academic approaches? In this chapter, we explore how ways of knowing the past can alter significantly when the landscape is encountered through collaborative means. This not only provides a contrast to how archaeology is usually practised in university and professional settings, but also enables us to study relationships with landscape that span the past, present and future. If one of the preoccupations of mainstream archaeology is the regular chronological ordering of human activity from the past towards the present, working through a collaborative methodology opens onto how time and landscape can be understood in different ways.
Research co‑design and co‑production undermines assumptions that the past is a stable and static entity that can be uncovered and read off layer by layer (Simonetti, 2013). By drawing inspiration from phenomenological perspectives on landscape, we explore how notions of time develop from practical and discursive involvement with landscape. These forms of activity can become mediums through which senses of the past, present and future emerge; in this way of thinking, ‘time duration is measured in terms of human embodied experience of place and movement, of memory and expectation’ (Bender, 2002: S103). We would add that plants, animals, seasonality and other non-human components of landscape also create senses of time. As ways of life in the landscape continue, so time itself unfolds, not simply according to a calendrical or ‘clock’ chronology, but also by way of the qualities of being past, present and future, and of duration and change. This holds true for the ways of practising archaeology as much as for the landscapes of the past being described. Field research on ‘heritage’ can serve to provoke notions of temporality beyond standard associations with the past and beyond the imposition of a sense of time onto the landscape. By these means, collaboratively exploring the past of a landscape is also an emergence of its present and future.
Our argument builds on ideas and practices of community and public archaeology. Dalglish (2013: 2) writes that community archaeology:
is evident in the many projects which have community participation as a primary aim and in the new funding streams which support such projects … it has become possible to see such involvement as a particular way – not the only way – of doing archaeology.
3 - Open Government
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- By Elizabeth Shepherd, A Professor at University College London
- Edited by Luciana Duranti, Corinne Rogers, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
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- Book:
- Trusting Records and Data in the Cloud
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 24 September 2019
- Print publication:
- 30 November 2018, pp 37-64
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter seeks to investigate and establish the nature of open government and the role of data, records and archives in promoting and enabling open government around the world. It identifies key issues around open government from the literature reviews and from the research-in-practice undertaken as part of the InterPARES Trust (hereinafter ITrust) project. In its conclusion it draws out some lessons for citizens, public organizations, records professionals and records educators working in the arena of open government to demonstrate the vital role that data and records play in enabling open government activities.
Definitions
This section sets out definitions of the main concepts and terms that will be referred to in the chapter.
The ITrust Terminology Database defines open government as:
… an approach designed to provide greater access to unrestricted information held by public bodies in order to promote transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement and participation, to accomplish a larger outcome of building and enhancing citizens’ trust in their governments.
(Pearce-Moses, 2018, s.v. open government)Terms used in this definition are also themselves defined in the ITrust Terminology Database. Accountability is defined as ‘the obligation to answer for actions for which one is responsible’.
Transparency is defined as ‘(the condition of) timely disclosure of information about an individual's or organization's activities and decisions, especially to support accountability to all stakeholders’.
Citizen engagement is defined as:
Efforts to actively empower citizens in government decision-making processes through transparent dialog and communication among individual citizens and with the government in order to increase trust in the government and to ensure decisions reflect citizens’ interests.
(Pearce-Moses, 2018, s.v. citizen engagement)Citizen engagement initiatives may make use of technologies to connect with citizens. Synonyms include citizen participation, civic participation, civic engagement and open dialogue. These issues are treated in detail in Chapter 4 and are not discussed here.
In order to deliver open government, public authorities need to proactively release data and information. Two related definitions are, therefore, open data, defined as ‘data available to anyone that may be used for any purpose and that is in a structure that facilitates its use at little or no charge’ (ITrust Terminology) and open information, that is, ‘the release of government records and published materials for public use, typically in unstructured formats’ (Leveille and Timms, 2015).
Mass balance of Devon Ice Cap, Canadian Arctic
- Andrew Shepherd, Zhijun Du, Toby J. Benham, Julian A. Dowdeswell, Elizabeth M. Morris
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- Journal:
- Annals of Glaciology / Volume 46 / 2007
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 14 September 2017, pp. 249-254
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Interferometric synthetic aperture radar data show that Devon Ice Cap (DIC), northern Canada, is drained through a network of 11 glacier systems. More than half of all ice discharge is through broad flows that converge to the southeast of the ice cap, and these are grounded well below sea level at their termini. A calculation of the ice-cap mass budget reveals that the northwestern sector of DIC is gaining mass and that all other sectors are losing mass. We estimate that a 12 489 km2 section of the main ice cap receives 3.46±0.65 Gt of snowfall each year, and loses 3.11±0.21 Gt of water through runoff, and 1.43±0.03 Gt of ice through glacier discharge. Altogether, the net mass balance of DIC is –1.08±0.67 Gt a–1. This loss corresponds to a 0.003 mma–1 contribution to global sea levels, and is about half the magnitude of earlier estimates.
Techniques for measuring high-resolution firn density profiles: case study from Kongsvegen, Svalbard
- Robert L. Hawley, Ola Brandt, Elizabeth M. Morris, Jack Kohler, Andrew P. Shepherd, Duncan J. Wingham
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- Journal:
- Journal of Glaciology / Volume 54 / Issue 186 / 2008
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 September 2017, pp. 463-468
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On an 11 m firn/ice core from Kongsvegen, Svalbard, we have used dielectric profiling (DEP) to measure electrical properties, and digital photography to measure a core optical stratigraphy (COS) profile. We also used a neutron-scattering probe (NP) to measure a density profile in the borehole from which the core was extracted. The NP- and DEP-derived density profiles were similar, showing large-scale (>30 cm) variation in the gravimetric densities of each core section. Fine-scale features (<10 cm) are well characterized by the COS record and are seen at a slightly lower resolution in both the DEP and NP records, which show increasing smoothing. A combination of the density accuracy of NP and the spatial resolution of COS provides a useful method of evaluating the shallow-density profile of a glacier, improving paleoclimate interpretation, mass-balance measurement and interpretation of radar returns.
Seven - Material legacies: shaping things and places through heritage
- Edited by Keri Facer, University of Bristol, Kate Pahl, Manchester Metropolitan University
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- Book:
- Valuing Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 05 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 05 April 2017, pp 153-172
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Summary
Introduction: why do materials matter?
Historic research, by its very nature, questions old narratives and develops new ones. Material goods, taken out of circulation perhaps for decades, centuries or millennia, will re-enter society, receive new roles and have effects wildly different from those anticipated by their makers. The site of a former house or castle, once rediscovered, provides the impetus for a range of experiences that may change the worldview of a person or community. In heritage – by which we mean the process of being involved with the past – communities make links between past, present and future through encountering materials in different forms. Heritage thus provides a particularly good field for exploring how ‘the material’ matters in collaborative research.
On one level, we need to recognise that all life is of course material and that it happens within places and landscapes. Archaeologist Ian Hodder describes the ‘entanglement’ of humans and things, which are forever making and being made by each other. He writes: ‘humans get caught in a double bind in relation to things since they both rely on things (dependence) and have to reproduce things they have made (dependency)’ (Hodder, 2012: 112). We make things, and so we have to go on making things. That these human-thing interdependent relations happen in places, and that such places matter, is also fundamental (Casey, 1996). Places are the very grounds in which life, including social and cultural life, happens. When we consider materials in the legacies of collaborative research, we need to acknowledge the constant interaction between people, things and places.
In the particular cultural world of the professional heritage sector and parts of academic heritage studies, however, the ‘material’ world is frequently divided from the non-material with reference to the ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’. The recognition by UNESCO in 2003 that heritage could take the intangible forms of performance, ritual, voice and movement was a shift from a preservationist discourse focused on historic sites and objects. The way was opened towards valuing contemporary cultural practices and performances along with the means by which they persist through time. While this is clearly important, the problem is that materiality (that is the quality of being material) becomes associated with just the monumental and the iconic (Smith, 2006).
5 - Hidden voices in the archives: pioneering women archivists in early 20th-century England
- from PART 1 - RETHINKING HISTORIES AND THEORIES
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- By Elizabeth Shepherd, University College London (UCL)
- Edited by Fiorella Foscarini, Heather MacNeil, Mak Bonnie, Oliver Gillian
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- Book:
- Engaging with Records and Archives
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 08 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 23 November 2016, pp 83-104
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Summary
I HAVE BEEN THINKING about the public voice of the archivist, according to Hilary Jenkinson (1948, 31) ‘the most selfless devotee of Truth the modern world produces’. Jenkinson told us that the archivist's career ‘is one of service. He exists in order to make other people's work possible’. Jenkinson also urged the archivist not ‘to import into the collection under his charge what we have been throughout most anxious to keep out of it, an element of his personal judgement’ (Jenkinson, 1937, 149). In other words, archivists should leave their own views aside, should be detached and impartial, should not leave any mark or inscription on the archive, should not be seen and should not be heard. This notion of anonymity is a trope in archival discourse. Archivists dance over the archive imagining that they hardly leave a trace of themselves, of their actions and decisions. Archivists have understood themselves as not apparent in the archive. But, in their actions archivists do leave impressions on the archive; they are at the same time everywhere and nowhere. Can we hear the voice of the archivist? Do archivists document themselves? Or are archivists ‘sans-papiers’, the undocumented, the persons without identity papers (Derrida, 2005, 55)? Derrida examined the link between archives and identity, naming and existing, silence and presence. He reflected on secrecy and openness, the past leaving its traces in the future through the archive, and asked ‘what becomes of its archive when the world of paper … is subordinated to … new machines for virtualization? Is there such a thing as a virtual event? A virtual archive?’ (2005, 2). Or, one might add, a virtual archivist? Are archivists afraid of being identified and named? The phenomena of archives and the voices of archivists are explored in the literatures of other disciplines (Cvetkovich, 2003; Steedman, 2001). But philosophical, historical, literary and feminist writing overwhelms archival science; archivists are in danger of being drowned out, repressed, excluded and hidden.
I see an analogy between the presence and absence of the archivist in the archive and the voice of women in the public sphere, the right of women to be heard in public discourse.
Could the Substance Misuse of a Relative be an Important Factor for Those Seeking Help for Anxiety and Depression? A Preliminary Prevalence Study within Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)
- Elizabeth Newton, Nicola Shepherd, Jim Orford, Alex Copello
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- Journal:
- Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy / Volume 44 / Issue 6 / November 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 July 2016, pp. 723-729
- Print publication:
- November 2016
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Background: The psychological difficulties and emotional impacts resulting from the substance use of close relatives constitute a large, underestimated and frequently unidentified health burden. The development of primary care mental health services in response to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies initiative provides an opportunity to investigate this in more depth. Aims: A preliminary exploration of prevalence of IAPT service-users being treated for moderate-severe depression and/or anxiety who report that they have relatives with alcohol and/or drug problems. To explore the characteristics of the sample including comparison with those without a substance misusing relative. Method: One hundred service users completed a brief questionnaire. Routine data on depression and anxiety symptoms were accessed for the full consenting sample. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the family members of substance users and differences to the rest of the sample. Results: Twenty-two of the 100 IAPT service users reported having a close relative whose use of substances was of concern to them. The group with a relative who used substances were more depressed at the beginning of treatment than the rest of the sample. Conclusions: A significant number of people seeking psychological help for depression and anxiety within IAPT services reported being concerned about a close relative who misuses substances. They may be more distressed than those without a relative who misuses substances. Further exploration is warranted but preliminary findings indicate that this is an important research area with significant clinical implications.
Contributors
- Edited by Bernard V. Lightman, York University, Toronto, Bennett Zon, University of Durham
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- Book:
- Evolution and Victorian Culture
- Published online:
- 05 June 2014
- Print publication:
- 29 May 2014, pp xiii-xvi
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4 - Creating and capturing records
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Book:
- Managing Records
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 09 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 31 December 2003, pp 101-145
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Summary
Much organizational activity leads naturally to the creation of records, but few organizations seek to record everything that they do. Written communications generate records, but most spoken communications leave no record unless a written note is made, and manual and physical tasks can also pass unrecorded. However, new ways of working and new technologies often make it simpler to create records where none were created in the past. With the growth of e-mail, many messages that might once have been verbal are now written; digital telephony and voicemail have made it easier to capture evidence of telephone communications when records are required. The first part of this chapter examines organizational needs for the creation of records, and discusses the intellectual and practical aspects of managing records at the point of their creation or receipt.
The characteristics that records need (authenticity, integrity, usability and reliability) have been discussed in Chapter 1. Records that have these qualities provide a full and accurate representation of the processes and activities that give rise to them. They serve the purposes of business users, lawyers, auditors and regulators. They underwrite the organization's requirements for accountability and transparency as well as providing for its business needs and corporate memory. A records creation strategy helps to ensure that records meet the appropriate standards of quality, but it is also essential that they are captured into a secure and effective records management system so that these qualities will remain intact over time. The second part of this chapter considers principles and procedures for identifying what needs to be captured and for managing the systematic capture of records in paper and digital form.
Principles of records creation and capture
Identifying where records are needed
Some writers assert that a record should be created and captured for every organizational activity, or at least for every transaction involving more than one party (Bearman, 1994, 300). Others suggest that some processes or some steps within a process may not need to generate records, and that the role of records management is to identify how far each process should be recorded (Reed, 1997, 221–2). In practice this depends on the needs of the organization. Highly regulated industries and organizations whose work is publicly sensitive may need to ensure that every telephone call and every verbal transaction is documented, but in most organizations this is neither necessary nor practical.
Managing Records
- A Handbook of Principles and Practice
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 09 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 31 December 2003
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Many organizations do not yet have a formal programme of records management, but increasingly they are recognizing the benefits of well managed records and the serious consequences of inadequate records systems. Establishing records management and maintaining an effective programme requires specialist expertise. This essential manual of practice provides a detailed guide to the concepts, skills and techniques of records management for organizational staff who have a responsibility for setting up, maintaining or restructuring a records management programme. It offers invaluable advice on the management of records in both electronic and traditional paper media, and focuses on the following areas: understanding records management; analysing the context for records management; classifying records and documenting their context; creating and capturing records; managing appraisal, retention and disposition; maintaining records and assuring their integrity; providing access; implementing records management. The appendices provide a wealth of additional information including a list of standards for records management, an annotated bibliography and sources of further information, and details of professional and advisory bodies. This much needed manual is an indispensable purchase for organizations wishing to introduce better practices for managing their records. The book is intended to be of value to experienced records managers as well as LIS practitioners and newcomers to the field. It should be on the desk of every manager and every information professional with responsibility for records management.
7 - Providing access
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Book:
- Managing Records
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 09 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 31 December 2003, pp 216-245
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Summary
Records are kept so that they can be made available to authorized users when required. Users may include the staff of the business unit where the records were created, other business units within the organization or authorized users from outside the organization.
At the time of their creation, records are normally accessible only to their creators and perhaps to other members of a workgroup. When they are captured into a records management system, they normally become more widely accessible: capture is often the moment when the existence of the records is publicized, although it may also be the point at which formal access controls are applied to protect confidentiality.
Since most organizations hold large numbers of records, systems must be in place to allow different users, and records management staff, to ascertain what records exist and to find those that are relevant to a particular need. Along with access control mechanisms, these need to be planned when records management programmes and systems are set up. This chapter examines the issues and offers some solutions to the questions of records retrieval.
Meeting the needs of users
Users and their requirements
In order to design effective retrieval systems, records managers need an understanding of user requirements. Users articulate requests for retrieval in a variety of ways. For example, they may state that:
• a particular record exists, and they want to see it
• a particular process or activity took place in the past, and they want to find evidence or information about it
• they are gathering information about a particular topic to support the activity that they are currently engaged on
• they are undertaking broadly based research, and want to see if the records contain material that may be relevant.
Most of these requests allow several degrees of uncertainty. Some users may know that a record exists and be able to identify it precisely; others may seek the same record but be ignorant or uncertain of its title or location. Users may know that an activity took place but have varying degrees of uncertainty about when it occurred, who participated in it or what records it gave rise to. Access mechanisms must be able to satisfy a range of users, including those who have little or no prior knowledge of the records.
In addition, retrieval systems must be able to handle records at different levels of aggregation.
8 - Implementing records management: practical and managerial issues
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Book:
- Managing Records
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 09 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 31 December 2003, pp 246-269
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Summary
This chapter examines the practical and managerial issues surrounding the establishment and operation of a successful records management programme. It provides advice on the development and maintenance of effective records systems for organizations that already have the human and financial resources to support a records management programme, and guidance on establishing the necessary infrastructure for those at an earlier stage of implementation. It uses the framework recommended in the international standard on records management (ISO 15489-1:2001) and the accompanying technical report (ISO/TR 15489-2:2001).
Getting started
Establishing a records management policy
All organizations should have a formally agreed policy for the management of their records. The goal of the policy ‘should be the creation and management of authentic, reliable and useable records, capable of supporting business functions and activities for as long as they are required…. The policy should be adopted and endorsed at the highest decision-making level and promulgated throughout the organization’ (ISO 15489-1:2001, clause 6.2).
An example of a records management policy is given in Figure 8.2 (page 255). When records management is first under consideration, however, it will not be possible to prepare a fully detailed policy statement. The initial focus must be on obtaining a high-level policy decision that the organization will proceed to set up a programme of records management. When the need for a programme has been formally recognized, decisions are required to establish its broad parameters: in particular, whether it will embrace newly created as well as older records and whether it will cover the whole of the organization or only a part. Once these deci- sions have been made, the policy can be refined as work proceeds on developing the programme.
Reaching agreement on these initial policy decisions may not be easy. Some individuals at senior level may think that records ‘manage themselves’, or that decisions about records can safely be left to the initiative of local workgroups or individual staff members; others may not recognize a need for well-managed records or may consider it a low priority. Sometimes a crisis occurs – an organization suffers financial loss because records are unavailable for a legal dispute or for recovery from a disaster – and the case for records management becomes self-evident. In other circumstances some marketing may be required to convince every key senior manager of the need to manage records systematically.
1 - Understanding records management
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Book:
- Managing Records
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 09 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 31 December 2003, pp 1-29
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Summary
This chapter introduces the core concepts and terms used in the book. It describes the broad professional context of records management and outlines the intellectual frameworks that underpin it.
Defining the key terms in records management
What is records management?
Records management is the ‘field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records …’ (ISO 15489-1:2001, clause 3.16). As a discipline, it developed from 20th-century office efficiency programmes and from the older profession of archives management. Archives were originally records kept to support the rights and obligations of organizations and individuals, but the archives profession came to be seen as concerned only with older records, kept to support historical research. By the mid 20th century, records managers were employed by archival institutions in the public sector, with the aim of controlling the inflow of ‘modern records’ into historical archives. While this is still one of the functions of records management, it is no longer the only role, nor even the predominant role, of the records manager. Records management now covers the management of records, regardless of age, to meet the needs of private and public sector organizations and the wider society as well as the research community. It earns its place in the life of an organization through its contribution to business aims and organizational goals.
Records management is a necessary part of the work of almost all employees within an organization (and also of individuals in their personal lives). This book focuses on the organizational context, where records managers are the specialists in records management but rely on the co-operation and participation of all employees.
To understand records management more fully it is necessary to look at the meaning of the word record. In the past, records management was equated with the management of papers located in organizational filing systems. The growth of new technology and information management has led records managers to seek a more rigorous definition of records, in order to explain what distinguishes them from other organizational resources, and to show how managing records differs from managing documents, data or information.
What is a record?
Originally record was a legal term: records were writings preserved in courts of law and accepted by them as authentic testimony of a completed action.
6 - Maintaining records and assuring their integrity
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Book:
- Managing Records
- Published by:
- Facet
- Published online:
- 09 June 2018
- Print publication:
- 31 December 2003, pp 173-215
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Summary
A fundamental element of records management is ensuring that records remain secure, intact, accessible and intelligible for as long as they are needed. This chapter considers the strategies that are required to maintain the integrity of records over time.
With paper records, the main emphasis is on storing the physical media and protecting them from loss or damage. Electronic records require a different approach: the physical carriers are likely to be short-lived, but the records must be maintained over time and probably across several generations of storage media. While preservation of paper records is costly in terms of space occupancy, electronic storage media are compact and relatively inexpensive but costs are incurred in ensuring that records remain accessible.
Storage systems for paper records
Centralized or decentralized?
Storage of records can be centralized or decentralized. In a fully centralized system, records for the whole organization are stored together. A central store offers a high degree of control and security, and optimizes the use of space by employing bulk storage equipment. In a decentralized system, records are held closer to where users work, but controls may be more difficult to achieve.
Some organizations centralize all their paper records storage, but this is increasingly rare. More often, following the lifecycle model in Figure 1.2 (page 6), decentralization of some or all current records is combined with a centralized facility for records deemed to be semi-current or non-current.
Most organizations recognize that standard procedures and access controls for paper records are easier to enforce in a centralized system, where specialist records staff can be employed; but when records are required frequently or urgently the convenience of local access usually takes priority and decentralization is preferred. Current records are likely to have high referral rates. Records that have passed beyond the current stage are rarely required at very short notice, so local accessibility is less important.
Besides speed of access, decentralization provides a sense of ownership by records creators and users. Decentralized storage is often the day-to-day responsibility of the business units where records are created, as central records staff rarely have the resources to service decentralized paper files. In some organizations the central records manager may not be expected to have any participation in the management of decentralized systems.
Appendix A - Bibliography and sources of further information
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Book:
- Managing Records
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- Facet
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- 09 June 2018
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Summary
Records management websites
The following websites are particularly useful for the breadth of their coverage of records management issues. Most of them provide information about both paper and electronic records. Some of their content focuses on the needs of public sector organizations in particular countries, but most is of considerably wider relevance.
International Records Management Trust
www.irmt.org/.
National Archives and Records Administration, USA
www.archives.gov/.
National Archives of Australia
www.naa.gov.au/.
National Archives of Canada
www.archives.ca/.
New York State Archives and Records Administration, USA
www.archives.nysed.gov/.
Public Record Office, UK
www.pro.gov.uk/.
In 2003 the name of the UK Public Record Office is expected to change to the National Archives, and its web address may also change.
State Records Authority of New South Wales, Australia
www.records.nsw.gov.au/.
Further information about developments in electronic records management can be found on the following websites.
Digital Longevity (Digitale Duurzaamheid)
www.digitaleduurzaamheid.nl/.
DLM-Forum on Electronic Records
www.dlmforum.eu.org/.
e-TERM (European Training in Electronic Records Management)
www.ucl.ac.uk/e-term/.
Interpares Project
www.interpares.org/.
Persistent Archives and Electronic Records Management
www.sdsc.edu/NARA/.
Records Continuum Research Group
http://rcrg.dstc.edu.au/.
VERS (Victorian Electronic Records Strategy)
www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/.
General works in print
Recent works that provide coverage of electronic as well as paper records
Kennedy, J. and Schauder, C. (1998) Records management: a guide to corporate record keeping, 2nd edn, Addison Wesley Longman Australia. Widely used Australian text, revised in 1998 to conform with the Australian records management standard AS 4390.
Parker, E. (1999) Managing your organization's records, Library Association Publishing.
Practical manual in an informal style.
Short introductions to records management
Hare, C. and McLeod, J. (1997) Developing a records management programme, Aslib. Succinct account of the components of a records management programme.
McLeod, J. and Hare, C. (2001) Records management. In Scammell, A. (ed.) Handbook of information management, 8th edn, Aslib IMI. Overview of records management principles, approaches and trends.
Saffady, W. (1999) The value of records management: a manager's briefing, ARMA International. Brief explanation of records management, emphasizing the value that it can deliver to an organization.
Works focusing mainly or wholly on the management of electronic records
Bearman, D. (1994) Electronic evidence: strategies for managing records in contemporary organizations, Archives and Museum Informatics. Seminal work including reprints of articles by a leading theorist.
Dearstyne, B. (ed.) (2002) Effective approaches for managing electronic records and archives, Scarecrow Press. Collection of essays, mainly by US authors.
Introduction
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Managing Records
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Why keep records?
Every organization needs records.
Organizations use records in the conduct of current business, to enable decisions to be made and actions taken. Records may be required for business purposes whenever there is a need to recall or prove what was done or decided in the past. Records provide access to precedents or previous work and thus save time and money by eliminating the need to create resources afresh. Records are also kept to guard against fraud and to enable organizations to protect their rights and assets at law.
Organizations also use records to support accountability, when they need to prove that they have met their obligations or complied with best practice. Organizations are accountable in many ways: they must meet legal, regulatory and fiscal requirements, and undergo audits and inspections of various kinds; and they must be able to provide explanations for decisions made or actions taken. The use of records is the primary means by which organizations can defend their actions if they are called to account for their conduct.
Such external accountability is particularly important to public sector bodies, which are responsible for their actions both to governments and to the wider public. Companies are responsible to their shareholders, besides having a level of responsibility to the wider community. Every organization is liable to be called to account by legislators, regulators or auditors. Organizations use their records to respond to challenges made against them, whether in a court of law or elsewhere, and to justify their actions and decisions in response to enquiries or in the public arena. Within the organization, records support internal accountability. Those working at lower levels are responsible to their seniors for the work they perform, and records are used to prove or assess performance.
While records are created in the first instance for the conduct of business and to support accountability, organizations may also use them for cultural purposes, both for research and to promote awareness and understanding of corporate history. Figure 0.1 illustrates these three broad reasons for keeping records.
Outside the organization, the wider community also has expectations that records should be kept. When records are used for purposes of accountability they are not merely supporting organizational needs for compliance or self-defence; they also meet the requirements of society for transparency and the protection of rights.
2 - Analysing the context for records management
- Elizabeth Shepherd, Geoffrey Yeo
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- Managing Records
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- Facet
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- 09 June 2018
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Records managers need to understand the context of their work at a number of different levels. They need knowledge of the records that are produced, the organizational activities that generate records and the systems used to control them. In addition, they should have a thorough understanding of the organization itself and how records management contributes to its objectives.
To gain this understanding, records managers must analyse the role and responsibilities of the organization, study its structures and working methods and discover how these have changed during its life. They also need to identify the broader issues that influence the way the organization operates, including its corporate culture and the interests and expectations of stakeholders within the organization and externally. Knowledge of the organization's operating environment is a key element in designing an effective records management programme.
When the records manager has investigated these broader aspects of the organization, the next task is to acquire a deeper understanding of its functions and the activities that are performed to support them. The knowledge gained from these investigations can then be used to assess how each of these factors affects the organization's needs for evidence and information, and the degree to which its needs are met by the existing records and records systems. Putting all these pieces together, the records manager can design and implement a programme that fits the organization's requirements.
This chapter examines analytical techniques that records managers can use to develop a wide view of an organization and their role within it. These techniques may be used when establishing a new records management programme and also in responding to changing circumstances when a programme is in operation.
Using analytical techniques
What techniques are available?
Records managers need to undertake a range of analyses, using techniques appropriate to each task (see Figure 2.1). One of these techniques, the records survey, has been developed by records managers themselves, but others were invented outside the records management field. Techniques for investigating the environment, culture and structure of organizations have been developed by management analysts, while functional and process analysis techniques are borrowed from information technology and systems analysts.
Analysis is an iterative process, since issues raised when one technique is used will often need further investigation using a related technique. The choice of an initial technique depends on the purpose of the analysis and the object to be analysed.