Net notes: records management

This is intended as a brief guide to some of the good web sites on records management. There is a definite slant towards the public sector which partly reflects my interests and partly reflects the fact that public sector agencies publish a lot of recordkeeping material on the web which you don't need a credit card to access. Whether the content focuses on public or private sector recordkeeping should not be of too much concern as long as it follows good recordkeeping principles.

Associations

Records Management Association of Australasia http://www.rmaa.com.au/
Records Management Society of Great Britain http://www.rms-gb.org.uk/
Association of Records Management and Administrators (ARMA) http://www.arma.org/
Professional Records and Information Services Management (PRISM) International http://www.prismintl.org/
Association for Information and Image Management http://www.aiim.org/
Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers http://www.acarm.org/
National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators [USA] http://www.nagara.org/
Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities (CAARA) http://www.caara.org.au/

Government agencies

Australia

National Archives of Australia http://www.naa.gov.au/
Information on recordkeeping at http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/default.html
State Records NSW http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/
Northern Territory Archives Service http://www.nt.gov.au/dcis/nta/
Queensland State Archives http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/
State Records of South Australia http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/
Archives Office of Tasmania http://www.archives.tas.gov.au/
Public Record Office Victoria http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/
State Records Office of Western Australia http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/

Overseas

National Archives and Records Administration [USA] http://www.archives.gov/index.html
National Archives [UK] http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm
Access material on records management at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/
Access material on electronic records management at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/electronicrecords/

E-mail lists

There are a number of records management lists but these three are significant general lists. There is some cross posting between the lists and Recmgmt-l does have a tendency to go off topic but all three have useful original content. Recmgmt-l and Records-management-uk are fairly busy lists so I would recommend the digest option.

RECMGMT-L
Information on how to subscribe to the list is at http://www.lsoft.com/scripts/wl.exe?SL1=RECMGMT-L&H=LISTS.UFL.EDU
View the archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html

RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK
Join or leave the list at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=records-management-uk&A=1
View the archives at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A0=RECORDS-MANAGEMENT-UK

RMAA list
Subscribe or view the current archive (From 31 August 2004 onwards. NB: you need to be a member of the list to view the archives) from http://www.rmaa.com.au/docs/contacts/listserv.cfm
The old archive (July 2002 - August 2004) is at http://listserver.ecu.edu.au/pipermail/rmaa/

Publications

A number of records management departments at the state or federal level publish their own newsletter. While much of the content will be parochial, you can still pick up tips on how to handle perennial problems and learning about how things are done elsewhere can be quite instructive.

Australia

e-Permanence Bulletin [Number 1 (March 2003) - ] http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/rkpubs/bulletin.html
Memento
Current issue http://www.naa.gov.au/Publications/memento/default.html
Back issues [Number 16 (January 2001) - ] http://www.naa.gov.au/Publications/memento/back_issues.html
Pathways [October 2004 - ] http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/publications/newsletters.html
Provenance
Current issue http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/provenance/welcome.htm
Past issues [Volume 1, number 1 (April 2003) - ] http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/provenance/pastissues.htm
recordSArchives [September 1999 - March 2003] http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/publications/newsletters.html
Runcorn record [Volume 8, number 1 (January 2002) - ] http://www.archives.qld.gov.au/publications/runcornrecord.asp
State of the record
Current issue http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/sotr/current/index.html
Back issues [Volume 1, number 1 (Winter 2001) - ] http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/sotr/previous.html
Vital Signs [Issue 1 (April 2002) - ] http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/

Other sites of interest

Records continuum research group has a number of papers by Chris Hurley, Frank Upward, Sue McKemmish, and the usual suspects. A good site for theoretical material. http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/rcrg/

I have a real dislike for the layout of this web site (I don't like frames) but it has some really good papers on records management by Rick Barry (whose web site it is), Richard Cox, Chris Hurley, and others of note. http://www.mybestdocs.com/

Records and information management resources on the internet by Alan S. Zaben is not as up to date as it could be (last updated in September 2004) but it does have the virtue of catering for those with a slow internet connection or who don't want frames. It has lots of links (nearly 5000), covers libraries and archives as well as records management, and is certainly worth checking. http://infomgmt.homestead.com/

Electronic records

Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/vers/default.htm

National Archives of Australia http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/er/summary.html

PRONOM is a database of technical information about file formats and software programs. Useful if you need to work out what software you need to read mysteryfile.dbf. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/

Designing and Implementing Record Keeping Systems (DIRKS) http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/dirks/summary.html

Camille Peters

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