Records management in Australia

Records management (as we know it today) originated in the United States during and after World War II, spread to many of the English speaking countries, and has developed as a management practice in several of these countries--including Australia. This edition of "The World of Records Management" is devoted to the "Land Down Under." In the paragraphs that follow, we will examine the general characteristics of records management in Australia, the professional association activity there, the records management vendor community, and other aspects of the records management situation. Records management is very nearly, if not absolutely, as advanced in Australia as it is in North America, and in some areas it may be fair to say that the Australians lead the way. I will attempt to point these areas out as we proceed, but first, some background information to define the climate for records management in this nation of some 17 million residents.

Australia has many characteristics that are very favorable for the development of records management. The five major ones are:

(1) A large and sophisticated economic system. Among the world's largest free-market economic systems, Australia ranks tenth; its 1992 Gross Domestic Product was $240 billion, and it ranks seventh in the number of companies it has that are among the 1,000 largest businesses in the world --it has twenty such firms. These facts are significant because this type of economic system provides a favorable climate for the development of a broad-based community of advanced records management programs. Large corporations which create substantial quantities of records have both the incentive and the means to implement records management programs in order to manage their records in a professional manner.

(2) A governmental and legal system conducive to records management development. As in the United States and Canada, Australia's national government developed a records management program through its National Archives, and this program served as a model for the development of similar programs at lower levels of government and in the private sector as well. Moreover, Australia's legal system is, like its counterparts in North America, based on English common law--a legal system that creates a favorable legal climate for the development of records management because it establishes a permissive/open environment towards the use of new information technologies. Under this legal system, businesses are free to use any type of record-keeping system they choose unless the government enacts statutes or regulations which impose restrictions on the manner of record-keeping. In Australia, the government imposes few such restrictions.

(3) A long tradition of organizational support for record-keeping systems--the "Central Registry Systems" inherited from Great Britain. As a former British colony and member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Australia inherited the "registry" type of record-keeping system, which has enjoyed longstanding support as an established administrative practice and which continues to be widely used today. Although these filing systems are currently undergoing rapid change in Australia (they are being decentralized and computerized using records management software), they have brought about a relatively high quality of records management. This is because registry filing systems are usually operated in a manner that provides total life cycle control over organizational records--from creation to final disposition--in a highly disciplined filing environment.

(4) The fact that records management has, to a considerable degree, evolved from the archival profession into its own distinct professional field of endeavor, with separate recognition by management. This writer believes that it is difficult for records management to realize its full potential as a management discipline unless it evolves from the archival profession into its own independently recognized professional endeavor. Records management has the greatest impact in countries where this has occurred, and in Australia, records management has achieved considerable maturity, although its linkage with the archival community is closer than in the United States.

(5) A relatively advanced and broad-based national records management infrastructure, including a substantial community of vendors of records management products and services. In the remainder of this article we will examine Australia's records management infrastructure, its professional association, technical literature and educational courses of study, its vendors of basic and advanced equipment and services, and other components of this national infrastructure that provide Australian records managers with the means to solve records management problems.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATION: THE RECORDS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA

The Records Management Association of Australia (RMAA) is the second largest professional association representing records management interests in the world--second only to ARMA International. It was founded in 1969, incorporated in 1975, and has "branches" throughout Australia, including one in each of the seven states of Australia (New South Wales, South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia) and the Australia Capital Territory of Canberra, the nation's capital.

Unlike ARMA International, the RMAA has three types of membership classes: "ordinary," "professional," and "corporate." Another distinct difference between ARMA International and the RMAA is the composition of membership. The RMAA's members are predominantly from the government arena, while the large majority of ARMA International members are from the private sector.

The RMAA publishes a quarterly journal, INFORMAA, and sponsors seminars and workshops throughout the country in addition to its annual conference. Most of the state branches also hold monthly meetings.

The RMAA is governed by a sixteen member "Federal Council," which consists of a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and "public officer," and one or two representatives from each of the state branches. There are three standing "federal" committees: an Education Committee, a Status and Standards Committee, and a New Technology Committee.

Relative to the size of the country, the RMAA constitutes quite a large community of records management professionals. Its membership numbers over 2,000--a much higher figure in relative terms than the some 10,000 members of ARA International living in the U.S., a country with a population of 250 million. In fact, Australia has one RMAA member for every 8,500 residents, while ARMA International in the U.S. has one member for every 25,000 persons.

THE RECORDS MANAGEMENT VENDOR COMMUNITY

Australia has a community of vendors of records management products and services that is not large in number (due to the relatively small size of the country's population), but is very advanced and sophisticated. A brief review of these vendors follows.

* Filing Equipment and Supplies. A company called Filewell Systems Pty. Ltd., based in Brisbane, markets a type of filing device for paper records that we do not have in the U.S. The "T-Guide" filing system of color-coded file folders originated in the Netherlands and Germany, and is marketed in Australia as well. The file folders are equipped with a metal device affixed to the top of each side/end tabbed folder that permits the folder to be suspended from a rod, rather than simply being housed on a shelf or in a drawer, as is common in the U.S. The major benefits of the T-Guide system are reported to be that the color-bands are more uniform (they do not get out of alignment), and the filing density is higher.

Another major vendor of filing systems and supplies is called UNISTAT Filing Solutions; this company has branches throughout Australia and manufactures and distributes filing cabinets and other filing supplies. One interesting item of note: five-drawer filing cabinets are not sold in Australia.

* Commercial Records Storage Firms. At least six firms provide records center services to clients on a fee basis. The largest is Brambles Records Management, which operates throughout Australia (and in New Zealand as well) and reportedly has some 70 percent of the Australian market. An interesting item of note is that one vendor--DAS Distribution--is actually a unit of the Australian government (the Department of Arts and Administrative Services), but it operates on a fully commercial basis to provide records storage services to private sector customers throughout Australia as well as to government agencies. Most of Australian commercial records storage firms have high quality facilities and utilize the latest computer technology for carton management; some firms utilize bar codes down to the file folder level as well as the carton level.

* Records Management Outsourcing. North American records managers are often told that "outsourcing" (the provision of records management services by a third-party vendor) will be an emerging market during the 1990s. Australia has at least one firm that specializes in records management outsourcing: Pickfords Records Management. In a recent issue of INFORAA, Pickfords announced that it is now managing over 2 million active life insurance policy files for AMP Society, Australia's largest life insurer. Pickfords supplies the staff to service these records, and the computer systems of both companies are linked to provide on-line file reference services.

* Records Management Software. The records management software business is very advanced in Australia. At least ten firms provide commercial products; several of them are state-of-the-art--there is at least one Windows-based product, and several products are designed to run on UNIX, DOS, VMS and other popular computer platforms. Most of these software products are targeted towards automating the indexing, tracking and retrieval of records in central registry filing environments. Tower Software, one of the leading vendors, markets a TRIM Registry File Manager, a Correspondence and Folio Manager, an Electronic Document Manager (which enables the indexing and retrieval of images, word processing documents, and other electronic records) and other related records management software modules.

* Records Management Consultants. Australia has a well established cadre of records management consultants who operate in all major cities. There are at least ten to twelve "serious players" in this market.

* Microfilm Products and Services. Australia has at least 30 dealers of microfilm products and some ten or more service companies which produce film, according to the latest edition of the International Imaging Sourcebook.

* Electronic (Optical) Imaging Products and Services. The Australians make heavy use of this technology as a records management tool. It is interesting to note that Canon, one of the leading vendors, has an Information and Records Management Division (emphasis added), thus acknowledging the linkage between optical disk technology and records management.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA: VYING FOR WORLD LEADERSHIP

Records management education in Australia is generally of very high quality, and the country is currently engaged in a new nationwide educational initiative that promises to be of "world class" quality and could, if it is successful, make Australia the world's leader in records management education. This initiative is the "TAFE" program, which stands for "Technical and Further Education.' TAFE is Australia's nationwide system of technical schools, with institutions in each state of the country. TAFE's Computing and Information Services unit (which is part of its Industry Training Division) in New South Wales is currently planning a comprehensive records management curriculum for nationwide implementation--scheduled to begin in July, 1994. The curriculum consists of three levels of "national records management modules," with core and optional courses in each module, as described below:

* Level 1 Module--Courses for Entry-Level Records Personnel.

Six core courses are being planned:

(1) The Records and Information Industry

(2) Records Keeping Operations

(3) Records Management Practices

(4) Records Management Media Usage

(5) Records Management Software Usage

(6) Micrographics

Level 2 Module--Courses for Paraprofessional/Supervisory Personnel.

Nine core courses are planned for this intermediate level module:

(1) Marketing Fundamentals: Records Management

(2) Records Retention and Disposal

(3) Records Management and the Law

(4) Records Management Software Evaluation

(5) Multimedia Storage Equipment

(6) Conservation and Storage of Records

(7) Indexing Records

(8) Abstracting

(9) Classifying Records

Level 3 Module--Courses for "Fully Qualified" Records Managers.

A total of eleven core courses are planned for this advanced module:

(1) Records Management Software Evaluation

(2) Records Management Media Evaluation

(3) Thesaurus Design and Writing

(4) Researching Information

(5) Records Control and Security

(6) Ethical and Legal Issues in Records Management

(7) Marketing Records Management

(8) Forms Design and Management

(9) Marketing Records Management

(10) Information Resource Management

(11) Records Management Industry Project

It is apparent that, with respect to depth and breadth, this national records management curriculum proposed by TAFE exceeds anything we have in the United States. Again, if this TAFE project is successful, its students should be the best trained records management personnel anywhere in the world. However, the TAFE project does have some obstacles to overcome before it can reach its full potential. The major ones are inadequate Australian written" books and technical literature on records management, and a potential lack of well-qualified instructors. Australia has only one full-length monograph text on records management (Organizing the Corporate Memory by Eddis Linton), and the country's other technical literature is not as good, in terms of quantity or quality, as in the United States. Thus, Australians often have to rely on U.S. textbooks and other literature for their source materials.

At the college and university level, Australia also has some excellent records management education. Monash University in Victoria offers a Master of Arts degree in Archives and Records. There are six compulsory courses:

(1) Information Science and Technology: Archives and Records

(2) Information Services: Archives and Records

(3) Computers in Information Transfer

(4) Handling Researched Information

(5) Managing Information and Cultural Heritage Resources

(6) Literature of Archives and Records Management

Two interesting electives include: The Impact of Technology on Archives and Records Management, and Business Records Management.

Records Management is also taught at a number of other colleges and universities in Australia; among them: Edith Cowan University, the University of Canberra, the Curtin University of Technology, the University of Melbourne, and a number of other educational institutions.

Copyright Association of Records Managers Administrators Inc. Jan 1994
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