Records management in Norway

In this edition of "The World of Records Management" we take our readers to Northern Europe, to the small Scandinavian country officially known as The Kingdom of Norway. This northern-most country of Europe is slightly larger than New Mexico, and has a population of just over 4.2 million people. With its magnificent fjords, Norway is one of the world's most beautiful countries. It is also one of the wealthiest nations, its abundant hydroelectric resources providing the base for Norway's industrialization. With a per capita GNP of over $22,000, Norway has one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Norway also has some excellent records management; records management of a type that is fairly typical of much of Western Europe. Here, the government--at the national, county and municipal levels--dominates the records management scene, although some of Norway's large, multinational business corporations also practice it. And here, with its relatively small size, the registry type filing systems common throughout Europe are still practiced in a pure form, although they are accompanied by uniform files classification schemes much like those in North America.

A WORD OF HISTORY

Like other ancient peoples, the Nordic inhabitants of Norway chiseled their thoughts and deeds in rock carvings during the Stone Age, but the first real "records" in this land were the carvings of messages on flat sticks made by the Vikings. The Vikings etched "Runic" letters on these wooden information storage media, which were dispatched by one person to another as messages and carried like pocket diaries. During the Middle Ages the Viking kings established a centralized form of government in Norway, and this led to the emergence of archives. The origins of what might be thought of as "records management" date from the year 1275 A.D. when King Magnus handed down detailed instructions for his Chanallery (prime minister) to maintain custody over "royal dispatches and missives," and to keep a record of all crown property. This is the forerunner of the National Archives in Norway today. The records were housed in Akershas Castle in Oslo.

Norway was ruled by Denmark from 1381 to 1814 A.D., and during this period the Danes took a large part of the Norwegian archives to Copenhagen--a matter of irritation and national pride to the people of Norway. In fact, the return of these records became an issue in the struggle for independence, as the Norwegians came to regard the archives as a symbol of their national identity.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

In 1817, three years after gaining its independence from Denmark, the National Archives of Norway was established--over 100 years before the U.S. National Archives was established in 1934. Henrick Wergeland, a leading poet, was appointed as the nation's first National Archivist. He introduced the concepts of mandatory deposits of the records of ministries of government into the National Archives, and made the first efforts at the systematic destruction of useless records, which were sold to local paper mills.

During its early years the National Archives of Norway operated as a part of a ministry of government, but it gained its independence in 1875. Today it functions under the Ministry of Cultural and Scientific Affairs.

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES: BASIC FUNCTIONS

The National Archives of Norway is charged with the responsibility for taking care of the archival documents of central state authorities (ministries and directorates). It operates a centralized "archive directorate" consisting of seven regional or state archives located throughout the country. These "Regional State Archives" are charged with the responsibility of managing the archival documents of local state authorities; e.g., the police and the county governments within their respective districts. The National Archivist, however, has the authority to prescribe rules and regulations pertaining to all public records in Norway, as detailed below. Local county and municipal governments are required by law to provide for the maintenance of their own archives, or deposit them in the State Archive in their region. Thus, the larger cities such as Oslo operate their own archival repositories, while smaller municipalities utilize the facilities of the central government.

ARCHIVES AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS

The principal source of legal authority under which the National Archives operates is a 1904 Royal Decree, which addresses both archival documents and records. It was not until the 1950s, however, that Norwegian archival officials began to consider the development of regulations concerning records management. In 1958 an official archives committee was appointed; the recommendations of this body serve as the basis for the records management systems in Norway as they exist today.

In 1961, a new Royal Decree for "Records Curtailment, Disposal and Organizing in Government Archives" was issued, and in 1963, another decree empowered the National Archivist to inspect and develop regulations concerning the creation and maintenance of the records in all ministries of the government. Legal provisions relating to municipal records were issued in 1984, and regulations pertaining to county records were laid down in 1986. The substance of some of these regulations will be detailed below.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT IN THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

In Norway, each ministry of government is responsible for the administration of its own records. Typically, the records management function is centralized to the extent practical. The active records are kept in "registries," which must follow guidelines common to all the ministries and most of the other governmental agencies and institutions. The use of "filing keys" or classification schemes, which serve as the basis for registry filing, are common to each ministry and are applied uniformly throughout the Norwegian national government.

The records management function in most ministries functions as a part of the administrative affairs division. There is usually one head of records management in each ministry--the arkivleder, which means "head of the records management section." The Arkivleder has overall responsibility for records management in the entire ministry, even though the records management work may be performed by staff assigned to various divisions.

In a ministry with one central registry office, the Arkivleder is usually the day-to-day supervisor of the work of the registry. In the larger ministries having an autonomous registry in each division, the responsibility for the records management work of the division is performed by a gruppeleder.

THE FUNCTIONS OF REGISTRIES IN MANAGING ACTIVE RECORDS

In previous editions of "The World of Records Management," we have outlined the characteristics of European type "registries" in managing an organization's active records, and we noted certain important distinctions between this type of record-keeping environment as compared to that in the United States. We noted that European registries have the following major characteristics:

(1) They represent a highly centralized approach to document management, in which one central registry serves an entire organization.

(2) Documents are typically controlled at the individual item level rather than at the records series level, as is normally the case in the U.S.

(3) Document indices, in the form of registers or journals, serve as the basis for document control. Sometimes copies of outgoing letters are bound in book form.

(4) The registry filing systems are often accompanied by subject-based files classification schemes, similar to those used in the U.S.

Each of these characteristics is inherent in the registry filing systems used in Norway.

PROCEDURES FOR HANDLING INCOMING AND OUTGOING MAIL AND OTHER DOCUMENTS

In Norwegian registry offices, incoming mail and other documents are sorted, and letters to the ministry are routed directly to the registry, without first being sent to the addressee. If personally addressed mail is routed to the addressee, the recipient is obliged to return it to the registry so that a record can be made of its receipt. Entries are usually made for all incoming items in the register; the most common type of register is the journal.

In the registry, each piece of incoming mail is assigned a serial number code, and there is usually one separate series for each year's incoming correspondence. A code (consisting of letters and/or numbers) is also used to indicate the organization that is responsible for the mail piece, and another code may also be used to indicate the subject "key" in the registry's classification scheme, if there is one. In Norway, these filing keys or classification schemes are called arkivnokkel. Where they exist, all documents, both incoming and outgoing, must be assigned a code from the classification scheme.

Outgoing letters are assigned the same number in the journal and the same code from the classification scheme as the related incoming document. One copy of each outgoing letter or document is normally filed in a letter book. This letter book is normally chronological, and is bound as a book. Another copy of the outgoing document is filed with the related incoming piece, and all documents associated with one case or subject are filed together in one or more folders. The folders are assigned the code(s) of the matter as indicated in the classification scheme and journal.

All documents are registered so that each item will either be given a separate serial code number in the journal or be connected to the serial number of the last preceding document on a matter.

THE DECIMAL-BASED FILING KEYS/CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES

The filing key is a term used to describe filing schemes (arkivnokkel) used in Norway. Filing keys are very similar to the "uniform files classification systems" used widely throughout North America. The decimal-based filing keys used in government ministries throughout Norway were developed during the early 1960s, and are thought to have been modeled on a Belgian prototype filing scheme. Under this system, topics describing subject matter are organized into categories in a hierarchical format, and a decimal-type numbering scheme is assigned to the categories and subcategories. This Government Filing Key is the general or basic filing scheme used in all central records offices in the Norwegian government.

The Government Filing Key is comprised of three elements: an introduction, the code system, and an alphabetical word index. Under the code system, subjects are grouped into ten classes numbered 0-9 as follows :

0 Organization and Management

1 Finance and Economy

2 Personnel

3-7 Special Subjects (Customized by Each Ministry)

8 Other Related Matters

9 Miscellaneous

The decimals or "ciphers" used in the coding scheme are as follows:

"Classes" -- 1 cipher or decimal (0-9)

"Main Groups" -- 2 ciphers or decimals (00-99)

"Groups" -- 3 ciphers or decimals (000.999)

"Sub-groups" -- 4 ciphers or decimals (000.0-999.9)

The main principle of the Norwegian filing key system and its numbering system is the division of each topic into units of ten. Material is ranked in order of importance from 0 down to 9. Each code that ends in a "0" is used for filing documents of a "general" nature. As noted, individual ministries may develop their own customized subcategories down to any depth that may be required. In addition to its use as the basis of registering or indexing all documents, the filing key also dictates the physical organization of the records.

In addition to its use in the national government, Norway's filing key system has been adopted for implementation at the local levels of government. Norway has 18 fylker (counties), and numerous municipalities. The larger cities utilize keys similar to those of the national government, except that classes 3 through 9 have been developed with standard categories, rather than leaving them open for customized development. The Archive Committee of the Norwegian Union of Local Authorities has issued basic filing keys for counties and municipalities which are used by many local governments throughout the country.

RECORDS DISPOSITION

Earlier we referred to the Royal Decree of 1961 as governing records disposal in Norway. The most important principle of this decree is that the disposal of public records requires permission from the National Archives. Such permission may be granted in the form of general regulations, special regulations or individual decisions, as described below.

The general records disposal regulations are contained in the 1961 Royal Decree, which prescribes that the disposal process be implemented in several stages, each involving a formal review process. Files are to be closed after a maximum of five years. The first review takes place five years after the last accession of documents to a particular file, and is carried out by records management personnel in the ministries. The second review is a joint responsibility of the National Archives and ministry staff. This review occurs about 25 years after a particular file or group of files are opened. During this review, both administrative and historical values of the records are considered. Documents still in current use are exempt from this second review, even though they may be over 25 years old. Based on these two reviews, all documents not possessing administrative or historical values are either destroyed or transferred for deposit in the National or a State Regional Archives. All documents to be destroyed must be registered or listed to create evidence of their existence.

A third review is employed to destroy records in the National or State Regional Archives that have no further value. Destruction during this stage is decided jointly by the National Archivist and the depositing ministry.

In 1969, the Norwegian Ministry of Church and Education established special regulations concerning the disposal of government records. The regulations provided that records such as registers and letter books were mostly to be retained permanently, while many types of general administrative records (budget, accounting and personnel) were designated for destruction.

INTERMEDIATE RECORDS STORAGE FACILITIES

In much of Europe the term "intermediate repositories" for records storage refers to what we call "records centers" here in North America. Many national archives agencies administer such repositories, but the National Archives of Norway does not. The ministries are required to retain their inactive records in their own facilities until they can be deposited in the Archives. Many ministries operate such facilities, which are needed because the National Archives does not normally accept records for deposit until they are non-current and at least 25 years old.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT TRAINING

Training courses for records managers and registry personnel have been conducted by the Norwegian central government since 1957, when the first such courses were held in Oslo. Since the 1960s, these courses have been conducted regularly; they are now the responsibility of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Governmental Administration which cooperates closely with the National Archives in operating this training program.

Records management training courses are offered in two broad groups: basic and advanced course programs. Both programs are of two or three weeks' duration, and are held in Oslo and in other locations in the country.

The basic course of study includes the following subjects:

(1) Daily registry work

(2) Classification schemes

(3) Filing plans

(4) Records disposal

(5) Safekeeping, preservation and transfer

(6) Office automation

(7) Cooperation between registry and executive officers

(8) Norwegian language

(9) Review.

The advanced courses concentrate on the development of filing plans, records disposal, and new technologies in archives and records management.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT AUTOMATION

There have been some important initiatives in Norway concerning records management automation. Ministries of government have made considerable progress in introducing computer automation to registry operations and the management of case files. Two of the most important initiatives are worthy of special mention:

(1) THE NOARK SYSTEM. This a computer-assisted document registration system designed for the management of case files in the central government. The system was developed by the State Efficiency Board in conjunction with the National Archives. The system provides flexible retrieval methods, including the filing key described previously, and automation of various other archival/records management functions.

(2) THE MULTIVSION SYSTEM. This is also a computer-assisted document registration system, which was developed by the Norwegian Union of Local Authorities and is intended for use by local governments throughout Norway. The system contains an "information code system," which is a type of filing key which uses an alpha-numeric coding scheme for automating the document registration systems of local governments.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Norway's records management situation appears to be fairly typical of many European countries in the following respects:

*Records management is operated in conjunction with and as a sub-function of the country's archival system.

*The country's ministries of government operate classic European-style registry filing systems.

*The records disposition process is operated as a multi-stage review process, rather than the records retention scheduling concepts used in North America.

REFERENCES

Marcia Berg, "Classification and Disposal in Norwegian Public Archives." In: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA. Prairie Village, KS: ARMA International, 1987, pp. 417-430.

J. H. Marthinsen. "Training Schemes for Records Managers and Registry Personnel in Norwegian Government Administration." In: Proceedings of the European Archival Conference on the Creation and Organization of Contemporary Records. Paris: International Council on Archives, 1985, pp. 183-187.

Anne Morddell. "In Norway: The Threat of Efficiency." Records Management Quarterly, April, 1987.

"Norway: National System Description." In: Ibid. European Proceedings, pp. 1-22 (Microfiche).

Copyright Association of Records Managers Administrators Inc. Jul 1994
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