Describe and discuss what, in your opinion, are the main difficulties Essay

Describe and discuss what, in your opinion, are the main difficulties facing Records Managers attempting to manage the electronic records of an organisation - Essay Example Unless these challenges are addressed, valuable government information may be lost forever (Bearman 1990; Cox 2000; Dearstyne 2002; Veatch 2002; and Kurtz 2004). Electronic records management or ERM that is mainly managing and preserving access to digital records is not and never will be easy; but it is not an impossible task. ERM provides a digital environment for capturing electronic documents and applying standard records management practices. Supporting the medium to long term information management needs of the business, it manages a corporate filing structure, document classification within the filing structure and formal retention and disposition scheduling. This is based on an approved disposition and review schedule of the organization (eGovernment 2001). The following three events noted by Kurtz (2004) speak of the value of maintaining sensible ERM practice today. They point to neglect of preserving information and ignoring the impact of technology. First, in March 2002, the FBI's handling of the investigative records of the Timothy McVeigh case was attributed to outmoded computer systems and systemic information management problems that created a last-minute delay in the execution of McVeigh. According to the report, thousands of pages of FBI investigation reports were not turned over to McVeigh's lawyers before the trial due in part to antiquated computer systems that could not locate and retrieve the needed information. Timothy James McVeigh was an American convicted of eleven federal offenses and ultimately executed as a result of his role in the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing. He is commonly referred to as the Oklahoma City bomber. The bombing, which claimed 168 lives, was the deadliest act of terrorism in U.S. history until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, and remains the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism in U.S. history (Cole 1996). Second, on September 11, 2001, the tragic events at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon highlighted the importance of having continuity of operations plans in the event of a disaster. In both places, business operations were affected because critical information was destroyed. Without such plans, agency information assets and future business operations and services are at risk (Kurtz 2004). Third, numerous allegations have been made concerning the Departments of Interior and Treasury destroying Indian trust account records related to a class action lawsuit filed against the Government. The plaintiffs allege that the Government has mismanaged and lost information on individual Indian trust accounts that will deprive the plaintiffs of billions of dollars in royalties (Kurtz 2004). This paper looks into the main difficulties facing records managers attempting to manage the electronic records of an organisation. They include old ways of operation, patchy compliance to laws, absence of corporate control, the dysfunctional ways archivists look at records, resistance of archivists to changes, governments and universities ignoring ERM, leadership void, lack of guiding principles, diminished role of archivists and records managers in information policy, and lack of competency of archivists and records mangers. In this paper, the terms "archivists" and "records managers" are used interchangeably. DIFFICULTIES Old ways of Operation. Prior to