2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

Records Management for the Librarian: Part Two
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BEST PRACTICES 2012
By Ellen Ensel, Knowledge Manager – Information Services, United States Institute
of Peace,
In which a Knowledge Manager rallies from information fatigue and channels her
inner cataloger.
More than half-way through my certification program, I was suffering information
overload. Five courses over nine days at the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA), with Day 6, Knowledge Area 3: Records Scheduling
and Knowledge Area 4: Records Schedule Implementation now completed.
Fortunately, what could have been dry and mind-numbing modules and lessons
was considerably enlivened by two sets of excellent instructors (they teach these
two-day courses in teams and often trade-off) who were engaging, extremely
knowledgeable, at times humorous, demonstrating passion for the field.
These are exciting times for records management. Increased visibility and
commitment from senior agency officials have come in direct response to the
November 28, 2011 Presidential Memorandum [http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepress-office/2011/11/28/presidential-memorandum-managing-governmentrecords],
as is a directive, expected any day now, to come jointly from NARA and
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) focused on improving records
management across federal agencies.
Records Scheduling and Implementation lie at the heart of records management,
and the whole concept appealed to my inner cataloger/taxonomist. Scheduling
records is to records officers what copy or original cataloging is to catalogers, and
creating or managing a taxonomy is to knowledge managers. Although the words
“cataloging” and “taxonomy” don’t appear in the course material , I say anyone
who can deal with MARC, AACR2, collection development, and weeding, should be
able to handle the intricacies of scheduling (classifying) records. It might be
possible to be too detail-oriented, though, since one instructor gently suggested
that I avoid “overthinking” records management activities.
As information professionals, we share some of the same skill sets and some of the
same problems. How do you manage electronic records (digital collections) when
the media are constantly evolving? How do you engage leadership to support your
efforts? What do you do when reaching out to staff to educate them in (a)
accessing information resources, (b) developing and maintaining institutional
knowledge, or (c) understanding their records management responsibilities?
We’re all looking for ways to show that what we do is important and relevant to the
mission of our respective organizations, so librarians might benefit from
understanding the holistic approach records managers take to developing records
schedules (see the list below). A good records management program requires
planning, teamwork, education, leadership support, and starts with examining
business processes and workflow.