Since this is my first appearance, I should let you know that I am an
Information Policy Adviser with Archives of Ontario in Toronto, Canada. For
those colleagues who may not know, the Archives is one of five major
departments within Management Board of Cabinet (the ministry responsible for
government services) in the Government of the Province of Ontario.

We have done some preliminary work on drafting a functions-based
government-wide file classification plan. This draft covers only the highest
levels of government, that is, ministries/agencies, programs (loosely
defined as a group of related services) and specific services. This file
plan is intended to act as a framework within which more detailed file plans
can be developed at the service level.

We have also written a draft users' guideline that provides generic
instructions to persons who have responsibility for writing file
classification plans for their particular government services. (A separate
document was aritten explaining the background and methodology used to
develop the file plan. Like the file plan it is very Ontario-specific.)

Given the framework we developed, ideally, file plan writers should start at
the service level and work their way down the record hierarchy. They would
have to break down the service into its functions (a function is defined as
a series of sequential inter-related activities that make up a continuous
process ending in a deliverable. A process also includes related
simultaneous activities such as documentation and monitoring.

We have almost completed the very first practical functions-based file
classification plan in the Archives itself (in the area of collections
management and development). This file plan was welcomed by the archivists
because, by standardizing and codifying their recordkeeping practices. It
has made searches for specific documents by other archivists much easier.
(The archivists have read access to each other's records.)

We have begun negotiations with another organization within our ministry to
pilot a recordkeeping project based on the best practices standards, ISO
15489. The development of a functions-based file plan, along with apprpriate
metadata, will play a critical role in the classification and arrangement of
records at the time of their capture. We also believe that a functions-based
file plan may potentially serve as the basis for the development of a
records retention schedule because it could allow mapping of retention
periods to specific directories and folders. It should take less time to
write a schedule based on a file plan than doing one from scratch. At a
minimum, the initial investigation and functional analysis of the
organization would not to be done again.

Gerry van Houten
Archives of Ontario
77 Grenville Street
Toronto M5S 1B3
416-327-4332

-----Original Message-----
From: Audrey Byrd [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: October 28, 2004 4:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: File Classification Structure


John--I earlier posted a question about structuring an EDMS. I found this
Canadian document that describes a functional classification scheme with
its sub categories based on the logical flow of the process within that
function. (See the table showing old and new classification scheme.) It
looks good until I try to map our functions and get stuck on the first
one. And, the daunting task of creating one for the entire company with
everyone's input and buy-in...well, it gives me a headache. We too use
Lotus Notes but we don't really use it to manage documents. We have a
concern right now about how to get Lotus Notes emails that are records
into the EDMS.

I would like to hear more about how others have created a records
classification scheme that is function based.

http://www.rmicanada.com/functional_classification.htm

Audrey Byrd
EDMS System Coordinator
E&O Administrative Services Team
865.558.2458
865.558.2047 fax


We are in midst of implementing an EDRMS and as the project manager and
records manager, I have the enviable task of start to finish on this
project.  Our records are all paper based.   We manage our records through
Lotus Notes.  Recently, we purchased EDRMS software and are in the throws
of migrating the data from Notes into our new software.  Our file
classification structure in Notes was based on the departmental structure
of the organization.   In implementing the EDRMS we are looking at a
functional structure for our unstructured data and the new structured data
coming in from Notes.  We are struggling with knowing how to "marry" the
two together into a format that is easy to use and understand for our
users.  Apart from going into each of the 100,000 + records to ensure they
are indexed properly, is there an easier way to do this?  Is there anyone
on the list who has had this problem in the past and cares to share how
they handled it?  Any advise would be appreciated.

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance