Taina, I too enjoyed this article. However, I have to correct a
misconception that Mr. Hurley has: the idea of tying records keeping
into a business process is not something unique to Australian practice,
and alien to North American practice, as Mr. Hurley seems to say. Its
been a part of North American practice as long as I have been involved
in it, and that's going on thirty years. In fact, my first professional
experience in Records Management involved developing flow charts
relating to records creation processes in an effort to streamline them,
as well as developing file classification systems. In addition, forms
control, correspondence control, reports control - all of these were
efforts to implement records creations processes that facilitated good
records keeping practices.
I also want to point out where these two traditions diverge. Australian
practice started with experience in registry systems. In my opinion,
this is one reason why Australian software has been so successful - that
tradition lends itself more readily to computerization than does the
somewhat messier North American tradition.
North American practice was originally designed to control very large
volumes of records at minimal cost. Any registry approach was quickly
overwhelmed by sheer volume. Registry based methodologies, in fact, were
not uncommon in North America prior to World War II, which ignited the
subsequent records explosion, and led to the development of North
American records management practice. That also led to a practice that
oftentimes is reactive in reality, if not in theory. Here I would agree
with Mr. Hurley, who seems to acknowledge a similar reality in
Australia.
Interestingly enough, in my opinion this discussion about big and small
buckets underlines what appears to be a growing convergence between the
practice of our Australian friends, and broader based North American
approaches.
Dwight Wallis, CRM
Records Administrator
Multnomah County Fleet, Records, Electronics, Distribution and Stores
(FREDS)
1620 S.E. 190th Avenue
Portland, OR 97233
Phone: (503)988-3741
Fax: (503)988-3754
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