On November 23-25, 2004 the Russian Academy of State Service hosted the annual “Documentation in information society” conference. The organizers were Federal Archival Agency (Rosarchiv), All-Russia research institute of archives and records management (VNIIDAD), and Termika consulting group - which is one of the leading IT integrators in the country.

 

The conference is a unique event: since participation is free, for many of the underfunded government and educational organizations it’s the only convention they can afford to participate in. This time there were 600 participants (50% increase from the previous year), half of them from government organizations, 30% from business, and 10% from colleges and universities.

 

The participants were rather critical towards reforms concerning government archives and recordkeeping in Russia. Real-life cases were discussed, some of them showing how corrupt officials are using to their advantage the absence of strict government control over archives. 

 

Some vital changes in RM community were evident. There were no more arguments whether such alien thing as e-records really exist. Now RM professionals are much more interested in international experience in records management, especially in ISO 15489 standard and its applications. Colleagues spoke a lot about forming a professional association, in order to become noticed by the government and lawmakers. 



Serious attention was paid to numerous problems in education. Access to information was considered as one of the most serious problems.

 

It was decided to draft a bill on government records management, in an attempt to patch current legislation. 

 

Natasha Khramtsovsky
Records Manager,
APR-Bank,
Goncharnaya ul. 15, stroenie 2,
Moscow, 119240, Russia
[log in to unmask]

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