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ARCHIVAL THEORY AND PRACTICE
Lecture notes by Todd Ellison. Copyright Todd Ellison 2015. Permission is granted for use, but not for sale or any commercial or monetary gain, and you must link to this website. |
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10th section of this course
#10
Our discussion these next several days
is of shapes and of job resumes.
Funding and management
aren't just for businessmen;
they'll help you in countless ways.
XIX. Management principles and techniques
A. Psychogeometric exercise and handout [contact us]
B. Why is an understanding of management necessary for us?
1. most archivists are managers--"archivists have a responsibility to serve their institution and its mission through the management of primary information, especially that of enduring value"--and they therefore can benefit from an understanding of management theory and techniques (Stielow, p. 24)
2. "we all work for managers, and it is only by acquainting ourselves with the way managers think, act, and make decisions that we will be able to effectively influence the process of decision making and gain from our managers the resources and support we need for our collections and our programs." (Jean Marie Deken's review of the Wilsted/Nolte manual, in Summer 1991 American Archivist, p. 424)
3. Wilsted and Nolte (Managing Archival and Manuscript Repositories, SAA, 1991) define management as "the exercise of responsibility for the effective use of the human, financial, and other resources available to meet an organization's objectives." (p. 3-4)
C. Historical background of management
1. "Modern organizational theory, with its use of 'science' as an instrument of improvement, dates back - to the early twentieth century. It began with Frederick Taylor's scientific management, but eventually recognized human factors such as the bureaucratic nature of institutions. By the 1970s, the purview was expanded to include information and automation advances under such rubrics as Management Information Systems (MIS) and then Information Resources Management (IRM). ...these approaches stress actual control." (Fred Stielow in Winter 1991 American Archivist, p. 22)
2. Discussion of Colson/Eckerd chapter
3. Management today--a broader view of how it applies
a. teamwork rather than hierarchy
b. communicating from the bottom up as well as from the top down
c. peer relationships as important as supervisorial relationships
d. relating to the whole person so as to enhance their work performance
D. Management considerations in creating an archive (Source: Leon Shkolnik, "The Role of the Archive in the Corporate Structure," ARMA Quarterly, Oct. 1990, p. 19)
1. "Since management is usually unfamiliar with the duties of a corporate archivist, it is the responsibility of the individual to write and sell his own job description. A specific set of guidelines must be followed to insure a standardization among archives as well as to make the image of the business archive more solid and professional." (p. 19)
2. seven basic areas of guidelines for the creation and operation of a successful archive (per Linda Edgerly)(also, SAA's proposed Principles of Institutional Evaluation as stated in the SAA Newsletter, July 1992, p. 16-17):
a. program elements
(1) statement of purpose of the archive, its role in the institution's entire structure, and the community it will serve
(a) "A set of corporately held values and goals is the soul of an organization." (source: Colson and Eckert, Why America Doesn't Work, 1992, p. 131)
(b) "`Every family, every college, every corporation, every institution needs tribal storytellers,' writes Max DePree, retired CEO and current chairman of the board of Herman Miller, Inc., in his book Leadership is an Art. `The penalty for failing to listen is to lose one's history, one's historical context, one's binding values.' Without a folklore--a stock of core values--which is passed along formally and informally among people and generations, he says, `any group of people will begin to forget who they are.'" (source: Colson and Eckert, Why America Doesn't Work, 1992, p. 129)
(2) assigned responsibility/authorization for the administration of the archive
(3) formation of a committee to provide advice, expertise, and presence; distinction between governance and administration of the archives
(4) manual of operations which provides written standards for employees and serves as a training tool for new employees; provides continuity despite personnel changes
b. policies regarding:
(1) use of the archive: access
(a) "The archives should be open for research use on a regular and stated schedule." (SAA, p. 17)
(b) "It should provide adequate space and facilities for research use and should make its records available on equal terms of access to all users who should abide by its rules and procedures." (SAA, p. 17)
(c) "Any restrictions on access should be defined in writing and carefully observed." (SAA, p. 17)
(d) "The archives should provide information about its holdings and assist and instruct users in their use." (SAA, p. 17)
(2) collection development
(a) "An archives must have authority to receive the records of the institution of which it is a part." (SAA, p. 16)
(b) "If the repository acquires private papers or records from other organizations, it should have a formally adopted written acquisitions policy identifying the types of records the archives will attempt to acquire." (SAA, p. 16)
(c) "In order to identify records to be retained or destroyed, the archives, in conjunction with the other administrative subdivisions of the parent institution, should prepare or approve records disposition schedules." (SAA, p. 16)
(d) "The archives should maintain records to document the acquisitions process and should record wherever possible the provenance of all accessions." (SAA, p. 17)
(3) duplication and loan of items in archive
(a) "The archives should assist users by providing reproductions of materials in its possession whenever possible." (SAA, p. 17)
(b) The archives should maintain appropriate documentation on its duplicated and loaned items (cf. our forms SW 13 and SW 14)
(4) extent and costs of reference service to be provided
c. procedures
(1) preliminary inventory of holdings and records surveys of materials to be accessioned from the offices of the institution
(2) adherence to archival principles such as provenance and original order
(a) "That is, records of different sources should not be intermingled, and
(b) "records should be retained, whenever possible, in their original organizational pattern and in their original filing arrangements in order to preserve all relationships. If the original order has been lost, documents and files of documents should be arranged or grouped in a meaningful relation to one another." (SAA, p. 17)
(3) guidelines for accessioning and processing/protecting materials
(a) "Documents should be properly boxed, labeled, and stored so that they are easily maintained and readily retrieved." (SAA, p. 17)
(b) "Finding aids should employ the techniques of group and series description before undertaking item description; a brief description of all records is preferred to a detailed description of some of them. The level of description of records depends on their research value, the anticipated level of demand, and their physical condition." (SAA, p. 17)
(4) standards for handling and disposing of materials
d. administrative relationships
(1) archive must have visibility in the corporate structure
(2) archive must be within an appropriate organizational unit, one which understands and supports the goals and functions of the archive
(3) "there must be explicit documentation of an archives' legal status and authority" (SAA, p. 16)
(4) an archive functions best when administered by a full time professional with the delegated authority; a directive from top management must make clear "that the archivist has full and clear authority to collect information from all departments of the corporation." (ARMA, p. 20)
(5) archives staff should be involved in both the planning and the evaluation of specific objectives and priorities to carry out the statement of purpose" (SAA, p. 16)
e. budget
(1) adequate to support the ongoing operations of the archive, adequate to achieve the archives' stated purpose
(2) these available resources should be identified in a separate budget for the archives
(3) the archives administrator should be involved at the higher level of budget formation within the institution
(4) to support a professional staff as well as purchasing power
(5) staff and space issues are directly related to budget
f. staffing
(1) "Every archives must include on its staff at least one person who possesses, through training or experience, professional competence in archives management." (SAA, p. 16)
(2) "The archives must also have sufficient staff to supply services commensurate with its volume of holdings, the needs of its researchers, and programs designed to meet [the archives'] goals and objectives." (SAA, p. 16)
g. facilities
(1) "space allocation will often determine the degree of service the archive can perform. The archive should be large enough to conduct all of its functions such as acquisition, cataloging, reference, and public relations." (ARMA, p. 20)
(2) environmental controls for temperature and humidity, maintained at proper levels year round, 24 hours a day
(3) reliable fire detection/suppression and security systems
(4) the archives also should be guarded against damage from human beings (by theft, damage, carelessness and abuse from staff and users), water, light, dirt, vermin, mold, and airborn pollutants
(5) in a proper location, with adequate floor strength and freedom from risk of flood or water damage
(6) the archives should develop policies and procedures to protect against disasters and to deal with emergencies that may arise
(7) easy access to all materials and equipment is essential for smooth operation of an archive
3. implementation of and adherence to these seven areas of guidelines "will not only create a functional corporate archive but will help insure its success in the corporate structure." (p. 20)
4. "What the archivist does in his daily routime must be compatible with the future needs of the corporation." (p. 23)
E. Six core values that will make a difference in the morale and productivity of any enterprise (source: Colson and Eckert, Why America Doesn't Work, 1992, p. 129-130, amplified in subsequent pages)
1. the value of the worker
a. as Martin Luther said, every job is to glorify God, and every worker is infinitely significant
b. thus, all who work are to be treated with respect and dignity
2. walking and talking in the trenches: a true leader is on the front lines
3. responsibility and the pursuit of excellence
a. "no work that is less than our best can be personally meaningful or rewarding. And no work that is less than our best can be truly profitable." (p. 130)
4. the value of training
developing skills of employees increases their loyalty to the organization and their sense of self-worth, and makes employees more valuable to the organization
5. dollars and sense
a. the profit motive is crucial
b. most people's greatest motivation is incentive pay and healthy competition
6. working to serve
a. "Effective leadership includes enabling others to meet goals."
b. "He who would lead, let him serve."
XX. Records management and archives
A. Suggested texts: Information and Records Management by Robek, Brown, and Maedke (Mission Hills, CA: Glencoe/McGraw Hill, 1987), and Electronic Recordkeeping (Wash., D.C.: U.S. GPO, 1989).
B. A good records management system is the basis for an effective archives program
C. Records management job description
1. records management is a "re-archival function" (title in Daniels/Walch reader)
2. records manager is an archivist, except for the lack of an archival tradition
3. tends to have a limited vision of the archival profession because is not concentrating on what records to retain permanently so much as the disposition of currently active records
D. In a broad and important sense, we all are managers
1. if there is any money, it's in managing
2. 90% of records are never consulted again after their first use
a. less than 1% (some say 3-4%, see The Archivist, Sept.-Oct. 1984, p. 5) of any business or government records should be saved
b. more than that becomes overwhelming
E. Records Management definition: "The Association of Records Managers and Administrators defines 'records management' as follows: 'The systematic control of all records from creation or receipt through processing, distribution, maintenance and retrieval, to ultimate disposition." The process includes forms design, filing systems, microfilm [and digital storage], data processing, inactive storage, and records retention." (Donald Skupsky, Recordkeeping Requirements, p. 36)
F. Six reasons why records management is important: (cf. Donald Skupsky, Recordkeeping Requirements, 1991, p. 23-31)
1. papers tend to accumulate, and there's a limit to the quantity an office can handle
2. elimination of valueless data improves your ability to handle the valuable stuff
a. filing errors are reduced and retrieval is speeded
b. office costs are lowered
3. "a good records management program protects the organization in case of litigation" (p. 23)
a. ensures the preservation of records that should exist, readily accessible; "the time and money required to prove your case in the absence of appropriate records can be significant" (p. 31)
(1) also, "the courts may adversely infer that documents you destroyed were unfavorable to your case if those documents were inappropriately destroyed for the purpose of suppressing evidence." (p. 31)
(2) you may be in contempt of court if you deliberately destroy court-requested documents
b. ensures the destruction of records that should NOT exist, including items "previously maintained outside the scope of normal business activities...which may later prove detrimental in litigation" (p. 23)
(1) Manville Corp. kept records too long, and was forced into bankruptcy by lawsuits claiming it knew or should have known about the health dangers of the asbestos products it manufactured
(2) "Manville had to produce 16 million related documents, including many memos that legally could have been destroyed but which instead became `powerful ammunition in the hands of the plantiffs,' according to Donald S. Skupsky, president of the Information Requirements Clearinghouse in Denver." (Source: Mitch Betts, "Ignore Archive Issues at Your Peril," Computerworld, 2 Mar. 1992, p. 71)
c. in summary, "keeping records too long or not long enough--even the inability to find an important document--can" subject an institution to litigation and scrutiny by regulatory agencies. (Source: Mitch Betts, "Ignore Archive Issues at Your Peril," Computerworld, 2 Mar. 1992, p. 71)
4. "ensures compliance with the multitude of laws affecting records retention, microfilm, computer data, and other records matters. The federal government alone has issued over ten thousand laws affecting recordkeeping. ... The fifty states and territories plus some foreign countries have issued their own rules for recordkeeping--compounding the problem even more." (p. 24-25)
5. protects your institution from a loss of rights; failure to maintain the appropriate records may cost a company money it could have collected in debts owed it or awards made possible through legal action
6. an archivist should be familiar with the theory and skills behind the management of records in all stages of the life cycle of records
G. Modern American records management
1. began with the federal government, esp. after World War II, when the new National Archives became prematurely full with records dumped on it without a system of prior control having been imposed on those records
2. subsequent records mgmt. hasn't been that successful in the federal government
a. the Paperwork Reduction Act led to a 25% increase in paper documents
b. the new government jargon is "Information Resource Management"
3. cf. NAGARA pamphlet (including management of electronic records)
H. Two goals of the record manager
1. save money
2. raise efficiency
[3. and to avoid being overwhelmed!]
I. How to approach the records management task
1. "Meet Your Needs First. Records should be kept primarily to meet the needs of your organization rather than [to meet] legal requirements. ... If you respond to the needs of your organization, you will meet many of the legal requirements for your records." (Skupsky, Recordkeeping Requirements, p. 35)
2. effective, efficient and economical storage and management of corporate records is the name of the tune
a. this can be achieved through forms management and control, reports management (reports are the most labor intensive; how often are they necessary?), correspondence management, directives management (seeing that memos reach the right people), procedures manuals, and active and inactive files management systems
b. financial savings in use of records centers can add to millions of dollars: it costs roughly 4x as much to keep records in a downtown office as to house them in a records center outside the downtown area. Savings in a records center are due to lower leasing costs per square foot, greater density of records per square foot of floor space, and use of higher, fixed shelves which have a greater capacity than the free-standing type used in offices. (cf. The Archivist, July-Aug. 1984, p. 12)
J. Life cycle is the most important concept relating to records management:
pre-creation (forms design, planning) leads into the cycle of creating, actively using (in office), passively using (at the records center) and disposing (to trash or to archives) of records;
some records have a rapid life cycle (e.g. checks)
1. retention schedules, otherwise known as records schedules, are a tool for agencies to report on what sort of records they have, and which ones must (by law) and which should (due to research value) be retained
RMA (Assn. of Records Managers, Prairie Village, KS) defines the records retention period as follows: "'The period of time during which records must be maintained by an organization because they are needed for operational, legal, fiscal, historical, or other purposes. Records should be destroyed after the termination of the retention period.'" (Skupsky, p. 45)
2. a records manager takes responsibility to protect the security of vital records, i.e. records necessary for the organization's ongoing business; this involves disaster preparedness, microfilm programs possibly if nobody takes on a centralized responsibility to identify and preserve records, they're apt to disintegrate
K. Other aspects of records management
1. strategic planning for records management
2. obtaining authorization and user support from upper management
3. marketing your records services
4. delineating the roles of records creators and records managers
5. conducting records inventories
6. researching and operating records centers
7. disposing of records
8. conducting feasibility studies for file management and imaging technologies
9. establishing a vital records program
XXI. Funding and archives
A. Reference work: Archives Assessment and Planning Workbook by Paul H. McCarthy
B. We've been in the deepest economic unsettlement since WWII, and we're not immune
1. archives and manuscript repositories are suffering major cutbacks
2. the future years will prove critical in the archival profession's struggle to balance shrinking fiscal resources with the overwhelming quantity of actual and potential holdings, esp. with their preservation needs
C. Institutional self promotion techniques
1. use planning and institutional self-assessment as tools to refine, revise, and preserve archives and manuscript programs during periods of financial or institutional retrenchment
2. we must work smarter and commit precious resources only where they are most cost effective
3. begin with a statement of purpose (justification)
a. emphasize the importance of corporate memory
(1) "The higher the rate of change in an institution, the more important it is to document the historical records." Today's employees move quickly in and out, so the continuity must come from the physical records. Furthermore, the huge volume of data in the modern corporation has made it impossible for individuals to remember it. (Source: John Thackray, "Where Memory Serves," Across the Board, July/Aug. 1991, p. 45)
(2) e.g. from Wash. Post article about the U. of MD. 1 Dec. 1991: " The short memory of administrators and professors...has meant that, year after year, the same recommendations, the same changes and the same mistakes are repeated. College Park badly needs formalized campus and departmental archives..."
(3) information and documentation, properly selected and organized, are a corporate asset; their creation required a great amount of time and money, and yet it so often is discarded in a way that another type of capital asset would never be (Thackray, quoting Linda Edgerly, business archives consultant, p. 45)
(4) the alternative is costly corporate amnesia, draining a business of cash and creativity and dooming it to endless repeat failures and repeat discoveries
b. promotion should be both within and outside of your institution; usually, the greatest obstacle to establishing an archive is justifying its need to top management
(1) "many business managers view archives as little more than gloomy spider-infested repositories of crumbling paper and rusty artifacts. These executives are often unaware of the meaning of archives and do not understand their potential value. ... F. L. Sward stated that `the executive simply does not see the archivist as being at all pertinent to his present situation.'" (Source: Leon Shkolnik, "The Role of the Archive in the Corporate Structure," ARMA Quarterly, Oct. 1990, p. 18)
(2) full support from the highest managerial level is essential
(a) direction, support and prestige can only come from the top
(b) this support will be forthcoming only if top management believes the commitment will further the mission of the institution as a whole
(3) primary justifications are economic and legal
(a) an archive serves its own instit. first, then other users
i) e.g. Procter & Gamble in Thackray article, p. 43
(b) the law requires permanent retention of certain records
(c) other types of records would prove useful in litigation
(d) studies have shown that institutions profit many times over from having an orderly set of records
i) e.g.s from AT&T, Weyerhauser, and Otis, at start of Thackray article, p. 43
(e) archives enhance institutional promotion and public relations
i) old photos, reports, and corresp. are useful on anniversaries, but also at other publicity events and in marketing the institution
ii) e.g. from Wells Fargo, p. 45 of Thackray article
(f) archives can enable administrators to avoid duplicating mistakes and can provide ideas and guidance for future decisions
(g) successful archival programs can educate new employees and to instill a sense of pride among employees
(h) "Nonetheless, creating a good historical record is hardly a provable cash cow and more like an act of faith. Once it exists, however, people wonder how they did without it." (Source: John Thackray, "Where Memory Serves," Across the Board, July/Aug. 1991, p. 45)
(i) read story of America's only "Archives War" in Texas in 1842 (Don W. Wikson, SAA Newsletter, July 1992, p. 8)
(4) written forms (reports, proposals and grant applications) are a means of self-promotion
(5) communication is the key; the ability to write basic English and to place it in context of the medium; you're not writing for yourself, but to communicate a message, using tight prose, direct, action-oriented, present tense, dazzling them with graphs and charts and other visually appealing components; this is the vision age, and grant readers will skip over the text to see the graphics
(a) dazzle them with your authority, with well chosen statistics, your mission statement, with your goals for the coming year and for the next 5 years
(b) grant proposals are a high form of communication, and form a basis for evaluating your performance; they are an art form, like resumes, with no set standards but protocols which depend on the grantor
D. Writing grant applications
1. use the expertise of the staff on the granting agency; they'll torpedo you if you haven't given them a vested interest in your success
2. philanthropic grants in the U.S. began in the late 19th century with the rise of surplus industrial funds, altruism, and noblesse oblige on the part of the nouveau riche, giving money for their own purposes; librarianship without Andrew Carnegie is almost unimaginable--he gave about $40 million around the turn of the century to found libraries around the U.S. and to fund historical editing; around the time of World War II and the introduction of income tax, foundations received an economic impetus to shelter money for tax purposes; then in the 1960s, the age of the Great Society, there was a great increase in federal funding for the arts through NEA and NEH; Sputnik led to the introduction of national defense loans in 1957, and grants for applied research in scientific engineering
3. sources: consult the Catalog of Domestic Federal Assistance (part of the Federal Register), but don't be limited to federal or state funds; use the Foundation Directory; request IRS's list of foundations and what they gave; there are about 27,000 foundations; about 1,500 of them are corporate (big bucks), others are families, general purpose, and community; about 1,000 of the foundations control 90% of the assets to be given
4. identify your needs and link them with the grantor's needs, then if possible make a personal contact to get your foot in the door
E. Do you have a current resume?
Guidelines for resume construction:
A) General principles for resume composition:
1) sell yourself
2) there's no model of a correct resume, but there are expectations
3) tailor it to meet potential employers' expectations
4) it's a visual document, so organize the matter in a way pleasing to the eye
5) should be a finished, "clean" product
6) it doesn't stand alone, but is part of an application package
7) resume writing is an art form, requiring "creative" interpretation:
- be dramatic with job titles
- dates don't need to include the months--just the years
B) Resume techniques
1) Two basic types
a) skills - stressing talents and abilities, what you can do
b) experience or academic achievement - stressing your education and previous work history
2) put your best foot forward - emphasize your strongest attributes first
3) usually start with most recent experience in each category and trace back chronologically
4) be brief - summarize your career or abilities - use only 1 page
5) use a pleasing typeface (not dot matrix) - signs of being high tech are fine
C) elements in an academic resume:
1) name and address block - include phone - additional block for work or temporary data
2) personal data - possibly including birthplace and date (if that connection helps you), but rarely marital status
3) career objective - but perhaps better to leave this off, use it instead in your cover letter
4) education
5) professional or employment experience - job title (be creative), place, dates (years), and duties; lead off with the strongest aspect of that job
6) skills or additional proficiencies - to draw attention to your resume
7) publications, grants, honors and awards, volunteer or extracurricular activities, memberships in professional societies since college - use what will help you
8) references - available on demand - or give names if recognition helps you and the persons have agreed
D) Resume layout
1) name and address: if centered, use a pyramid
2) balanced white space
3) darkest, largest characters should be the most important data
