NOTE: The following guide is provided in draft
format for review. Comments and questions are encouraged and may be sent to astaylor@sos.state.ga.us.
Perhaps the most fundamental of the state-wide resources at
your disposal is this revised Guide to Managing Public Records in Georgia.
The Guide is produced in a notebook format. It is made up of a series of subject
specific parts, which are published separately.
This permits flexibility in coverage, and allows for easy
expansion and updating of the contents. An electronic multimedia edition of the Guide
will be maintained on the State Archives' of Georgia web site, and will remain the location of the most current
material available.
Each component part of the Guide presents readers
with information that will support their efforts to understand and implement proper
administration of Georgia's government records. Separately, and in combination, these
parts of the Guide cover many of the concepts, techniques, and appropriate
technologies utilized in the management of Georgia's government information resources.
One of the Guide's fundamental themes concerns the
legal responsibilities incumbent on Georgia government agencies and their personnel. This
results from their statutory empowerment with life-cycle management authority for their
records and data. A second theme deals with issues relating to the costs and benefits of
ongoing and proactive records management.
You will find that, just as they have been woven through the
pattern of this guide, these two themes will remain part of a readily discernible pattern
throughout the fabric of the Guide.
The keyword, mentioned above to describe the Guide,
"flexibility," applies not only to its creation, but also to its ongoing
development and use. Separate parts will be added, and revised, as needed, to insure
adequate coverage of the evermore varied and technically sophisticated field of government
archives, information, and records resource management.
The Georgia Archives asks Georgia government administrators and managers to
submit suggestions for topics for inclusion in the Guide. It is only with your
input that the Department can fulfill its mandated responsibility to assist agencies to
implement and maintain records management activities through training materials such as
this [O.C.G.A. § 50-18-93].
As you reach the end of this Guide, those of you to
whom the law has assigned the job of government records management might be asking
yourselves some rather pointed questions about information. Where does it all go? What
does it all amount to? What good does it do? And perhaps most importantly, what does it
all mean?
Sorry, this Guide was not designed to give you all
of the answers. It is meant to help guide you towards those that you haven't
already found. Like Dorothy in Oz, you may have discovered that you have had the power to
find the answers all along!
It is one of many publications that serves you as an
information resource. It is up to you to consume and digest it, combine it with what you
have learned in the past, and use the resulting knowledge to find the best
possible answers for you, your agency, and the public you serve.
You see, it does all come down to you! What you do,
and how you do it matters a great deal. Your individual efforts do, and, indeed, always
will, make a lasting difference to the public record of the people of Georgia. They thank
you for your persistence! >>
Guide to Managing Public Records in Georgia
| 
