A song-writer once wrote of "miles of aisles,"(1) referring to the audiences a performer sees from
the stage over the course of a career. Consider the miles of files you will see
before you leave government service. Think again of the scope, the depth, breadth, and
nature of information contained in government records.
Now picture its physical mass for a moment. Millions of
computer tapes and disks holding tera-bytes of data. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of
file cabinets full of paper records. Storage room upon storage room stacked with cartons
of old files, and printouts. Billions of frames of microfilm boxed up and filed away. All
of this, and still the volume of growth continues upward. There seems to be some truth in
the statement, "We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge."(2)
It is generally recognized that information is not knowledge,
and knowledge is not wisdom. The wisdom of government, or the lack thereof, is
demonstrated through the ways in which it applies its acquired knowledge. Your acquired
knowledge of the rewards available though proper maintenance of your agency information,
and the appropriate use of record-keeping technology, should encourage you to demonstrate
the wisdom of your ways. The ways of wisdom gained in offering the public more
cost-effective records administration, efficient technical management, and timely delivery
of information services.
World history shows that information has been a valuable
asset in both government and commerce for thousands of years. Since ancient times scribes
have been employed to create the records of political and economic dynasties. However, in
the last half of the twentieth century the production of records, and their mining as a
resource, have produced a wealth of information unlike any known before.
Arguably, information has always been a commodity, especially
since the invention of the printing press. Perhaps other civilizations have had their
entrepreneurs who amassed world-class fortunes through the development of new methods of
processing and transmitting information.
In today's world though, information is bought, sold, traded,
shared, and, probably, stolen on a global scale every nano-second. With this growing
emphasis on information's commercial value, how are you, an administrator in the non-profit
sector, to help the public to profit from the information they have paid so much
in taxes to collect, compile, and collate? It sounds like a non sequitur, but it is part
of your job!
Fierce debate has been raging for some years on the propriety
of government sale of information. It continues to rage. This is a healthy debate, for the
complexities of the new information age require communities to define new standards for
determining who will get access to what information at what cost. It is either that, or
reinforce the old standards. You must carry on with your work until this is decided. Until
then, if ever, it won't be easy.
Fortunately though, research has identified a number of other
ways than the sale of information that your government can be rewarded by, and profit
from, your wisdom today. As you consider them, you must remember that the value of
information is computed somewhat differently in the private sector than it is permitted to
be in the public sector. Agency administrators and citizens can be confused when you
discuss how they can profit from government information. This is due to the
similarities in terminology.
The public and private sectors in this country may be said to
be analogous to the two sides of any coin. Remove one side and the other's value will be
lost. They are meant to be inter-dependent, but, like each side of the coin, forged to
function together while looking in different directions.
Standard private sector business terms such as added-value,
cost-benefit, return on investment, revenue enhancement and others, have somewhat
different meanings and/or applications when used in tallying the balance sheet of the
public good. Many feel that information economy and information democracy
have different shades of meaning, depending in which sector they are used. Keep this in
mind. This will effect your choice of words when you describe the rewards that proactive
information management offers to your public agency.
The Guide has already indicated to you that the purpose for
Georgia's government records management laws and requirements for agency participation, is
to reduce the cost of creating and maintaining public information.
Simultaneously, its aim is to increase its information's
accessibility, security, and viability as a public resource and asset. This is
accomplished through the use of appropriate techniques and technologies. A clear cut
mission like this can clearly result in rewards. This publication was created because of a
belief that many agencies have considered neither these rewards nor the benefits from
their accrual.
Actively managed agency records can produce both direct and
indirect cost savings and cost avoidance. Traditional studies and measurements of such
government activities have documented that the reduction of stored records volume can
directly reduce labor, space, and equipment costs. Three cost areas still at the top of
the list of any budget reduction list.
Of the total volume of records on hand in any government
agency that has not been practicing records management, statistics have shown that one
third of the total are active records and need to remain in the office. Another third are
inactively used and can be stored at less cost in other locations or in other formats. And
the remaining third are obsolete and disposable, no longer having any value to the agency
or government.
The regular, scheduled disposition of records that have no
further administrative, fiscal, historical, legal, or technical reference value will
permit you to significantly reduce your total records maintenance related costs.
If, for example, you can eliminate the need for an agency to
lease a self-storage unit for housing records, you have reduced government costs. The key
to success in this is the elimination of both the need for the leased space, by removal of
the records in it (through scheduled disposal, reformatting, or consolidation at another
site), and by modification of practices throughout the record life-cycle. This will
prevent space from being similarly leased in the future.
Less easily quantified, but still readily apparent, are
benefits resulting from better control of the creation, duplication, and distribution of
your agency records. Better control will reduce record maintenance costs. Savings like
this have permitted some agencies to re-allocate scarce resources for use in document
management technology such as imaging, computer, tele-communications, and other systems.
When public funds are invested wisely for tools to manage
government information, the bang for the public's buck can be said to
reverberate through time. Public servants must balance the investment of information
management funds so to maximize both short-term and long-term gains. Far too many agencies
have overlooked one or the other.
Unbalanced funding and investment in this area commonly means
the sacrifice of the past for the present, and often the present for the future.
Frequently the public's historic records are neglected and lost through short-sighted
investments made by government managers. Too often, inattention to record formats and
equipment of the present predestines data to become irretrievable in the years ahead.
You can help to avoid this in your agency through the
identification and analysis of vital records. You can insure that, once
identified, they are adequately housed and properly protected. Your actions will also help
to locate, identify and preserve historic records.
Georgia does not collect its historical records for the sake
of collecting them. It has not cataloged and preserved them just to lock them away in
environmentally controlled vaults. These records have been collected to make them
accessible to people throughout Georgia, across the nation, and around the world.
Georgia is proud of the work done thus far to preserve the
its past record. Until recently though, the world, the country, and much of Georgia had to
come to Atlanta to use the state's archives. Thanks to the World Wide Web, this is
changing fast!
Here again, proactive records management will increase the net
worth of information resources both to the public and all of its government agencies.
It improves the quality of life for both the information and for those, like you, who
manage it. Your information and records will be available where and when they are needed.
The information needs of the citizens of Georgia are changing
as they move further into the electronic information and telecommunications age. As you
have seen, the state of Georgia's primary asset is knowledge. As its government managers
and administrators live up to their responsibility for the use, management, and protection
of the public's information resources, they will reap the rewards along with the public at
large.
Relatively soon now, you will see the creation of nearly
full-service computer generated government information networks all over the nation. Not
long thereafter, government agency records will be available from three-dimensional
electronic government centers projected on a computer monitor or television screen.
In response to spoken requests, files will be passed to the
public across virtual information counters. In essence though, the
responsibilities, roles, risks, and rewards of the administrator and manager will remain
the same. Virtual vigilance will be much harder to ever perfect.
Whatever the manner and pattern of construction of public
buildings in the future, like those of the past and present, they will still best be
described and measured by the efforts and achievements made within them.
One of the rewards of good public service is to know that you
have made a difference by your service, and that you have left a documented legacy to
those who will serve after you.
The measure of the individuals who manage Georgia's
government information and records is found in the quality with which they seek to
preserve it. If they have made a personal commitment to support the continuity of public
service through the transmission of information from one generation to the next, their
service will be acknowledged--they will be remembered. After all, their names are on
record! <<>>
