ROLE OF RECORDS AND ARCHIVES MANAGEMENT STANDARDS IN

ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF RECORDS

Douglas Mwangi Maina

Kisii University: Faculty of Information Science and Technology.

Email: mainamwangi1989@yahoo.com and Gmail: mainamwangi1989@gmail.com

Phone: 0717834480 or 0716229616

ABSTRACT
The capability to manage corporate
information well is fundamental to any
successful organisation. The need to create
and maintain recordkeeping standard
identifies the key requirements for
successful information management for
recordkeeping purposes. This standard sets
out a systematic approach to ensure
organisational information can be managed
efficiently; that it can be found when
needed; and it can be relied upon to support
informed decision making and effective
service delivery. Adopting standard across
both central and local government will
improve knowledge sharing within and
between organisations. Common outcomes
can be achieved by using shared approaches
and processes. This study sought to find out
the role of records and archives management
standards in enhancing the quality of records
PRESENTED TO BLINS 2011 FOURTH YEARS
LECTURER: MR CACRRY FRANCIS
STUDENT: MAINA MWANGI, VOL 3
INTRODUCTION
A standard is a published document, a form
of scientific and technical literature that sets
out specifications and procedures designed
to ensure that a material, product, process,
method or service is fit for its purpose and
perform in the same way it was intended.
Standards establish a common language,
which defines quality and establishes safety
criteria. The main role of standards is to
enhance universability of materials,
products, processes and methods to enhance
interoperability across different regions. A
standard will ensure for instance, that an
electrical plug manufactured in Kenya can
fit in a socket manufactured in Japan.
A standard exists as de facto or de jure. De
facto standards are those that are a norm or
requirement, which has an informal but
dominant status De jure standards are those
that are a legal requirement.
Records and archives management standards
are those that have been developed to
control and guide the records management
function.
A number of standards have been developed
to guide the management of records to
ensure professionalism and uniformity
across the world. The common national and
international archival standards that guide
the profession are:
1. Information and Documentation-
Records Management (ISO 15489)
The ISO 15489 is an international standard
for records management developed by the
International Standard Organization (ISO).
The standard was developed based on the
Australian AS 4390-1996 Records
Management Standard.
This standard provides guidance on
managing records of originating
organizations, public or private, for internal
and external clients. The standard also
applies to the management of records, in all
formats or media, created or received by any
public or private organization in the conduct
of all its activities or any individual with a
duty to create and maintain records.
Roles of the Standard
i. The standard provides guidance on
determination of responsibilities of
organizations for records and records
policies, procedures, systems and
processes.
ii. It provides guidance on records
management in support of quality
process framework to comply with
ISO 9001 and 14001.
PRESENTED TO BLINS 2011 FOURTH YEARS
LECTURER: MR CACRRY FRANCIS
STUDENT: MAINA MWANGI, VOL 3
iii. The standard provides guidance on
the design and implementation of a
record system.
iv. It does not include the management
of archival records within archival
institutions
This Standard has two parts
1 .Part1: This is marked as general,
specifies the elements of records
management and defines the necessary
results or outcomes to be achieved
2. Part2: It provides guidelines that are
supplementary to part1;it provides a
methodology of implementation of a records
management programme, the design and
implementation of a records keeping
systems(DIRKS) model.
2 Model Requirements for the
Management of Electronic Records
(MoReq Standard)
The European Commission, commissioned
the development of this model following an
open completion in 1999. The model
Requirement for the Management of
Electronic Records (MoReq) is therefore a
regional standard within the European
Union.
Roles of the Standard
i. It serves as a practical tool in helping
organizations meet their needs for
the management of both computer-
based and paper-based records.
ii. It assists records managers and
Archivists to manage electronic
records with the desired levels of
confidence and integrity, by
 combining the advantages of
electronic ways of working with
classical records management theory.
iii. It also specifies and addresses
capabilities required for the
management of electronic records by
computer software. The
specifications avoid discussions of
records management philosophy,
archival theory, decision taking. The
specification mentions in several
places that certain functions must be
limited to an administrator
General Roles of Records management
Standards. Applying these standards assists
public offices to:
create trustworthy, useful and accountable
records and information in evolving
business environments
 ensure that meaningful, accurate, reliable
and useable records and information are
available whenever required for
government business needs
 sustain and secure the records and
information needed to support short and
long term business outcomes
 enable the reliable sharing of relevant
records and information
 automate governance, sharing and
continuity processes
 minimizes records and information
volumes, preventing unnecessary digital
and physical storage and management
costs
 Proactively protect and manage the
records and information that provide
ongoing value to government business
and to the community for instance NSW.
Application of Records Management
Standards in Africa
PRESENTED TO BLINS 2011 FOURTH YEARS
LECTURER: MR CACRRY FRANCIS
STUDENT: MAINA MWANGI, VOL 3
Many of the African countries do not have
national records management standards.
They however have National Archival
institutions, which serve as official advisors
of their respective government on
management of records .These Archival
institutions, have been established mainly by
acts of parliament, but the acts do not
provide specific guidance on records
management
The only African country that has made
substantial steps in standardizing records
management practices is South Africa. The
South African Country adopted the ISO
15489 as its National Standard on records
management (The SANS 15489 Records
Management Standard). Besides the ISO
15489 and the National Archives and
Records Service of South Africa Act 1996,
as amended, South Africa has also
additional guidelines on records
management and related functions outlined
in records management policy manual,
managing electronic records in
governmental bodies; policy guidelines and
performance criteria for records managers of
governmental bodies
Application of Records Management
Standards in Kenya
Whereas the activity of records management
standard has existed in Kenya since its
inception as non-formal and formal, official
recognition of records management came
into being in 1965 with the enactment of the
public archives act of the laws of Kenya
(Githaka1996) which was revised to be
known the Kenya Public Archives and
Documentation Service Act (cap19) of the
laws of the Kenya. This Act gives the
director of the Kenya National Archives and IN CONCLUSION
Documentation Service (KNADS) the power
to examine any public records and advice on Students with an interest in Archives and
their care, preservation, custody and control. Records Management are urged to
strengthen their capabilities to effectively
Since 1965 to date, Kenya has not yet integrate Standards in records
developed a national standard on records management in order to be successful
management. Even the KNADS itself as the Archivists and Records Managers.
official advisor of the government on public
records management has not yet developed REFERENCES
an internal standard on records management.
But Archivists in Kenya have always seen 1. International Standards Organization
the need to support standard and guidelines. (ISO) -
http://www.iso.ch/welcome.html
Records management have largely relied on
the efforts of KNADS and various 2. Best, D. (2002). Effective Records
guidelines issued from the office of the Management. A Management Guide
president(OP) and the directorate of to the Value of ISO15489-1. BSI.
Personnel Management(DPM) through
3. Stewart and Melesco, N.M. (2000).
various ministries and departments. Professional Records and
Information Management, 2nd
Among the circulars have been:
Edition. Osborne: McGraw-Hill.
i. The office of the president circular
No.OP/48A/66 of Nov. 1985 on AUTHOR PROFILE
destruction of non-current
government records.
ii. The OP circular No.OP/39/2A of
14.04.1999 on cases of missing and
lost files and documents in public
Service.
Douglas Mwangi
iii. The D.P.M circular No.
Maina is an undergraduate at Faculty
DPM/1/20/112 on the management
of Information Science and
and disposal of personnel records
Technology, Kisii University,
There has however not been any directive Kenya. He is pursuing Bachelor
from the government recognizing the ISO degree in Library and Information
15489 (2001), which is the international Science (Blins) specializing in
standard on records management that Archives and Record Management
ordinarily Kenya being a member ought to and a Certified Public Accountant II
have adopted. (CPA

PRESENTED TO BLINS 2011 FOURTH YEARS

LECTURER: MR CACRRY FRANCIS
STUDENT: MAINA MWANGI, VOL 3