RECORDS STORAGE & RETRIEVAL

GEOGRAPHIC
STORAGE
METHOD
&
EDMS

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 Geographic Records Storage Method
• Geographic records management - a method of
storing and retrieving records by location of an
individual, an organisation or a project.
• Geographic filing system - is the classification of
records by geographic location usually arranged
numeric code or in alphabetic order.
• Closely related to subject records management.
• Uses alphabetic and numeric filing and indexing
rules.
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OIL & GAS IN MALAYSIA (EX. 1)

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KAABAH, MAKKAH (EX. 2)

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Examples of Activities that Require Decisions
Based on Location

 Scientific research
 Oil and gas exploration
 Facility management
 Real estate transactions
 Emergency response
 Utility and telecommunication services
 Product distribution

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 Geographical Information
System—GIS
• GIS – a computer system designed to allow users to
collect, manage, and analyze large volumes of data
referenced to a geographical location by some type
of geographical coordinates (ex longitude and
latitude).
• It lets the query or analyse a database and receive
the results in the form of a map.
• Increasingly considered essential components of
effective engineering, planning, and emergency
management operations
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 Geographic Records Storage Advantages

• Operations relating to a specific location are

filed together.
• Each geographic area in storage is a unit or a
group, and the shift of groups of records is
easily accomplished by moving an entire
group from one file location to another.

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 Geographic Records Storage Disadvantages

• User must know the geographic location, or

an index must be created and maintained.
• Guide and folder arrangements may be
required for some large systems are complex.
• Cross-references are necessary for both
alphabetic filing methods and numeric filing
methods.

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Geographic Records Storage Arrangements

• The geographic arrangement of records

depends on the following:
– The type of business
– The way reference is made to records
– The geographic areas related to records

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 Compass Terms
• A compass term - uses compass points
as part of the company or subject name.
• Each word or unit in a filing segment containing
compass term is considered a separate filing unit.
• If the term includes more than one compass point,
the term should be treated as it is written.
• When used in scientific document filing, the compass
term is treated as an adjective and is placed after the
name (p. 154).

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 Examples of
Names with Compass Terms

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 Geographic Storage
Arrangements
• Dictionary arrangement - an arrangement of records in
alphabetic order (A–Z).
• Using:
Lettered guide plan
Location name guide plan
• Encyclopaedic arrangements - is the alphabetic
arrangement of major geographic divisions plus one or
more geographic subdivisions also arranged in alphabetic
order.
• Using:
Lettered guide plan
Location name guide plan
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 Guide Plans
• Lettered guide plan—an arrangement of
geographic records with primary guides
labeled with alphabetic letters.
• Location name guide plan—an
arrangement of geographic records with
primary guides labeled with location
names.

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 Dictionary Arrangement of Records

Lettered Guide Plan Location Name Guide Plan

Figs 4-23 & 4-24

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Encyclopedic Arrangement of Records
Lettered Guide Plan Location Name Guide Plan

Figs 4-25 & 4-26 15

 Geographic Records
Storage Indexes
• Numeric file list (accession log)—a serial list
of the numbers assigned to records in a
numeric storage system.
• Alphabetic index—lists all correspondents or
subjects in geographic storage.
• Master index—a complete listing of all filing
segments in the filing system.

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 Alphabetic Index for
Numeric Geographic Files

Figs 4-27 Alphabetic Index for Numeric Geographic Files

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 Alphabetic Index for
Geographic Files

Figs 4-28 Alphabetic Index for Geographic Files

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 Master index for
Geographic Files

Figs 4-29 Master Index for Geographic Files 19

 *Electronic Document
Management System
• An electronic document management system
(EDMS) - a software program that manages the
creation, storage and control of documents
electronically.
• The primary function of an EDMS - to manage
electronic information within an organisation’s
workflow.
• A basic EDMS - should include document
management, workflow, text retrieval, and
imaging.
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Electronic Document
Management System

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 The Key Concepts of EDMS
The key concepts of EDMS:
 Document Management Basics
 Features of EDMS
 Basic Components of EDMS
 Legal Framework
 Basic process of selecting an EDMS

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 Document Management Basics
• Document management often referred to as
Document Management Systems (DMS).
• Is the use of a computer system and software
to store, manage and track electronic
documents and electronic images of paper
based information captured through the use of
a document scanner.
• Is how your organisation stores, manages and
tracks its electronic documents.
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Document Management Basics (2)
Some of the key features in document management
include:

Storage location - provide a safe central repository for the

electronic storage of records and data on a hard-drive or other
type of memory device.

Security and access control - to protect the system's integrity in

the event of loss, the system will provide backup copies of
stored data by the use of data replication facilities.

Version control - tabs can be kept on how the current

document came to be, and how it differs from the versions that
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came before.
Document Management Basics (3)
 Audit trails - to permit the reconstruction of
who did what to a document during the
course of its life in the system.
 Check-in/check-out and document lockdown
- to coordinate the simultaneous editing of a
document so one person’s changes do not
overwrite another’s.

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 The Features of an EDMS
The real benefits of an EDMS arise from the additional
facilities that the system will include the functions of:

A Process for Check-In, Check-Out: A control, locking

mechanism that ensures that only one user can modify a
document at a time.
Version Control and Audit Trail: Methods of recording and
monitoring the changes made to a document over time; and
also an audit system to enable the tracking of the life-cycle of
a document.
Document Review: Enabling users to add their comments to
a document without actually changing the document itself.
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 The Features of an EDMS (3)
Organisational Processes: Methods of organizing
documents into related groups, e.g. folders.
Free-text Searching: Facilities for identifying and
retrieving documents according to the text they
contain.
Metadata: The recording of information associated
with the document (such as the author, the date it
was created, the title, etc.).
Workflow: Workflow system that allows the
automatic routing of documents to people or
departments. 27
 The Features of an EDMS (3)
 Imaging: Methods such as scanning – for
converting paper documents to an
electronic format.
 Publishing: The ability to combine
documents in coherent collections in order
to distribute them to their target audiences.
 Legal compliance: The ability to support and
administer any compliance or legal
requirements.
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 The Components of an EDMS
EDMS will consist of components such as:
 Network - Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area
Networks (WAN):
 Used to connect the various EDMS components.
 Acts as the gateway to the Internet.

 Servers - separate servers or hosted "virtual" servers

may be used to divide up the system operations.
The processing power of the servers may affect the
performance of the EDMS solution.
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 The Components of an EDMS (2)
 Software
EDMS software may be assessed on the following levels:
 Functional - all operations that the EDMS performs.
 Administration - configuration elements to
accommodate user requirements.
 Interface - the ease with which the users interact with
the system.
 Storage
The critical component of any EDMS solution:
 The storage system must be designed to include all
working files and documents, backups and archived
data. 30
 Legal Framework
• The National Archives of Malaysia developed a set of
System Specification entitled Electronic Records
Management System (ERMS) - System Specifications for
Public Offices under the First Phase of the e-SPARK
project in 2003.
• The decision to use an EDMS requires significant
planning and analysis.
• According to National Archives guidelines, Electronic
Records Management Systems must have the following
attributes to ensure the basic characteristics of records as
evidence are maintained.
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 Electronic Records Management Systems
(ERMS)Attributes
1. Creating records in context
 Electronic Records Management Systems enable
organisations to capture evidence of their business activity.
 This involves identifying a set of electronic information to
serve as the evidential record comprising both content and
context.

2. Managing and maintaining records

 Electronic records have to be actively managed as evidence
of business activity, and to maintain their authenticity,
reliability, integrity and usability.
 Maintenance of this evidence, as records, is necessary for
operational viability and accountability of the organisation. 32
 ERMS Attributes (2)
3. Maintaining records for as long as they are required
 Records must be retained for a period of time in accordance with
authorised legislative and jurisdictional requirements.
 Able to be dispose records in a managed, systematic and
auditable way.
 A hallmark of appropriate records management is the retention
and appropriate disposition of records according to specified
rules as stated in Section 27 of National Archives Act 2003.
 Able to delete records in a systematic, auditable and accountable
way in line with operational and juridical requirements.
 Organisations will need to meet the policies and procedures of
their local jurisdictional authority for identifying, retaining and
disposing of records.
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 ERMS Attributes (3)
4. Records management metadata can be configured
 to be meaningful as evidence of a business process, records
must be linked to the context of their creation and use
metadata that should be captured at the point of creation
includes:
 record identifier
 date of creation and creator/author/person responsible etc.
 Much of this information can be automatically generated.
 It is expected that each organisation will capture records
management metadata in line with an identified records
management metadata standard, in accordance with
organisational and/or jurisdictional requirements, and/or be
consistent with ISO 23081.
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 ERMS Attributes (4)
5. Records can be reassigned or reclassified, closed and if
required, duplicated and extracted
• Every point in the process must justify the need to create a
record where it ends up with anew creation of records rather
than alteration to it.

6. Reports can be undertaken

 on records and the management thereof.

7. Security processes can be put in place

 normal systems controls over access and security support the
maintenance of authenticity, reliability, integrity and usability,
and therefore should be appropriately documented.
 User requirements should be assigned at appropriate levels of
access by an administrator. 35
Basic Process for Selecting an EDMS

• Should serve as a baseline to develop

more specific EDMS for the business.
• Should include:
 Needs Assessment
 Vendor Selection
 Implementation Plan
 Deployment
 Management
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 Basic Process
for Selecting an EDMS (2)
 Needs Assessment
 The first stage is to work with internal
stakeholders and understand your legal
obligations to determine your unique needs.
 If you wish to use the EDMS for records
management be sure that you identify
trustworthiness, completeness, accessibility,
legal admissibility, and durability as needs.

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Needs Assessment (Example)

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 Basic Process
for Selecting an EDMS (3)

 Vendor Selection
 You will need to carefully select an EDMS vendor. You
may need to issue a request for proposals that sets forth
your legal requirements and vendor selection criteria.
 You may also contact other government agencies or
organisation with similar systems. In short, you will want
to gather as much information as you can about
potential EDMS as they are used in other organisation.
 National Archives also provide consultation about the
requirement for EDMS.
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Vendor Selection (Example)

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 Basic Process
for Selecting an EDMS (4)

 Implementation Plan
• You will need to work with the vendor and internal
stakeholders to develop a comprehensive
implementation plan.
• The plan should include:
 A technological implementation plan that outlines
how and when the system will be installed and tested.
 A User implementation plan that includes training and
system rollout.

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Implementation Plan (Examples)

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 Basic Process
for Selecting an EDMS (5)
 Deployment
 As outlined in the implementation plan, install and test the system and
provide training to the user.

 Management
 As the organisation starts to use the system, continue manage and refine
the use of the system and provide system maintenance as necessary.
 To ensure that an EDMS is employed effectively in an organisation, it is
important to have a strategy against which developments and usage can
be compared.
 To be effective and to address an organisation's business, legal,
operational needs and infrastructure requirements, an EDMS should be
both flexible and scalable.
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Deployment (Examples)

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Management (Examples)

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