OVERVIEW: This session demonstrates ways records managers can make their roles more interactive, approachable, and relatable to employees throughout their agency by developing relationships and improving communication through archival projects.
I was hired at my organization in a new position dedicated to records management. We had policies on the books but very little oversight over the years for follow through. My challenge is to not only develop a records management program in my organization but to engage employees across 13 facilities and 500 miles to actively participate. But my goal is greater than compliance, it’s getting our folks to understand the value of the agency and its history and how records management is an integral part of that story. By cultivating an archival mindset, I hope to share how records management is more than regulations, retention codes, and schedules. It’s an opportunity to curate a collection that I hope will eventually become an archive and a way to tell our story.
Although archival projects are not in my job description (or budget), I have found inexpensive ways to preserve the history and tell the story of our organization that has engaged our employees and made my records management position more friendly and approachable.
This is a case study in employee engagement and includes:
- a partnership with a local university to jumpstart an oral history project for our longest tenured employees
- finding old film reels that we had digitized, buying a popcorn machine, and going to each facility for a “movie day”
- assisting employees in-person with cleanup days and salvaging historical/archival records from less-than-ideal environments
- partnering across departments, especially Communications, to highlight the value of archival and historical materials
The result is that we have a more engaged and knowledgeable group, who have begun asking questions, doing research, and sharing their findings. It has also increased trust between departments and records management because employees know me and understand my role is more than throwing things away. The employees who have participated in our oral history project have expressed appreciation that their decades of service are seen and their legacy is preserved for the future. Our records liaisons are more comfortable when requesting disposition and are not afraid to label material as archival. Employees across all facilities know who I am and what my role is and now take initiative to reach out and ask questions. What began as a personal passion for me as an Archivist has blossomed into an excellent opportunity to build connections between records management and employees. The presentation will include several examples of archival projects as well as several responses from employees and changes in the records management-employee relationship.
The archival projects we have started at our agency are ones that can be duplicated in other agencies, regardless of roles or budgets. I believe creating an archival mindset can be beneficial for anyone trying to make records management more approachable and engaging.
This session will benefit NAGARA’s membership because we are all looking for opportunities to engage with our employees. Active participation will go much further than compliance. In our Risk Management department, we say “Collaboration over Compliance”.
This session aims to:
- Inform records managers about the value of cultivating an archival mindset as a function of their records management duties as a way to engage employees and build relationships and trust in the role
- Improve relationships between records management and employees in their organizations, which in turn will increase willing participation in the compliance piece of records management
- Inspire the audience to find ways to add creativity to their roles
- Show records managers how their involvement with their internal and external stakeholders can broaden their roles from a place of compliance to active engagement in preserving the history of their organization
GARA CERTIFICATE CORE COMPETENCY AREAS: "Training, Advocacy and Outreach" OR "Archives and Long-term Preservation"
TARGET AUDIENCE: Tribal, State, Local
FOCUS AREAS: Archives, Records Management
PRESENTER(S): Kelly Murphy, Records Administrator, Trinity River Authority of Texas