LIBR 257
Records Management
Summer 2003

Dr. Nancy Burns
nancybur@swbell.net
nburns@wahoo.sjsu.edu

GREENSHEET

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course develops the role of records management as an adjunct to, and diversification of, library and information management skills. Records management is concerned with the life cycle of a record from creation until ultimate destruction or retention in an archive.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

At the completion of this course a student should be able to:
- complete a records inventory
- classify documents in a variety of schemes
- comprehend and define a retention schedule
- manage a records department
- provide records management services.

This course addresses the first goal of the School to prepare students to function effectively as information management professionals by identifying the major theories and principles as well as current practice in one or more specialized aspects of information management.

TEXT:
Required:
Robek, Brown & Stephens. (1995). Information and records management. 4th Ed. Glencoe.

Stewart & Melesco. (2002) Professional Records and Information Management. 2nd Ed. Glencoe McGraw-Hill.

GRADING:

COMPUTING REQUIREMENTS:

Please note that Real Player will be required to view the class lectures and presentations. You can download this application by selecting the following link:
RealOne Player Download (scroll down the page and select the small link for "Free RealOne Player)"

You must also be able to save web pages and files and have basic communication and word processing software.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Site Visit
Before July 1 you will make an appointment with a Records Manager in any type of organization or corporation of your interest. You will arrange to interview the person and tour their department if possible. Plan on spending 1-2 hours depending on what time is made available to you. Ask the Records Manager about their formal and informal preparation for the job, how they would describe their work, the importance given to the records center by the corporation/organization it serves, their use of technology, the classification and indexing of the documents, and anything else you want to know. Please remember to write a formal thank you to the person after your visit.

After this visit write a report on your interview and what you observed in your visit. Include everything you found of interest, your opinions about what you observed, and any ideas you have about the relationship of records management as you saw it and the skills and concepts of librarianship.

This is a formal paper in that it is typed/printed and done in a professional manner. However, you may or may not have any references to the literature. If you do use references to the literature, please use APA style. It can be an essay, a report, or take any form that you feel enhances the presentation.

DUE: July 21

Web Discussions:
Starting with the second week of class, on Monday of each week, I will post a question for discussion on our website. You must post a comment, answer, question, suggest/discuss a related reading, or in some way respond to the question before midnight Sunday following each posting.

Subject Report:
This is a formal written paper on a company, organization, or issue related to records management. This is a report based on your reading, interviews, or other information gathering. I prefer that you use the APA style manual. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, organization, and appropriate graduate level writing are expected. If you have any doubt about the topic you have chosen, please contact me and discuss it before you begin your research. The following list of topics is not meant to be a limit, please feel free to choose any similar topic.

Companies: Iron Mountain, Underground Vaults & Storage, FileSafe, Hollywood Vaults, etc.
Organizations: ARMA, AIIM, ACRC, SAA, etc.
Issues: barcoding, ergonomics, discovery, electronic signatures, optical storage, microfilm in the electronic age, ISO 9000, etc.

DUE: July 28

Take Home Final:

The final for this class is up on the Web and you should begin on it immediately. You should work on this throughout the course using any and all sources of information available to you. It can be turned in any time on or before August 4. I don't care if you work together or network to solve certain parts of the final but be sure everyone involved wants to share and puts in full effort. It is designed as a learning tool and I wouldn't want to have any of you miss the opportunity to learn.

DUE: August 4