LIBR 257-01
LIBR 257-11
Records Management
Summer 2005

Instructor: Susan Ewing Haley
E-mail

GREENSHEET

Textbooks | Course Requirements | Grading | Assignments

Students must self-enroll for this course on Blackboard between May 17-31. You will be required to use a password access code which I will provide using MYSJSU Messaging system.

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 archives.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course a student should be able to:

• conduct a records survey and appraisal
• classify documents in various schemes
• understand and use a records retention/disposition schedule
• understand and address current issues in records management including ethics, electronic records issues, and appropriate professional preparation for the field of records management
• manage a records department
• provide records management services

This course addresses the teaching goal of the School: Teaching students the major theories, important principles, and current practice in the following areas: The principles and practices of management as specifically applied to information environments; one or more specialized aspects of information management; other relevant disciplines.

Textbooks

Required Textbook
Robek, Brown & Stephens. (1995). Information and records management. 4th ed. Glencoe.

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Course Requirements

Initial Class Meeting
An initial class meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 1, from 5-8 p.m. at the Park Archives and Records Center, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco.

Readings
Each week I will assign reading chapters from the required text, as well as selected articles from more current journals, etc., on the Blackboard. Adherence to the schedule of readings will greatly aid you in completing the take-home final exam. The readings list will be the source of the web discussion questions for the following week.

Academic Integrity
Read the SJSU Academic Integrity Policy
http://www2.sjsu.edu/senate/S04-12.pdf

Reasonable Accommodation of Disabilities
Students who need accommodation due to a disability must register with SJSU's Disability Resource Center (DRC) during the first three weeks of the semester. The Center will work with the students to determine the disability, document it, and determine the services and accommodations necessary for student success. Then, the DRC will contact the faculty member to determine the types of consideration necessary.

Students attending the Fullerton campus should first contact the Disability Resource Center in San José since they are SJSU students. The DRC will then direct the students to supporting resources on the Fullerton campus.

The DRC Web site: http://www.drc.sjsu.edu/

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Grading

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Assignments

Web Discussions (15% of course grade)
Starting with the second week of class, on Monday of each week I will post a question for discussion on Blackboard. You must post comments, answers, questions, suggest/discuss a related reading, or in some substantive way respond twice to the question before midnight Sunday following each posting.

Hands-on Exercises (10% + 10% of course grade)
There will be two full-day class meetings, to be held at the Park Archives & Records Center, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco. These meetings will go from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Attendance and full participation is required at these sessions to get the course credit assigned:

• Exercise 1 – Saturday, June 18
• Exercise 2 – Sunday, July 24

These meetings will include the following activities: discussion of issues/questions from the reading and other project assignments, possible additional site visits (within a short distance), work with retention schedules, live records survey and appraisal exercises, records accessioning, series identification, development of records center management systems and documentation, facility tours, roll play exercises, records destruction actions, professional ethics, review of various records formats (photos, maps, plans, etc).

Additional information and schedules will be provided prior to the meeting dates.

Site Visit/Report (15% of course grade)

Each student is required to make an appointment with a Records Manager in any type of organization/institution. Arrange to spend two to three hours with the Records Manager talking about the position, touring the Records Department and observing the Records Manager at work. 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 organization it serves, their use of technology, the classification and indexing of the records and any other information you feel is pertinent. Please use professional courtesy in all contacts and be sure to send a written thank you to the person after your visit.

After the visit, write a report on your interview and what you observed. Include everything you found of interest, include positive impressions as well as negative impressions. What were the biggest successes and problems of the individual in performing their work? How do they interact with/compare with librarians or archivists in their organization?

This is a formal paper; proper grammar, writing style and spelling are required and will be graded. You may or may not have references to literature. Please use proper APA styles for any references used

Subject Report (20% of course grade)

This is a formal written paper on a case study, records management history or philosophy or other current issue related to records management. This report should be based on your reading, interviews and any other information gathered in the course. Use the APA style manual. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, organization, and appropriate graduate level writing are expected. The paper should be a minimum of ten pages in length. Proper source citations are required. Please review the proposed topic with me before beginning your research. A sample listing of topics includes (but is not limited to):

Records storage issues; records preservation; vital records; legal or ethical issues in records management; a critical individual in the history of American records management; professional preparation for records management careers; marketing records management programs, records management professional organizations, etc.

Take Home Final Examination (30% of course grade)
Due August 5
The final exam for this class will be posted on Blackboard by the first week of class and you should begin to work on it immediately. Work on the exam throughout the course, using any and all sources of information available to you. It can be turned in at any time, but must be completed and turned in no later than August 5. You may work individually or in groups to develop the answers, but each student is responsible for turning in a completed exam. This exam will serve as a learning tool and the research you put in to answer all the questions will be very useful to you in “gelling” the important basic concepts of records management.

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