Constructing a function-based records classification system: Business activity structure classification system

Archivaria

Volumn 51, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 137-154

  Sabourin, Paul ^a  

^a CARLETON UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

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EID: 2442623694     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. By the term "object(s)" I mean any thing or entity placed before the eyes or presented to the senses, a tangible material thing, such as cabinets, chairs, computers, desks, lamps, tables.
2. Thus, records about cabinets, chairs, etc. were traditionally listed in a file system without much thought that they primarily documented the function of materiel management within a business life-cycle process.
3. By the term "end product" I mean any object which is the end result or product of a business process or series of activities, such as agreements, books, buildings, contracts, plans, recommendations, reports, surveys. Thus - using another example - records about such things as asbestos, coal, copper, iron, and nickel were listed in alphabetical order in a file system without much thought or reference to the business process involved in the function of mining.
4. The current definition of a "record" found in the National Archives of Canada Act and Access to Information Act includes any "correspondence, memorandum, book, plan, map, drawing, diagram, pictorial or graphic work, photograph, film, microform, sound recording, videotape, machine readable record, and any other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, and any copy thereof." This definition, while suitable for the purposes of these acts, is based primarily on the structure and medium of the record. It is felt by many in the Canadian federal government records community that we need to understand the content and context, as well as the structure, of the information contained in records to eliminate the need (real or perceived) to keep adding new media to this definition and to facilitate the design of a medium-independent function-based classification system.
5. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 5th ed. (Oxford, 1969), p. 221.
6. Ibid., p. 220.
7. Ibid., p. 1285.
8. Public Archives of Canada, Subject Classification Guide, PAC Records Management Series (Ottawa, 1976), p. vii.
9. Ibid., p. vii.
10. Mary F. Robek, Gerald F. Brown, David O. Stephens, Information and Records Management: Document- Based Information Systems, 4th ed. (New York, Ohio, California, Illinois, 1996), p. 102.
11. Ibid., p. 105.
12. Reference here is to an excellent presentation of a model file classification system by Jo-Anne Holm at the ARMA National Capital Region (Ottawa) Spring 2001 Seminar. The theme of the presentation was about designing functional classification systems based on her experience in New South Wales using the DIRKS model (found at , last visited May 2001). What struck the author during this presentation was that the classification scheme, based on the function-based Keyword AAA thesaurus, we were told, arranged the activities in descending order under the function of property management as follows: PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, Acquisition, Construction, Disposal, and Maintenance. When the author enquired as to why the activity "Maintenance" of properties would come after "Disposal" of the properties, he was told the activities were to be listed in alphabetical order and not in the sequence in which the activities would normally take place. The point (not simply quibbling) about alphabetical listings, which also appears later in the paper, is that it completely destroys the natural sequence in which activities actually occur. From a purely logical point of view and from the programme/records creator's point of view, it is much more user friendly and meaningful to construct and interpret a records classification system that actually looks like the working business process model in place. An exchange of correspondence with Adrian Cunningham of the National Archives of Australia, on 10 August 2001, has clarified that DIRKS (based on the Australian Records Management Standard, AS 4390) does not concern itself at the function and activity level with the sequence of activities for classification purposes, but, at the transaction level, recommends that lists of transactions within an activity should mirror the sequence of transactions in the business process. One could, however, implement DIRKS and arrange functions and activities in sequence as a matter of choice without contravening AS 4390. It was also indicated in this exchange that DIRKS is silent on the issue of alpha/numeric or other coding conventions to classify and identify records. A review of other classification systems based on DIRKS from the City of Greater Dandenong and Hertfordshire Council in Australia tends to corroborate these views.
13. This example from an American publication cannot be considered similar to systems based on the Australian DIRKS model as they are based on two different methodologies.
14. Information and Records Management: Document-Based Information Systems, p. 106.
15. International Council on Archives, Committee on Electronic Records, Guide for Managing Electronic Records from an Archival Perspective, Study 8, rev. ed. (Paris, 2000), p. 22.
16. This definition has undergone several revisions, been tested with a number of records managers in federal institutions and National Archives employees, and will continue to evolve with usage. The author wishes to thank one of the paper's reviewers for suggesting possible improvements to the definition. These will be taken into consideration. However, as this definition has now been adopted in a number of documents at the National Archives, this article is not the place to change the wording drafted by another author. It should also be pointed out that the term "function" may be used with all three characterizations in mind or only one.
17. These relationships pertain to the activities themselves and have nothing to do with the contextual elements of space and time pertaining to records as described in records continuum literature.
18. However, it may be interesting in the future to conduct more study on any possible convergence here.
19. Here, the author is influenced by the analysis of philosopher David Hume on the nature and difference between conjoined events where one event regularly precedes another but the latter event need not follow the former, and cause to effect events where the latter event always follows the former event. Hume's examples of billiard balls striking each other in a causal chain of events within a spatial, temporal, and causal context is classic.
20. What is being proposed is not a file number with three digits but a positioning technique, commonly known as a significant position digit code. The example proposes there be (at least) three positions separated by a dot or period (.), but one could use the forward slash (/) for demarcation. The number of digits in each of the three positions can be one or many, but realistically one or two digits per position will suffice. The first position is reserved for the business line, the second position reserved for the function, and the third position reserved for the sub-function. This coding convention allows one to link and identify functional levels from the business line to the position held by a particular sub-function within a sequence. Secondary and tertiary titles, for consistency purposes and to indicate a shift to actual files as opposed to sub-functions, can continue to be demarcated by the dash (-).Without going into too much detail here, for example, a file number like 1.5.10 or 1/5/10 would indicate the first business line, fifth function, and tenth sub-function in an institution, or it can be read as "Common Administrative Functions/Human Resources Management/Employment Equity" in long hand. The reader would not be mistaken to view this coding convention as creating an artificial language of sign and symbol with numbers. The classification number should not incorporate prefixes to denote corporate structures such as ADMIN which can change to CORP for "corporate service" and change again to MGT for "management services" or the newest fad word requiring three or more amendments to the files, classification system, and automated system.
21. The first set of numbers "99" normally refers to the year the disposition authority was developed and signed (now the NA uses four digits "2001") followed by a forward slash, and the second set "003" refers to the next disposition authority in sequence signed by the National Archivist that year. The official Authority number looks like 99/003.
22. The description of the primary block, Assessing Materiel Requirements, and its contents is taken from the model BASCS for Materiel Management. This model was developed at the National Archives and disseminated to institutions of the Government of Canada in 2000 at an orientation session on the new Materiel Management MIDA. Each of the eight materiel management sub-function primaries in the BASCS model includes such descriptions.
23. An Office of Primary Interest is the federal government institution - department, agency, board, office, or commission - to which the authority, responsibility, and accountability to perform a particular function on behalf of the Government of Canada has been specifically assigned by legislation, regulation, policy, or mandate.
24. Very little published Canadian literature and research on function-based classification systems exists at the moment. However, the vast amount of work done in Australia on this topic, so generously made available through the Internet and other venues, and in the United States provides valued resources and a solid foundation for work in this area.
25. Research on design and construction of function-based records classification systems is just beginning at the National Archives of Canada. The National Archives is in the process of drafting a project plan to support the future development of a government-wide functionbased classification system.