Spotlight

Doesn’t time fly? It doesn’t seem many months since we were announcing the results of our annual Information Legislation & Management Survey for 2008 and here we now are, launching the same for 2009.

This will be the 5th year we have run the survey, covering every year that the sector has been coping with the full implications of the Freedom of Information Act. But although the introduction of FOI specifically and the impact it was having on institutions may have been the initial stimulus for this work its scope has broadened considerably over the years to include a more rounded coverage of the other legislation (both old and new) which directly determines the way in which our organisations must manage their information.

With there soon to be five years of accumulated data to draw upon, what originally started as interesting ‘point in time’ snapshots of how institutions were dealing with these laws has now become a fascinating longitudinal picture of its impact on the sector over time. As such it is no wonder that it its results are looked to by practitioners, senior managers and policy makers alike as both a barometer of current levels of compliance and the likely nature of future challenges.
But of course we rely totally on the time and effort devoted to this by those responsible for FOI in institutions the length and breadth of the country to make this happen. The continued support of Universities UK and GuildHE in promoting the survey certainly helps enormously but this year, in a bid to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of the sector we have gone even further. Last December we encouraged interested parties to review the questions we ask and the answers they generate and to suggest ways in which the survey could be improved. Where possible we have acted on the feedback we received for this year’s survey. One of the main results of this consultation process will be felt a little further down the line in the spring when the survey is closed and the results launched. For as well publishing our own take on the data as we have done in previous years we will also be making the raw data available for people to slice, dice and interpret as they wish.

This year’s survey is available from now until Friday March 5th from our website

The JISC infoNet Information Legislation & Management survey has been run annually since 2005 and has established itself as an important reference source regarding the sector’s compliance with information-related legislation and the impact this is having on institutions. We are aware that completing the survey is time consuming and want to be sure that every question and the data it provides is considered useful by the sector. We are also aware that many institutions collect their own data regarding their own performance in this area and, where possible, it makes sense to harmonise our work with any emerging standard practice within the sector.

This review is therefore intended to give practitioners working within the sector the opportunity to influence future iterations of the survey, starting with the survey for 2009 which will be launched in January 2010. We do not expect reviewers to comment on every question (though please do if you wish) but would welcome any thoughts and comments provided. Please click the ‘Review’ button after the question you wish to respond to and complete the information requested.

We will consider all comments and suggestions received but obviously will not be able to incorporate all of them. We would also ask reviewers to bear in mind that one of the ever-growing advantages of this survey is the longitudinal picture that is beginning to emerge and which will get more illustrative each year the survey is run. This has only been possible by using the same questions each year. Reviewers are therefore asked to weigh up the advantages of changing a question against the potential disadvantages of losing any continuity and opportunity for cross-analysis with results from previous years.

The review survey is available from the JISC infoNet website

This review is open until Friday 27th November.

Please note: Due to the remit of the survey participation in this review process is only open to staff from the UK FE and HE sectors

Your participation in it is greatly appreciated.