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.

The results of the annual JISC infoNet, Universities UK and GuildHE Information Legislation & Management survey for 2008 supports the anecdotal evidence that the FE/HE sector has seen a marked increase in the number of requests received under information legislation during 2008.

It was a year which saw an unprecedented level of interest in information held by institutions; but also witnessed a sector largely ready and able to meet these demands as a result of increased expenditure and experience.

For further information, the full results and analysis please go to www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/foi-survey/2008

Our thanks to all those who took part in this survey.

Has your organisation recently undergone a change concerning the way it manages its records and information?

Have you introduced a new corporate file plan, outsourced your data storage to a commercial 3rd party host, undergone a major appraisal and disposal exercise, facilitated electronic workflow, used new web technologies to enable collaborative or flexible working, introduced an EDRMS or embarked on something similar?

How did you know if it was a success? Could the impact of your initiative be measured and were you able to calculate how much it all cost to achieve? If not, would you find a collection of publicly available accurate, empirical data which ticks these boxes useful when forming the business case for your own next project or justifying to management the benefits of investing in good information and records management?

JISC infoNet is currently undertaking a JISC-funded project ‘Creating a common research framework for measuring the impact of records management’. The Framework will include the means by which a record-related process or task can be deconstructed and measured both before and after the implementation of the RM solution, allowing the effect of the change to be measured and compared with the costs incurred by achieving it.

Part of the project involves carrying out a process of research to discover the current state of the evidence base for demonstrating the quantifiable benefits of implementing records management processes. To this end we are interested to discover the extent to which organisations are currently measuring or monitoring the impact of records management processes and also to assess what metrics the profession will find of value.

We are keen to get in touch with organisations which have implemented records management initiatives and undertaken any form of measurement of the impact that these initiatives have had. Such initiatives can be large or small and the means of measuring their effectiveness either complex or rudimentary – we are interested in them all.

As such, we would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to answer this short survey by 12th June 2009. Please note that this survey is open to all sectors and is not just limited to universities and colleges and we would welcome the thoughts and views from practitioners working in other sectors too.

JISC infoNet, in association with Universities UK and GuildHE is pleased to announce the launch of its annual Information Legislation and Management Survey for 2008.

The survey for 2008 is the fourth consecutive year that this survey has been run. Last year we had over 100 submissions, a significant improvement on previous years and we hope to reach similar numbers again this year.

The closing date for completing the survey is Friday 27th February 2009.

Further information and a link to the online survey form itself are available from www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/foi-survey/2008.