Impact Calculator Pilot Projects
JISC infoNet is pleased to announce that 6 institutions have been allocated funding to pilot the Impact Calculator.
Each project is tasked with using the Impact Calculator to assess the results of an records-management based change initiative. They will report back on their experience of using the Calculator and suggest ways in which it could be improved as a tool. The data they produce will then form part of a peer-reviewed journal paper, helping to address the current dearth of reliable performance data relating to investment in records management.
The 6 institutions funded, together with a brief summary of the focus of their project are:
Cardiff University
This project aims to make operational improvements, increasing the space available in the HR Division's recordkeeping systems; improving the speed with which HR staff can find information within the personnel files and raising awareness amongst managerial staff in Schools and Divisions about record retention.
Contact Sarah Phillips
King's College London
A history of mergers, site specific management and the employment of external project managers has meant that record keeping within the Estates directorate is complex and diverse. Records are captured and stored in a number of discrete systems (for project management, space management, maintenance, incident reporting and so on) and data is not effectively integrated. Paper records persist too and information duplication and excessive retention are widespread.
This project would provide a valuable spur for the College to get its house in order in relation to Estates' records as well as being a genuinely challenging test of the Impact Calculator.
Contact Jan Booth
University of Aberdeen
The business function to be improved is the management of emails within the university.
Large amounts of email are stored on the university's servers, which is an expensive, server-hogging resource, is constantly expanding, and the contents of which are largely unknown. We do not know how much information is purely personal, trivial, or duplicated, and how much is important business information.
The intention is to develop and test sustainable strategies for managing the amount of email, which meet organisational needs while at the same time satisfying the requirements of users.
Contact Rodney Breen
University of Huddersfield
The change initiative being measured by the Impact Calculator is a project to improve the retention, publication and dissemination of programme specifications (after validation processes have been completed).
The expected outcomes of this project are to:
- Provide "a single point of truth" about the University's programmes
- Enable validated changes to be disseminated automatically in future
- Retain information about programmes consistently
- Save staff time
Contact Sarah Wickham
University of Nottingham
The current process for transferring student records means that there is significant duplication of records being held across the University. Whilst the Governance and Logistics Team is identified as the primary record holder for student case files in the University's Records Retention Schedule many academics and administrators who handle student cases choose to keep a copy of the documents they are sent and may also add a copy of the documentation to the student's local file.
As student case work is a discrete area it is hoped that a "pilot" of the Universities Knowledge Worker Enterprise Content Management System as an electronic documents management system in the University would provide information that could be used to inform decision making on whether it would be appropriate to extend the use of Knowledge Worker across the University.
Contact Hannah Robinson
University of Oxford (Bodleian Library)
It is anticipated that this project will pilot a records management policy that can be rolled out throughout University Administration & Services (UAS). The Bodleian Libraries retention policy will be applied to a selected section of UAS, Research Services, possibly with a focus on specific teams within Research Services depending upon resources.
A records survey will be carried out and a recommendation will be made as to appropriate retention periods. A determination of the records to be transferred to the University Archives will then be made and any records for disposal identified. Series of electronic records suitable for longer term or permanent preservation will also be documented for future consideration.
Contact Linda Needham
