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Corporate records manager: Alex

This Case Study belongs to Records manager.

Alex is a records manager at a local authority in the North West. He holds an undergraduate degree in law and a postgraduate Masters in archives and records management from the University of Liverpool.

My first degree was in law but in my last year, I seriously considered becoming an archivist and following similar work undertaken by a great aunt. I applied and was successful in obtaining a place at Liverpool University to study archives and records management.

After I graduated, I got a one-year fixed-term contract as an assistant archivist for an NHS Trust in London. After that job I worked on a six-month project based in a northwest county archive service. My last position was with a northwest local authority as a project manager to implement a records management programme.

There is no typical working day in my current job, as each day can be quite varied. I can be involved in:

• providing guidance to staff, such as how long to keep information. This can be on the phone, via email and face to face;
• writing reports, project plans and business cases;
• designing and implementing projects to close gaps between current and best practice;
• developing training and communication material;
• monitoring, researching and auditing current practices across the council;
• conducting audits of information systems and actual records held;
• formulating policy in relation to records management.

I really enjoy every aspect of my job as it encompasses many different elements. I enjoy working with people across all parts of the organisation, providing professional guidance and bringing my expertise to making decisions. It is great to think that I can help influence what records will be transferred to the council’s archives to be held permanently for the use of future generations.

There are many challenging parts of the job including developing solutions to meet specific requirements in a pragmatic way, dealing with many day-to-day requests alongside more strategic programme development and challenging existing practice in managing information.

It can be frustrating when effective information management is not seen as a priority. It can also be challenging being the only records manager within one organisation, so it is key to develop a network with others who will be able to assist with processes, such as audit and IT.

If you wish to get into this career you should be interested in the effective management of information and how it is created, used, stored and destroyed. You need to have enthusiasm, organisational and project management skills and the ability both to see the ‘bigger picture’ and work in detail.

You need to be a people person, as you need to work with many different people. If possible, you should volunteer or take short-term placements within organisations which currently have a records management programme in place.

There are a number of postgraduate courses which are normally taken after a first degree. This is the normal route for getting into the profession. There are also many distance learning courses which you can take while working in this field, especially if you are currently in an organisation which is looking to develop a records management programme.

Case Study sourced by Ruth Livermore of University of Birmingham, 22 January 2010.