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9:1
[Refereed section]
Pauline Singh, Jane E. Klobas & Karen
Anderson
Information Seeking Behaviour of Electronic
Records Management Systems (ERMS) Users
Implications for Records Management
Practices
Affiliations: University of Western
Australia (PS, JK), Edith Cowan University (KA)
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Keywords: Electronic Records
Management Systems (ERMS), information seeking behaviour,
records management, ISO 15489, classification schemas,
thesauri, information retrieval, information search
Abstract:
This article considers whether the way RM professionals manage
records in accordance with the ISO 15489 standard is
consistent with the information seeking behaviour (ISB) of
Electronic Records Management Systems (ERMS) users. The
empirical research includes an investigation of the ISB of
ERMS users and how various factors, such as training,
individual information seeking styles, tasks, and time, affect
the ISB. Forty ERMS users in four Australian government
organisations – in the utility, town council, banking and
finance industries – participated in the study. Qualitative
research methods (interviews and protocol analysis) were used
to develop a model of the ISB of ERMS users. An understanding
of how ISO 15489 was implemented in the ERMSs of the
organisations was obtained from interviews with the
organisations’ records managers. The findings reveal that
there is a partial match between the ISB of ERMS users and how
the organisations implemented the ISO 15489 standard to manage
records in the ERMSs. Users rely heavily on using the metadata
elements included in the ERMSs. They are mostly happy with
their ability to find records in the ERMSs, but they encounter
difficulties and frustration when performing some searches.
These searches could be completed more efficiently and
effectively if users had a better understanding of the
classification scheme or thesaurus, but records managers do
not generally make these tools available to the users.
The article may be referenced as
Singh, Pauline, Jane E. Klobas & Karen Anderson.
“Information Seeking Behaviour of
Electronic Records Management Systems (ERMS) Users:
Implications for Records Management Practices.”
Human IT
9.1
(2007): 135–181. <http://www.hb.se/bhs/ith/1-9/psjkka.pdf>
