• Department of Health and Children, AIIR Project

• Hyder Consulting (Middle East)

• Department of Agriculture

• FÁS

• The Irish Museum of Modern Art

Major archival listing and meta data generation project on the records held by the DoH&C relating to children in care

The issue of the treatment and conditions of children in state care became the subject of public debate in Ireland in the early 2000's as illustrated by the States of Fear series aired on RTE and the subsequent LeFoy/Ryan Commission. The question of access to the records of these children was addressed by the Department of Health & Children (DoHC) through the setting up of the Access to Institutional and Related Records (AIRR) project.

The AIRR project addressed DoHC records related to child care services from the 1930s through to the 1980's. The DoHC had indirect responsibility for children in care and provided inspection of foster homes funded by local authorities from 1902. The DoHC had no responsibility for children placed in institutional care through the courts (Dept of Education).

The purpose of the AIRR project was to identify records concerning inspections of institutions and foster homes that mention individual children and to create a comprehensive archive of historical child care records to facilitate access and retrieval of personal information with regard to the FOI and Data protection legislation.

A team of seven archivists dealt with these sensitive records. The approach was that files were microfilmed/ scanned and placed on a server, each file was then assigned a unique ID ‘tracker no.’. The archivists extracted personal details and recorded all references to children; Date(s) of birth, name(s) of carer(s), dates in care and biographical information where possible.

The project required the highest level of accuracy and confidentiality. To ensure this Eneclann developed a methodology for standardisation, accuracy and accessibility. The project employed a proven validation system where every entry was checked by qualified archivists. The team indexed in excess of 200,000 records to this standard.

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Major records management project

The Municipality of Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the largest of the United Arab Emirates. Having 90% of the Emirates oil reserves, the city has experienced very rapid growth in the last 30-40 years. As part of the city's ambition for efficiency and best practice a major records management review and a new municipal general archive building were recommended by the consulting firm Hyder. Eneclann were the records management consultants who carried out the project.

The context was the planning, design and operation of a new general archive building for the Municipality to house over 25,000 linear metres of records. This project included carrying out: • Current User Needs Analysis • Requirements Analysis for development of records management solutions • Concept and Logical Design for future requirements, as well as a full records management audit and production of a retention/disposition schedule and classification scheme.

This project began at short notice and required that three Eneclann records managers were stationed in Abu Dhabi for several weeks. The project was completed to schedule, with contributions to final design documentation to be completed later this year.

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Records management survey and archival listing project

The Department of Agriculture is historically and politically one of the key government departments it is also one of the largest a fact reflected in the amount of records and files generated in the course of its operations. The department has many large file stores; one of the largest is in Sandyford Co. Dublin containing 1,800 cubic feet of records mainly relating to the departments operations between C1930 and the late 1990s. During 2003 Eneclann was contracted to carry out a major survey of these records.

Among the problems identified by Eneclann were:
· Large scale ‘dumping’ of records
· Indiscriminate transfer of series – no intellectual control or appraisal
· Poor records management – no file transfer lists or file surveys
· Inadequate or inappropriate storage space

The result was a no-mans-land of files requiring intervention in order to prevent the loss of important file series and to ensure that the department continues to meet its regulatory, legislative and administrative obligations.

Eneclann’s initial actions were to review departmental record policies and, with the input of the department, design a records management solution that dealt with the file store in Sandyford. Eneclann deployed a team of seven archivists who worked for over seven months to implement this plan and bring the extensive records store under control. The Eneclann team developed and implemented an agreed destruction schedule (with National Archives approval), listed and transferred files to the National Archives, and developed a retention schedule for future use. To date the team have listed over 50,000 files and scheduled over 100,000 files for destruction.

Eneclann has carried out a number of projects for government departments and state agencies, the experience of the Department of Agriculture in dealing with its large record stores is fairly typical. The successful outcome of the records management project in the Department of Agriculture highlights how much can be achieved when a decision is taken to deal with the issue.

Eneclann has carried out similar projects for many government departments, references and further information available upon request.

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Records management programme with regard to FOI compliance

Eneclann has completed extensive work on the FÁS Records Management programme. The context of this project was the requirement for compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. The project involved surveying and listing records of FÁS offices in 140 locations around the country. Eneclann produced a Master Classification Plan, Retention Schedule and Records Management recommendations, for implementation across the FÁS organisation as a whole.

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Records management with regard to FOI compliance

The IMMA as a relatively new body was concerned to ensure best practice when establishing internal policies and procedures for records management. In particular Eneclann was contracted to assist in implementing records management procedures for compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. Eneclann surveyed the records of IMMA, produced a retention schedule and made recommendations for best practice records management procedures within the organisation.

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