Team Europe Research Project 03 (2013-14): UCL

The Role of the Records Manager in an Open Government Environment in the UK

Think of the potential social justices, innovations and developments in a world where there is greater government transparency, participation, accessibility and accountability. In April 2014 I was given the outstanding opportunity to contribute to research, which will help to lead to such developments. I am an InterPARES Trust researcher at the Department of Information Studies, UCL currently conducting a project, which is part of fundamental ongoing research into Open Data, Open Government and access to information. The central aim of the project is to consider the role of recordkeepers in the context of new obligations on UK government bodies towards open government, open data and enabling greater information access to citizens. We are particularly interested the proactive release of data and information by public sector organizations under the provisions of open government initiatives.The Open Government Data and access to public sector information environment in the UK and Europe in particular, is being transformed and therefore throws up questions about the roles and responsibilities of the professionals who are engaged in delivering services to citizens. Recordkeeping policy on access and the legislative and regulatory frameworks need to be clarified and the role of the recordkeeper within this framework needs to be examined.

The lead researchers for the project are Doctor Andrew Flinn and Professor Elizabeth Shepherd, who can be contacted with any further questions about the research project on the following email addresses: a.flinn@ucl.ac.uk, e.shepherd@ucl.ac.uk

For the complete version of this blog post, please refer to the following link: http://www.irms.org.uk/irms-blog/entry/open-government-data-research