RECORDS MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00450R000100240031-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 7, 2001
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: November 1, 1968
• Content Type: MF

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1 November 1968
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Support Services Staff
STTBJECT Records Management Conference
With considerable pleasure, once again I submit the report on an
extremely successful Records Management Officers Conference held 22-23
October 1968 at the
~i~'~t~
~ ~ total of eighty-two Records Management Officers `,(10 more than
our Conference last year) and Officers directly concerned with the
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Agency's Records Program it~~. A list of the participants including ,, r
their components is attached as appendix I. `-~'he/..~LL speakers on .`~'?'7t
NL~~~'r~-1 TtiLtl~A~.a.t.~e h, t~ k.~~r"~...~Q,yy,,..,c.!"
the program, one from ~t~ie: A~.ency, Mr . Artel
Ricks, our keynote speaker. The Conference got underway at
'~- w~~~ ,~?~ ~,~,~
10:00 A.M~~after~the registration procedure and opening administration,
i 7. / w
Mr. Artel Ricks, Director, Paperwork Standards and Automation
Division, NABS, ~.~~.:~~"
gave a stimulating talk on
Information Storage and Retrieval. A recording was made of his talk
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u ?~l ~'~~
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which we plan to have transcribed by the clerical pool on a time avail-
- -cA.P Ag41 ~va..~.x-~..:,
able basis. Mr. Ricks complemented .car program ~-~he e~,~s~ stating
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,- we had pioneered intelofax in the aperture card system, which since
has gone into the computer. In this regard, he said he felt ~"
..Lim "hauling coals to Newcastle".
-~~~..,
Mr. Ricks emphasized that c~*-~==-;,r purpose filing documents is
~~~
to retrieve the ~not~to store. This may seem an over simplification
but it i should be the basis for selecting file storage equipment
~.oes the equipment help .get the information we want) when we want
A
it more efficiently ~ Shakespeare once said "I can call spirits from
the vasty beach." Hotspur retored, "so can I and so can any man, but
will they come?" Mr. Ricks used this quotation to point out the pro-
blem that we all encounter in trying to retrieve information.
"Our occupation, our profession" Mr. Ricks said, is hard to
identify-sometimes." He cited a conversation that he had with his 7
-year old son. His son had brought home an especially good report card
~-
so -~~ as a1~1 fathers would want to,~praised his son for the
good report. He thought he would take this opportunity to ask his son
what he wanted to be when he-grew up? Perhaps a lawyer, doctor, fireman,
,. ~yy-
a farmer - no,-the,~sad, he wanted to be just like his dad. Well of
course, this would cause most fathers to be very proud,as= 3~ ~~~'~.
Not realizing he would have been better off to leav,.e it at that, Mr.
Ricks' asked his son once again, "just what is it you want to be?" His
,F-son replied, "I want to be---I want to be a nothing just like you dad:"
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Mr. Ricks discussed the use of kcomputer~ as a means of retrieving
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information but hasten to say it was not necessarily the most economical.
He mentioned some of the non-conventional filing equipment; visual;files,
rotary files and the various mechanized filing equipment. Good manual
filing systems are, in Mr. Ricks words, still the best answer in most
offices. He acknowledges that conventional filing systems do have
limitations; a) they require in advance, just how material going to be
requested, b) give you the records in total, i.e~ a series rather than
specific data needed and c) too shallow an indexing capability.
Mr. Ricks touched on the Video tape system as a possible solution
for the storage retrieval problem but did not consider it to be the
answer today. It is ~ considered to be extremely expensive,
difficult to erase and update and is not used in computer-type searches.
Why consider the computer? It is the most versatile searching device
we have except for the human brain, but is not necessarily the fastest
nor the most instantaneous.
In the field of Records Management, as in other areas, we consider
ourselves professionals and hopefully, experts. We might want to re-
think our claim to being experts as an expert is said to be a person
that knows no more than we do but is a little better organized in pre-
senting his subject and, uses slides.
Photographs were taken of the conferees, one of the DCI & DDS, one
of the DDP and the third one of the DDI & DDS&T. An air of amiability
and informality prevailed, thus affording the participants the opportunity
to meet and get to know each other. They shared their experiences and
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techniques as well possibly openin u .~-~~? ' ~~"?
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The remainder of the first day q~~
enlightening talks
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systems discussed by Mr. Ricks.
covering "Introduction to Automatiori~Mr,
covered "Magnetic Tape to Microfilm Recording" and
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`~ ~''t
presentation+"Microforms, Video Tape Files, and Laser Beam
Systems " ,
to th~ theme
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_ "_" ? ?`..~ N e . `Vpertinent `
of our Conference It`was si nificant
~; g that we were
three speaker representing three different Directorates,
No less important of course, was the fact that
Senior Records 25X1A9a
Officer for the DCI, helped to balance out the over-all Agency represen-
tation,
The social activity achieved the informality that we had hoped for
and did s~~,.3,:n ~e~'-ou.~~officers ~e~et~ that had not met personally
before, The movie, held in the gymnasium, attracted a goodly number who
seemed to enjoy the light comedy film.
The several exhibits, sam-o1es, literatureland demonstrations of
microfi ~-~'eld n the ar-F v.(,r,>~ ~..,,,,,.. __-' ~ _ _ _._
l~; minutes duration were run ~in support of talks on motorized equipment,
automation' and videotape files, The evening also provided for a tour of
the Records Center for those personnel who had not seen the Center activity.
Z..~twt-s ,.,~ -~G y.. ~y,,~,t
ter,,.
_
Records Management with Microfilm and ADP Systems", I attempted.:.
--~....to bring these technologies into focus with Records Management, and
specifically with office procedures and filing systems, This talk
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~,_....
Wednesday morning de^rw~y with ~ tally` "Total
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somewhat set the stage for'
Get c C3//~~S,r 7"
presentatio:~n "New Technology" . 25X1 Aga
~iad some excellent slides to help elucidate his topic which
while quite technical for the audience, seemed to completely hold their
The highlight of the two days was the forum sessions. The success
of these groups last year dictated that we c~AOnduct the same type of
program at this Conference. The forum groups of~~~*there were six ~'~~
met in individual rooms in the gymnasium building. The groups were led
by a forum chairman, and a secretary, and were given the problem to con-
...: eE:..,,~.
Sider (a~~:-) "creating the concept of a new records system for
your components". The groups met for about ~+5 minutes and then reconvened
.#~ez`/Directorate fix' Records Officers, heard the ~rr:l spokesman ~,-~-~t/~.
for another hour after lunch to consider~e-~e~os~d.= conce~~~~ pre
sent~l,to the Conference assembly.. A central panel group, consisting of
and discussed ~~-proposals ~r~: A written record of e-
~ ~~~
the forum groups ~ ~~r~~co~ncepts were collected and are to be re-
viewed further by the central panel. The forum sessions were considered
to be fruitful and met the designed objective in every respect. Feed-
back and comments received at the conclusion of the Conference, sub-
stantiate these views.
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