May-June 2007, Vol. 73, No. 3
In this issue:
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Tech Bytes |
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Virtual Visit |
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All in the Family |
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VDOTer in Profile
Tech Bytes
Gotta’ Have a Record? ASD Database Finds Them
A new records database, developed in-house, helps VDOT employees quickly retrieve urgenly needed records from the agency's vast holdings
When a court case gets hot or when someone protests not winning a bid, everything depends on getting the pertinent VDOT records—quickly. In the past, that’s often been easier for employees to say than to do.
If a file number was forgotten, or only a fragment of information about the document was recalled, employees became involved in a mad search through hundreds, even thousands, of files in the Central File in Central Office. In some cases, files were not where they were expected to be. In others, they were checked out or not returned on time. The search could be frantic and frustrating.
LaShell Ward (left), administrative office specialist II,
uses the new database to quickly locate folders in the
Central Office File Room. Anne Snyder, who inspired
development of the database, helps pull some folders.
That’s changing, however, because of a determined effort by VDOT employees. A team from the Administrative Services and Information Technology Applications divisions has developed a database that not only locates files but also tracks their use. It’s called the VDOT Records Inventory Storage Database (RISD).
With RISD, the search for procurement records, contracts, construction project files, capital outlay documents—and much more—will be simplified. Here are two scenarios:
First scenario: Perhaps you know only a key word or a code that pertains to the document you need: An Administrative Services Division (ASD) staff member enters what you can provide into RISD, and it searches the database and presents on the screen all records containing the clue you have given. You narrow the search down to the most likely files and ASD gets them for you.
An even better scenario: An ASD staffer scans or types in a bar code for the particular file you want, and RISD pulls up a set of data about the file you’re looking for—who originated the file, which division or district owns it, recent comments about it, who checked it out last and the last date it was edited (which provides a legal audit trail in the event of a court case).
Quick retrieval from VDOT or state holdings
Retrieving the file is easier also. RISD will tell you which shelf the file sits on, if it is housed in the Central File. If it is housed by the Library of Virginia in the State Records Center in Henrico County, the bar code will tell a searcher in which of 8,000 or more VDOT boxes at the center the file is located. It is retrieved and delivered by courier to the Central Office.
Before RISD, bar codes were used on boxes, but there was no integrated database for referencing the bar codes. They were noted on spread sheets or on forms, or elsewhere. There was no uniformity across the department about how they were kept, nor was there any additional information about the file. The new database keeps code and information together. The RISD also time-dates files so that owners are notified when the time arrives at which the Code of Virginia says they should be destroyed. If there is an extenuating reason why they should not be destroyed, the reason and signature of the person requesting a “hold” on the file is kept by the database.
Also worthy of note is the help RISD will provide VDOT in complying with the state Freedom of Information Act, which guarantees Virginia citizens and representatives of the news media access to public records held by public agencies.
The RISD was developed in-house with existing hardware and software by staff working simultaneously on other projects.
“We’re going toward an electronic world, but paper is still going to be with us for a long time,” comments John Breeden, ASD records manager. “This new RISD system is a marvelous way to track paper. Any of the Central Office divisions can use it to do that, and it can be adapted to any location in the department.”
Anne Synder, ASD senior records analyst, initiated the concept for RISD and started work on a prototype. Jess Maricle, information technology development director, and Naveen Abrahim, IT system analyst, pushed development of the database forward with Snyder’s prototype.
The system not only keeps up with the management and legal disposition of records, it also ensures efficiencies in agency operations and protects against losses through litigation when records are not readily available. Regarding the system’s development, Snyder adds, “We understood VDOT needs, and we knew the process of documents here. We developed what was right for VDOT—no fat, no extras.”
