Managing Business Records and Archives at the Getty Center

Information Management Journal, Mar/Apr 2005 by Farneth, David, Nye, Barbara E

How four separate program areas worked together to develop an integrated records management and archives program

Founded in 1981, the J. Paul Getty Trust is composed of four distinct program areas that came together at one location for the first time in 1997 when the Getty Center (the "Getty") opened in Los Angeles on a dramatic hilltop site. With its stunning views of the city, public gardens, and free admission, the Getty has become one of the area's premiere tourist attractions while maintaining its international reputation for fostering conservation and research in the visual arts.

The four program areas are:

1. The J. Paul Getty Museum, which offers a full program of permanent and changing exhibitions, conservation services, educational programs, and publications;

2. The Getty Research Institute, which offers public programs, a residential program for international scholars, and a research library that includes extensive archives and manuscript collections. It also creates a range of online research tools such as the Art and Architecture Thesaurus and the Bibliography of the History of Art;

3. The Getty Conservation Institute, which works internationally to advance conservation in the visual arts through scientific research, education, training, field projects, and the dissemination of information; and

4. The Getty Grant Program, which provides financial support for history of visual arts and cultural heritage projects, and oversees professional development opportunities to museums and individuals through the Getty Leadership Institute.

The management of the Getty Trust was concerned with preserving its institutional memory and managing its records more efficiently when it decided in 2001 to establish an integrated archives and records management program managed by a new department located administratively in the research library. The department has a dual reporting structure to the chief librarian for archival functions and to the executive vice president/general counsel for records management functions.

Organizational Analysis

The project began with an analysis of the Getty s nature and mission, potential clients of the program, regulatory environment, and risk management factors. Various discussions and analyses of mission statements and strategic plans determined that the organization's values included education, service to the profession, excellence, efficiency, change, and collaboration. Staff members recognized the value of standards and best practices, and many of them actively managed information on a daily basis. The overall educational, scholarly, and research mission of the organization fit naturally with archival goals.

Taking all this information into consideration, management made three key strategic decisions: (1) give priority to developing the records management program to ensure proper retention and transfer of records to the archives; (2) use a project team of staff and consultants to ensure quick start-up; and (3) recruit professional staff members knowledgeable in new standards and sympathetic to an integrated approach.

With clearly articulated goals and a better understanding of the organizational environment, management and a newly appointed institutional archivist were ready to take the next steps required to launch the program. They established a Records and Archives Advisory Committee, hired records management consultants, and began education sessions for managers across the institution.

Initial Planning and Analysis

The first meetings between staff and consultants focused on planning the records management program development. They agreed to develop one functionally based retention schedule and to introduce the records management program gradually to increase the likelihood of success. Initially, the proposed project phases called for the project team to:

* conduct sample interviews and survey several departments

* undertake a complete and detailed physical records inventory

* develop a retention schedule based on the inventory data

* review and obtain approval of the retention schedule

* implement the retention schedule

Five departments, representing the largest Getty divisions and a cross-section of the Getty Trust activities, were selected to test the proposed methodology: (1) Research Library: Collection Development; (2) Conservation Institute: Field Projects; (3) Museum: Manuscripts; (4) Operations; and (5) Security.

Based on the analysis of the information received from the five-department survey, the team decided to rethink its strategy and rely upon a high-level records survey rather than a detailed physical inventory. Because so many Getty staff managed information as an inherent part of their work, they would be able to conduct surveys themselves, with minimal training and in a relatively short period of time. The strategy was therefore revised to recruit, train, and rely on a team of departmental records coordinators to do most of the survey work.

Each departmental records coordinator completed a department profile rather than participate in the more standard interview process. The project team trained the coordinators, assisted in completing the surveys where necessary, coordinated the survey, analyzed the data, prepared the initial draft of the retention schedule, and began to develop the Records and Archives Department staff by recruiting an assistant archivist and a records analyst. A records manager and processing archivist were added further along in the process.