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practices are used, and which one depends on the resource HOW ADEQUATE IS STORAGE
and probably on which division or work unit "owns" it. Also, INFRASTRUCTURE?
the comments revealed that state law influences or deter-
Question 27 probed the adequacy of the storage infrastructure.
mines storage practices for some resource types. These prac-
Figure 12 gives the results for the 19 STAs that responded
tices fall under the records management process rather than
to the question. Here, as expected, the long-established
overall KM strategy.
records management practices in most STAs are obvious,
as is IT implementation of standard procedures for backup
HOW ARE RESOURCES PRESERVED OVER and digital storage. Adequacy of digital storage was not
TIME FOR DIFFERING RESOURCE TYPES reported as a problem, probably owing to decreasing digi-
AND FORMATS?
tal storage costs.
Question 26 sought to determine what processes are used for
preserving for future use knowledge that has been made HOW DO EMPLOYEES IDENTIFY AND FIND
explicit in different media types and format. It asked how KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES?
resources are preserved over time for differing resource
types and formats. This question attempted to discover how As modern KM practices centering on a people-to-people
essentially the same resource type, in terms of content, is approach grow in importance and effectiveness, there is a
handled in electronic versus physical formats. For example, cyclical process by which knowledge in people's heads
is a project plan that is stored in a digital repository pre- (tacit) is embedded into explicit resources--in documents,
served similarly to one archived in hardcopy, such as in a operations manuals, training manuals, videos, databases,
typical records management facility? Table G9 in Appendix storyboards, wall charts, web-based team repositories, HR
G shows specific results for each STA. orientation packages, e-learning resources, etc. For KM to
be effective these explicit resources must be made available
Figure 11 summarized the results given by the 19 DOTs to employees for reuse and for application to new work; the
that responded to this question. The chart shows that resources cycle never ends.
seem highly likely to be handled based on format rather than
resource or document type or the nature of content. Question 28 probes how STAs go about making explicit
resources "findable." It has been seen in the previous questions
Also in response to Question 26, the Iowa DOT com- how explicit resources are captured, stored, and preserved over
mented that it is difficult to track documents or records that time. Question 28 attempted to discover the irretrievability of
are outside of the Records Management program. The Mon- these resources.
tana DOT commented that their retention schedule defines
the retention process for all agency records (hardcopy and Table G11 in Appendix G gives results by individual STA.
electronic). Table 4 summarizes the results, sorted by frequency of selec-
18
16
14
No. of STAs Selecting
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Have defined retention periods Have a mix of practices Physical resources are
for most resource types. depending on whether retained based on
Work with stakeholders, electronic or physical document type or content.
including professionals, format. Same practices Electronic resources are
managers, historians, legal don't apply across differing retained based on other
counsel; use best practices format types criteria
FIGURE 11 How are explicit resources stored over time?
