Most educators are accustomed to keeping student records. They may also maintain lesson plans and learner portfolios, sets of materials and, more occasionally, staff assessment profiles. The records required for voter and civic education programmes must enable planners to save time and effort when they have to set up a new programme, as well as help planners understand the context within which the previous programme operated. This will facilitate making any adjustments or adaptations.
Responsible Personnel or Organisation
Where an election authority is in place or a state institution is responsible for voter or civic education and keeping records, it may be obvious who is the responsible person, or people. But in many cases this will not be so obvious. Many of these programmes involve a range of international and domestic organisations, each of which may insist upon maintaining their own records. They may not have a protocol whereby they can be shared. Any records that consist of shared resources often fall between the cracks. Where a universal record has been maintained, this might, by virtue of its having been maintained by the organisation established for a particular task (e.g. project implementer or evaluator), either vanish into an unknown cupboard or into an organisation that is not aware of its existence or importance.
Methods of Storing Information
Whichever method is chosen, the main purpose of storing information is so that it can be retrieved again. Different types of information may be stored best in different ways, but, prior to setting up the system, the needs of future users should be considered.
- Index Cards. Index cards, filed alphabetically in a set of drawers or (if small enough) on a frame such as a Rolodex, are particularly good for storing personal details. They are used by many professionals to keep information about their clients, since they are easy to fill in, don't take up too much space, and can be taken out and revised with ease. On the other hand, they cannot hold much information and are not suitable for holding documents. Often they are used in conjunction with other larger bookshelf or filing systems as a way of maintaining an index or summary record for the larger system.
- Filing Systems. A simple and easily accessible system has to be developed for filing documents. The developer of the system should understand that the primary purpose is retrieval of documents. Such an understanding, hopefully, will lead to the creation of a system that enables storage in layers of importance and depth. There will always have to be a trade off between storage of all documents and the amount of space available. Some cleaning out and discarding of material will be necessary, and protocols to manage that should be created. Filing systems can vary from a set of boxes to filing cabinets, microfiche and, of course, full computerization. Care should be taken that the system chosen does not degrade the materials over time, and that there are ways of backing up information so that nothing that is needed gets lost.
- Contact/Address Books. Documentation and resources may be dispersed after a programme. The standard secretary's tool of a small alphabetised book containing listings of where to find things may be useful. Such a book will list, for example, hotels under "Accommodation", telephone suppliers, telephone bureaus and so on under "Communications." The purpose is to keep in one place all the information that will enable a programme to call in the suppliers, resources, service providers, consultants, volunteers who were used previously and have requisite election experience.
- Archives and Bookshelves. Some information will have to be kept in library environments. Where a centralized library location is available, it should be used. Whether there is a central library or whether resources are dispersed, a common index and cataloguing system will enable retrieval. Bookshelf systems are particularly useful for keeping reports and publications. They can be extremely versatile. The F. Clifton White Election Resource Center at the International Foundation for Election Systems, for example, is able to preserve and make available audio and video material, election paraphernalia, case studies, and sample materials in a variety of cabinets and storage facilities.
- Computerisation. Before any system can be computerized, there has to be a strategy that enables storage, indexing and retrieval. At its most basic, a computer-based system may replace an index card system. If materials are scanned, however, these computer-based records can store pictures, sound clips, and even film or video. A personal contact, for example, can be linked to a photograph, a speech given and recorded, and a resume or curriculum vitae. Like all systems, however, computers are only as good as the information they store.
All systems need to have clear guidelines:
- who is responsible for recording or collating materials
- what format is used to keep records
- what will be kept
- where the records will be housed
- who will have access to them
- who will maintain the records
