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
computerisation. 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 centralised 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 computerised, 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
