Meeting of the Board of Regents | June 2007

SUMMARY

Issue for Discussion

              The Archives has completed a planning effort to identify strategic priorities that will be the focus of the entire State Archives organization for the next five years.   The four priorities will be shared with the Committee for discussion and advice. 

Reason(s) for Consideration

              Review of Policy

Proposed Handling

              The Regents will review the five year strategic priorities and will discuss the opportunities and challenges these embody for the Archives service and stewardship functions.  This issue will come before the Cultural Education Committee at its June meeting.

Background
Information

              The State Archives is an energetic organization focused on positive and steady progress in all areas of its work.   It is necessary, however, to reassess and refine our focus in order to keep pace with professional, governmental, technological, and societal change, to take advantage of opportunities presented by the Regents’ P-16 initiative, and to promote greater efficiency and accountability in state and local government through the services that we provide.  The Archives has used its strategic planning effort to identify four key areas for attention.  While there are a number of areas in which enhanced capacities are desirable, realistically the Archives cannot address all of these within the parameters of its budget and staffing resources.  By assessing program needs, resources and the political and professional climate, the Archives has identified those areas where it has the best opportunity to make a significant impact in programming and services over the next five years.

              The four strategic priorities are:

• Develop and implement a program to manage effectively all records of New York State government including executive agencies, the governor and the legislature.

• Establish a fully-functioning program that addresses the challenges of managing the electronic records of government.

• Build capacity in government and private records repositories statewide to protect their collections and facilities from natural and manmade disasters.

• Become the hub for information about using historical records for educational purposes.

Recommendation

              Staff recommend that the Regents endorse these priorities as an essential component of SED’s stewardship of the State’s information resources.   Key components for the success of these priorities will be ensuring necessary technology infrastructure, partnerships, and fiscal/staff resources to accomplish these goals. 

Timetable for Implementation

              Implementation of this plan will begin in September 2007 and continue with yearly review and adjustment through March 2011.