Managing Electronic Records in E-Government: Current Trends and Future Directions Internationally

Abstract

More and more literature has been written on electronic records management (ERM) in e-government in recent three years, however, much is limited to experiences of one country with more focus on electronic records management systems (ERMS). This paper aims to investigate current trends and future directions of ERM including ERMS in e-government with more focus on comprehensive approaches internationally. Representative English literature on 'electronic records' and 'e-government' shows current ERMS have limitations either from IT perspectives or records and archives management perspectives managing records as data. Future research is called for more concerns of e-government and more involvement in efficient civil service. Case studies of representative policies, regulations, best practices guidelines from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and U.S show challenges of ERM in e-government are getting more and more recognized in information risk, data governance and efficient civil service. Current trends of ERM in e-government are toward multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches to ERM managing records as information resources and business asset. Findings indicate that future directions of ERM in e-government would be toward meta-synthesis management at both organizational and national level, with integration concerns of collaboration, optimization and innovation of both ERM and e-government for civil service. The findings may have implications to be of use to both ERM and e-government professions internationally.