The UIC Documentation Group, composed of representatives from railway information and documentation centres, libraries and archive centres, met in Oslo on 15 – 16 June 2011. 20 participants from nine member companies attended the meeting.
This year the aim of the meeting was to provide an overview of current practices employed by railway companies in Records Management.
The aim of Records Management is to effectively and systematically organise all the documents and data a company may need to keep a record of its business, regardless of their format (paper or electronic). Over the last few years, and due to tighter regulations, the advantages of Records Management for companies have grown.
To help provide more food for thought, the session was opened with two presentations by Peter Lorentz Nitter and Anna Christina Eide from Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil, who shared with members of the group their company’s experience in managing technical documentation within the company’s projects. The oil sector is subject to tight regulatory constraints which prompted companies such as Statoil to implement strict Records Management procedures early on.
Furthermore, this meeting was an opportunity to learn about Jernbaneverket’s projects in the area of information management, both in terms of Records Management and projects concerning their company library and the Norwegian railway museum’s library.
The proceedings of this two-day meeting will be published during the fourth quarter of 2011.
Finally, as part of its ongoing work, the Documentation Group has recently published a new common bibliography on the development of high speed rail lines around the world. This bibliography covers over 30 countries. It is available on the UIC corporate website at the following address: http://www.uic.org/documentation/biblio/high_speed_evolution_2011.pdf or by simply contacting the Documentation Centre.
The UIC Documentation Group is the main body responsible for monitoring documentary matters at international level, coordinating cooperation in the field of documentation and for organising the means of pooling the documentary resources of UIC member companies.
Actions are focused on three main areas of cooperation:
- Organisation of meetings and exchange of experience
- Enlargement of Documentation Group membership
- Product development, sharing and exchange of information
Further information on the Documentation Group Activities is available at the following address: http://www.uic.org/spip.php?article1597
