Thoughts on establishing the laws and standards of archives management service outsourcing

Service outsourcing refers to the behavior that an organization divests all or part of its non-core business and entrusts it to other organizations in order to reduce costs, improve efficiency, optimize industrial chain and enhance core competitiveness. The outsourcing of archives management service refers to the behavior that an institution entrusts other institutions to manage archives that are not within the scope of national laws and regulations through the market and contracts. China archival circles sometimes call it archival intermediary service. 1992 The establishment of jiande city Archives Bureau and Huzhou Archives Bureau in Zhejiang Province has opened the prelude to the construction of China's file management service outsourcing enterprises, which have developed for more than 20 years. However, on the whole, China's file management service outsourcing industry has a short development time, and its market popularity (especially the market popularity of file storage services) is far from that of developed countries in Europe and America. Except for the file management service outsourcing enterprises in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and other places, most of them are small in scale and their service level is not high. [1] One of the reasons is that China still lacks systematic and mature laws and standards to regulate and guide the outsourcing of archives management services, which leads to the long-term disorderly development of this industry. This paper sorts out and briefly analyzes the relevant laws, regulations and standards of archives management services at the national and local levels, in order to provide some reference for the construction of national laws, regulations and industry standards of archives management service outsourcing in the future.

1 Basic information on the construction of regulations and standards for archives management service outsourcing

1. 1 Construction of national laws and regulations

At present, China has not yet issued special laws and regulations on the outsourcing of archives management services. The Archives Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) and its implementation methods do not mention the outsourcing of archives management services. 20 1 1 The Twelfth Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Archives issued by the Central Archives of the National Archives Bureau has included the formulation of the Measures for the Administration of Archives Intermediaries in the main task of archives legal work, but it is understood that this work has not really started. Since 20 12, the National Archives Bureau has successively issued three normative documents directly related to the outsourcing of archives management services. Namely, the Notice of the National Archives Bureau on Strengthening the Digitization of Archives and the Outsourcing Management of Archives Information Services to Eliminate the Hidden Danger of Leak (File Letter [20 12] 103) and the Notice of the National Archives Bureau on Strengthening the Safety Management of Archives Preservation to Eliminate the Hidden Danger of Leak (File Letter [20 13]27 1)

1.2 Construction of local laws and regulations

The local archives laws and regulations issued in many places in China have made relevant provisions on the outsourcing of archives management services, especially the service outsourcing enterprises (also known as archives intermediary service institutions). Of the 45 archives laws and regulations (promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress at the corresponding level) promulgated by sub-provincial and above regions (excluding Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan Province and Tibet, which have not promulgated archives laws and regulations), 25 [2] stipulate archives intermediary agencies (in essence, archives management service outsourcers), accounting for about 53.3%. Among them, 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) and 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have made provisions on archives intermediary institutions, accounting for about 66.7%; Among the sub-provincial cities of 15, five cities have made provisions on archives intermediary institutions, accounting for about 33.3%. It should be noted that "Beijing Implementation Measures, Jilin Province Archives Regulations and Shanxi Province Archives Management Regulations stipulated the outsourcing of archives management services before the revision, but this provision was cancelled after the revision. Therefore, at present, Beijing, Hainan, Jilin, Shanxi, Chongqing, Guangxi, Qinghai, Jiangxi, Hunan, Jiangsu, etc. 1 1 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have no regulations on the outsourcing of archives management services, accounting for about 33.3%. Judging from the provisions, there are 12 local archives laws and regulations concerning the quality of personnel, and most of them require the personnel engaged in the outsourcing of archives management services to have corresponding professional knowledge and skills; There are 7 local archives laws and regulations related to the business scope, and most of them point out that the outsourcing of archives management services includes archives sorting, appraisal, evaluation, consultation and storage. There are 1 1 local archives laws and regulations related to registration and filing, and most of them require archives management service outsourcing enterprises to file with local archives administration departments; There are 9 local archives laws and regulations involving supervision and guidance, most of which require the archives management service outsourcing enterprises to accept the supervision and guidance of the archives administration department; There are 4 local archives laws and regulations involving legal responsibility, and those who engage in file service outsourcing activities in violation of regulations shall be investigated for legal responsibility; In addition, 1 local archives laws and regulations stipulate that other relevant departments should formulate measures for the management of archives service outsourcing. In addition, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hunan, Wenzhou, Hangzhou, Yichang and Foshan have issued special measures for the management of archives intermediary institutions. Most of the normative documents in these seven places contain the following contents:

(1) It is pointed out that archival intermediary organizations are engaged in paid service activities such as archival consultation, arrangement, protection, appraisal, evaluation, storage, digitization and business training.

(two) the provisions of the archives intermediary service activities shall abide by the provisions of laws, regulations and rules, abide by professional ethics, and follow the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness, honesty and credit.

(three) the archives intermediary institutions shall file with the local archives administration department, provide relevant information, and review it regularly. The archives administration department is responsible for the guidance, supervision and management of archives intermediaries and employees. The inspection contents generally include filing, employee training and professional level, office space, equipment and facilities, service quality and professional level, and other legal compliance. If an archival intermediary institution violates the provisions, it shall cancel its registration. In addition, the archives administration department shall timely publish the list of archives intermediary service institutions and employees on archives websites or other media.

(four) the provisions of the archives intermediary institutions must obtain a business license; Having a fixed place, facilities and equipment; Having the corresponding qualifications and abilities for file consultation, evaluation, identification, sorting, storage and digitization; Equipped with archival professionals; Meet other conditions stipulated by laws, regulations and rules.

(five) that the employees of archival intermediary services should receive professional training in archives and have the professional ability to engage in archives management independently; An archival intermediary institution shall have two or more archival professionals, at least one of whom has obtained the intermediate title of archival specialty; In addition, practitioners of archival intermediary services should practice in one archival intermediary service institution, and may not practice in more than two archival intermediary service institutions at the same time.

(6) Confidentiality clause, liability clause, signing clause and charging clause.

(7) penalties and legal liability clauses. In addition to the above provisions,

In some places, the Regulations on the Administration of Archival Intermediaries also make the following provisions according to the industry characteristics of archival intermediaries:

(1) Hunan Province has stipulated the scope that cannot be outsourced, including the identification and destruction of state-owned archives; Classified and digitized classified documents; Other archival work prohibited by laws and regulations by entrusting intermediary agencies. It is stipulated in Foshan City that the staff of archives agencies are not allowed to contact and handle confidential documents and files, internal (work secrets) or documents and files containing sensitive information.

(2) Hunan Province and Foshan City have put forward requirements for archives storage, pointing out that the storage should meet the requirements of archives protection stipulated in Archives Construction Standard (JB 103-2008) and Archives Building Design Code (JGJ25-20 10).

(3) Hangzhou pointed out that to strengthen the credit management of intermediary institutions, the Municipal Archives Bureau regularly updates and publishes the practice information of archival intermediary service institutions.

(4) The Regulations on the Administration of Archives Institutions in Wenzhou and Hangzhou pointed out that archives industry associations should formulate industry norms, service standards and practitioners' codes, strengthen industry guidance and self-discipline, standardize industry service behaviors, and promote the healthy development of the industry. The archival intermediary service institution shall join the archival industry association and accept the self-discipline supervision of the archival industry association.

(5) Foshan City specifically pointed out that it should comply with confidentiality laws and regulations. Non-confidential archives intermediary institutions shall clarify the confidentiality responsibility in their archives services, set up a leading group for confidentiality work, establish a confidentiality management system and a confidentiality emergency mechanism, and clarify the confidentiality responsibility of the legal representative, the person in charge of confidentiality work, the person in charge of important departments or projects. Shall not violate the confidentiality provisions, and shall not handle documents involving state secrets or documents that should not be handled according to the provisions of the relevant competent departments; The workplace, archivist management, archives information system and archives information equipment of non-confidential archives intermediary institutions shall meet the relevant confidentiality management requirements.

1.3 Construction of national and industrial standards

At present, China has not yet issued a special national standard or industry standard for archives management service outsourcing. However, some national standards and industry standards stipulate the software and hardware conditions and business operation requirements of file management, which should be observed by file management service outsourcing suppliers in the service process. For example, the standards for the construction of archives and the specifications for the design of archives buildings are of great reference significance for the archives storage service enterprises to build archives warehouses. Archives digitization service enterprises should follow DA/T3 1-2005 "Technical Specification for Digitalization of Paper Archives" when carrying out digital scanning of paper archives. The filing quality of filing service enterprises shall conform to GB/T 1 1822-2008 General Requirements for the Composition of Scientific and Technical Archives, DA/T22-2000 Rules for Filing Documents and DA/T 13- 1994 File Number. It is worth noting that China is formulating information technology service outsourcing standards, and some places have also issued local standards on information technology service outsourcing, for example, Shandong local standard DB3 1/T430-2009, Shenzhen local standard SZDB/78-20 13, Quality Management Standard for Information Technology Service Outsourcing of Financial Institutions. These standards have important reference significance for our country to formulate the outsourcing standards of archives management services.

2. The legal and standard issues of outsourcing archives management services

2. 1 The construction of laws and standards generally lags behind the needs of practice.

Since 1992, China's file management service outsourcing industry has developed rapidly and its scale has become larger and larger. According to the incomplete statistics of Huang Xiaoyu, by the end of 20 12, there were 376 archival institutions in China. [3] In recent years, China has successively issued a series of policy documents to support the development of service outsourcing industry, such as Guiding Opinions on Encouraging Governments and Enterprises to Sign Contracts to Promote the Development of Service Outsourcing Industry in China (Caiqi [2009] No.200) and Opinions of the State Council on Accelerating the Development of Service Outsourcing Industry (Guo Fa [2014] No.67). In 20 12, the national meeting of directors of archives put forward the working goal of quadrupling the number of digital paper files in comprehensive archives at all levels in China by 2020 compared with 20 10. [4] In 2065438+03, Yang Dongquan further put forward the requirement of "digitalization of stock" at the national digital archives (rooms) construction promotion meeting. [5] This has further promoted the rapid development of archival digital service outsourcing. However, while the file management service outsourcing industry is accelerating, the laws and standards of file management service outsourcing in China are relatively backward. At the national level, there are no special laws, regulations and standards for archives management service outsourcing, only a few normative documents and some indirectly related standards. At the local level, although there are many relevant laws, regulations and normative documents, most of them stay at the macro level, and the micro level is rarely involved, so the operability is not strong. In terms of practice standards, rules and technical means, it is in an imperfect or even blank state. [6] Due to the lack of special standards, the employer cannot correctly evaluate the contractor's service ability, scientifically screen qualified contractors, and effectively supervise the contractor's business behavior; Contractors don't know how to establish their own business operation processes and how to improve their service capabilities. This leads to many legal dilemmas and security loopholes in the development of archives management service outsourcing industry.

2.2 The legal liability provisions for the outsourcing of archives management services are not clear.

Among the above-mentioned 25 local archives laws and regulations at or above the sub-provincial level, only 4 mentioned the legal liability or compensation liability that archives intermediary agencies should bear, and none mentioned it. Once the files are lost, damaged or leaked in the process of outsourcing, most contracting parties can only bear the consequences passively, and it is difficult to protect their rights and interests by law. For example, in the investigation, the author learned that a comprehensive archives had a commercial dispute with the contractor during the implementation of the archives digitization project, and the contractor threatened to take away the hard disk containing the archives.

2.3 The quality requirements for the outsourcing personnel of archives management services are not clear.

At present, the overall quality of the file management service outsourcing team is low and the turnover rate is high. Most of the front-line employees employed by many contractors have only high school education, and a considerable number of them are interns or temporary workers. Even the business backbone or project manager of the contractor, there are few people with bachelor degree or above. There are very few employees with archival education background in the whole industry. In addition, most contractors lack necessary business training for their employees. This makes it difficult to guarantee the quality and safety of archives management service outsourcing. Most of the existing local archives laws and regulations stipulate that the staff of archival intermediary service institutions should have professional knowledge and skills related to archival science; However, there are no clear regulations on whether employees should have the professional education background and relevant work experience of archival science, whether they need to receive corresponding business training, training institutions and training contents.

2.4 The basic requirements for outsourcing archives management services are not strict.

Most private file storage service providers don't have professional file warehouses. Most of their warehouses are transformed from abandoned factory warehouses, and many warehouses can't even do the most basic "eight precautions". [6] Not to mention meeting the requirements of archives construction standards and archives architectural design specifications. However, the existing local archives laws and regulations are mostly vague and not operable. For example, the Measures for the Administration of Archival Intermediary Services in Zhejiang Province only stipulates that "places engaged in archival intermediary services must be equipped with necessary safety protection facilities to meet the professional requirements of archival management", but it does not specify what is "necessary" and what the requirements and standards for providing safety measures specifically mean. [7]

2.5 Lack of business operation guidelines and service price guidance

The existing laws and standards lack specific requirements for the operation of file management outsourcing business, especially for the file handover between the employer and the contractor and the quality control of the contractor, which is easy to cause security loopholes and quality defects. For example, in the digital scanning of archives, some service providers blindly seek to improve the speed and reduce the cost, resulting in the destruction of some files with fragile materials that are not suitable for high-speed scanners. Some file storage service organizations use the traditional open-shelf storage method to store files in boxes, and the staff can see the sensitive information on the boxes. Moreover, the contractor's business operation mainly depends on his own experience, which is relatively random, and the business standards between contractors are not uniform, so it is difficult to integrate the file resources between contractors in the future. For the outsourcing project of archives management services, the quotations of different contractors vary greatly. Take digital scanning as an example, ranging from 0. 1 yuan page to 2 yuan page. There are no charging guides and charging standards in all regions. Some small enterprises win the bid at a low price first, and then try their best to increase the price during the project.

2.6 Laws, regulations and standards are poorly implemented.

Practical investigation shows that although some places have issued laws and regulations on archival intermediary services, they have not been strictly enforced. For example, in 2008, Guangdong Province promulgated the Administrative Measures for Filing and Registration of Archives Intermediaries in Guangdong Province, but in fact, as of the end of 2065,438+04, only 65,438+02 enterprises had filed and registered. In recent years, in the process of outsourcing archives management services, there have been some violations of relevant archives or confidentiality laws and regulations, but archives administration departments rarely punish them according to law. At present, the supervision objects of archives administration departments are mostly confined to party and government organs and state-owned enterprises and institutions, and the archives management service contractors are basically in the middle zone, and the management of archives management service contractors is relatively small or even neglected.

3 Countermeasures and suggestions

3. 1 Accelerating legislation at the national level

It is suggested that on the basis of existing local laws and regulations, we should actively explore and formulate national administrative laws and regulations on file management outsourcing services. Such laws and regulations may include guiding ideology and basic principles, rights and obligations, management system, establishment conditions, business scope, personnel quality, storage environment, service charges, contract signing, operation requirements, security, legal responsibilities, supervision mechanism, etc. [9] Through national legislation, create a good legal environment for the archives management service outsourcing industry, thus promoting the rapid and healthy development of archives management service outsourcing on the legal track.

3.2 Improve the existing local laws and regulations

It is suggested that all localities should supplement, refine and improve the existing laws and regulations concerning the outsourcing of archives management services, especially adding the following contents:

(1) Requirements for the political quality and professional quality of the employees of archives management service outsourcing;

(2) Requirements for employees of archives management service outsourcing to participate in pre-job training and on-the-job training;

(3) Requirements for the archives warehouse, instruments and equipment and archives accessories of the archives management service contractor;

(four) the business operation process and service quality standards of the archives management service contractor;

(5) Document handover requirements between the Employer and the Contractor.

3.3 Introduction of relevant standards and guidelines

For many fields that are not suitable for the mandatory requirements of laws and regulations for the time being, recommended national standards and archival industry standards can be formulated. We can consider issuing standards or guidelines such as Archives Management Service Outsourcing Work Specification: General Principles, Archives Management Service Outsourcing Work Specification: Archives Digitization Service, Archives Management Service Outsourcing Work Specification: Archives Custody Service (these three national archives bureaus are developing), Archives Management Service Outsourcing Practitioners' Professional Ethics Code, and Archives Management Service Outsourcing Price Reference Catalogue.

3.4 Learn from foreign beneficial experience

Foreign commercial document centers have a long history and relatively high industry maturity, and established trade associations with complete structure and wide membership, such as the International Association for Document and Information Management Services. PRISM has formulated a series of industry standards, guidelines and ethical standards for business document centers, including operating standards, building standards, disaster recovery standards, insurance and risk transfer standards, carrier facilities standards and so on. [10] These standard guides are closely related to business activities and have strong operability, which basically cover the main operation processes and business links of commercial document centers, and have important reference significance for China to formulate outsourcing standards for document storage services.

3.5 Strengthen archives administrative law enforcement and third-party evaluation.

The archives administration departments at all levels shall strengthen the supervision of the archives service contractors within their respective jurisdictions according to law, regularly release the practice information of the archives management service outsourcing contractors within their respective jurisdictions to the public, establish the contractor's integrity files, and regularly supervise, inspect and guide the party and government organs, institutions and state-owned enterprises to contract scientifically. China Archives Society and other relevant industry associations can carry out the self-discipline of archives management service outsourcing industry, and serve as a third party to evaluate and certify the service capabilities of contractors.