On Friday, March 9, 2012, as part of the Obama Administration’s ongoing Open Government activities and their support of Sunshine Week (March 11th through 17th), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released the Final Position Classification Flysheet for a new job series called the Government Information Series, 0306. This job series covers work involved in establishing, disseminating, or managing Government information, including two distinct functions: administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and administration of the Privacy Act.
As this effort began a year ago during Sunshine Week 2011, the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, asked the NARA Management Team to think more broadly about this opportunity. He directed us to collaborate with OPM, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), our other federal agency customers, and external stakeholders to build support for the creation of a new job series for Federal records management professionals across the government. As you may recall, he spoke of the need for a new records management job series at RACO 2010 shortly after becoming Archivist of the United States.
Starting last spring at our Bi-monthly Records and Information Discussion Group (BRIDG) and Federal Records Council meetings, we discussed the need for a new job series for Federal records managers and encouraged records officers to work with the human capital managers in their agencies to make OPM aware of their agencies’ views. Because of our combined efforts, and the issuance of the Presidential Memorandum on Managing Government Records in November, OPM now acknowledges the need to explore the records management job series issue more deeply.
Starting in early fall 2012, shortly after the issuance of the new Records Management Directive called for in the Presidential Memorandum, OPM will initiate a study of the need for a records management job series, and they have asked that NARA play a leading role in this effort.
In the coming months, as we complete our work with OMB and the Department of Justice on the Records Management Directive and enter late summer 2012, we will provide you more information on our work with OPM on this study.
Thanks so much for your efforts over the past year, and we look forward to engaging you on the records management job series issue later this fiscal year.
What job series do declassification archivists fall into whose work involves “establishing, disseminating, or managing Government information” subject to mandatory declassification review under EO 13526, rather than FOIA? The Archivist Series description from OPM doesn’t cover this, nor does it seem to be included in the new 0306 series. Thanks for any further clarification you can give.