The problem of “donkey classification” in electronic document and record management systems (EDRMS) is common, where users select the first presented disposal class for a document, irrespective of its content, or always use the same class. 

One reason for donkey classification is the daunting size of disposal schedules. The Administrative Functions Disposal Authority (AFDA) created by National Archives of Australia (NAA) and used by many Commonwealth departments has over 1000 classes and runs to nearly 400 pages. Finding the correct class for a document using search facilities of Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader is difficult. 

Words and phrases appearing in the vital descriptions of classes often appear elsewhere in the document, giving large, poorly ranked result sets from searches, discouraging users from attempting to find the correct disposal class for a document. 

NAA sources advise that there will be no further updates of AFDA and development in future will focus on AFDA Express, a streamlined version of AFDA with only 88 classes at present. While a smaller schedule is easier to use, the problem of finding the appropriate class for document remains.

Aleka Consulting has developed the AK Disposal View product to make it easier to find the right disposal class for documents. AK Disposal View provides web-based access to AFDA and AFDA Express in structured form, so that searches can be constrained to particular attributes, such as functions, activities or class descriptions. The schedule can also be filtered by function, activity, sentence duration and sentence initiation event.

AKDV allows class descriptions to be customised by adding key words or phrases to ensure that the class appears in search results for particular search terms. This allows the specialised knowledge of experienced record-keepers to be made available to other EDRMS users in an effective and enduring fashion and improves the standard of record-keeping throughout the organization.

AK Disposal View can be evaluated at akdv.alekaconsulting.com.au using AFDA and AFDA Express. Other disposal authorities can be incorporated by arrangement.