East Hampshire District Council is building an electronic
document and records management system to help it comply with the
Freedom of Information Act.
From 31 January 2005 any citizen requesting information must be
informed, in writing, within 20 working days, whether the authority
holds information of the type specified.
East Hampshire Council is digitising its 25 million records
covering everything from council tax payments to planning
information. David Lowe, the council's records and information
manager, said, "This technology will allow us to more accurately
manage information, get rid of it when we do not need it, and allow
access to it when people require it."
The system is also designed to handle East Hampshire's increasing
data needs, which are growing by one million records a year.
The council is using an IBM DB2 database running on three IBM x235
eServers. These will each provide up to nine hard disc drives for
data storage and a high-speed tape drive for back-up.
Officials at East Hampshire Council predicted that the system would
save about 350 square metres of floor space, which is currently
used for storing records.