Competencies:
Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education
An incorrect document can be corrected. A document nobody knows is missing is far more dangerous.
In the Records Management Team, I supported a publication disclosure process covering 151 institutions, with each publication due within 15 days. Filing what arrived was the easy part. The work was noticing what hadn't.
It rested on three disciplines that reliable operations depend on: reconciling records, following up exceptions and keeping information under control.
- 151
- Institutions: 128 high schools and 23 others, from district education offices to libraries
- About 300
- Publications registered on the public Online Archive
- 15 days
- From publication to the records office, under National Archives of Korea guidelines
- 21 months
- Aug 2023 – May 2025
The risk was in what wasn't there
A document that arrives with an error is easy to catch. Someone opens it, sees the problem and asks for a corrected copy. A document that never arrives leaves nothing to open, so it stays invisible until the day somebody needs it.
Each affiliated institution was expected to send its publications to the records office within 15 days, under National Archives of Korea guidelines. So the check had to start from the other side: first establish what each institution had published, then compare that list with what had actually reached us. Anything on the first list but not the second was an exception, and every exception needed someone to chase it.
From incoming records to resolved exceptions
I kept the publication register in Excel and checked it against a database in Access. The routine below ran through it, from the moment a publication was logged to the moment it was open to the public.
- Log
Each publication is entered in an Excel register, with validation rules that stop incomplete entries.
Data validation - Check
Formulas compare each institution's expected publications with what has arrived, and highlight the differences.
COUNTIFXLOOKUPConditional formattingPivot tables - Match
An unmatched-records query in Access lists every publication that should exist but has no file.
AccessUnmatched query - Chase
Each gap goes straight to the responsible officer, and stays open until the file is in.
Internal messenger - Publish
Only then is the publication registered and opened to the public on the Online Archive.
Online Archive
Beyond the register
- Handled sensitive records through registration, storage, inspection and secure disposal, within the Office's privacy and information-security rules.
- Coordinated with staff across 151 institutions by internal messenger, the internal network and phone, confirming what had been published and requesting the files.
- Answered requests and enquiries from inside the Office and from the public.
Everything that cleared these checks ended up on the Office's Online Archive, where the publications list is still open to anyone today.
Every process loses a document sooner or later. A reliable one notices the empty space on the shelf before anyone comes looking for what should be there.