- "Records management, also known as records and information management, is an organizational function devoted to the management of information in an organization throughout its life cycle."
The stages of a record's existence, from creation to disposal, and the processes that occur during each stage.
Record Creation: This involves the processes and procedures for creating records, including the identification of the information that needs to be captured, its format, and its location.
Record Classification: This is the process of categorizing records based on their content, context, and function, which helps to determine their appropriate disposition.
Record Retention: This refers to the period of time that records are required to be kept, based on legal, regulatory or business requirements.
Record Disposition: This is the process of deciding what to do with records when they are no longer needed for current business processes, which may include destruction, transfer or preservation.
Record Storage: This is the physical and digital storage of records, including the organization of records, secure file management, and effective retrieval and access.
Record Access: This covers policies, procedures, and technology for providing authorized access to records, while ensuring that confidential or sensitive information is protected.
Record Audit: This involves the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of records management activities to ensure that they are compliant with internal policies and external regulations.
Electronic Records: This covers the management of digital records, including metadata, preservation formats, and searchability.
Legal Compliance: This involves the legal requirements surrounding records management, including privacy, data protection, and e-discovery.
Records Management Policies: This covers the establishment of company-wide policies and procedures for records management, which are essential for efficient and effective management of records throughout their lifecycle.
Continuous Life Cycle: This life cycle is used for records that have ongoing active use and retention requirements. They are constantly updated, and their retention period does not have a definite endpoint.
Closed Life Cycle: This life cycle is used for records that have reached the end of their retention period and are no longer needed for active business use. They are closed but still subject to legal and regulatory provisions.
Hybrid Life Cycle: This life cycle combines both the continuous and closed life cycles. Records move between these cycles depending on their level of usage and retention requirements.
Automated Life Cycle: This life cycle is automated using sophisticated software that manages the entire life cycle from creation to destruction. The software uses pre-defined rules and criteria for records categorization, retention, and disposal.
Mixed Media Life Cycle: This life cycle is used for records that exist in multiple formats, such as print and electronic records. The records are managed using different retention rules based on their format.
Multi-Stage Life Cycle: This life cycle involves records undergoing different stages depending on their use and significance. The records can be categorized into active, semi-active, and inactive records. Each stage has its own retention requirements and disposition.
Complex Life Cycle: This life cycle involves records that are subject to various regulations, such as health records, financial records, and legal records. The complexity of the regulations makes record management more challenging.
Digitized Life Cycle: This life cycle focuses on managing digitized records, including the process of capturing, storing, indexing, accessing, and disposing of digital records.
Simplified Life Cycle: This life cycle involves basic recordkeeping practices that are appropriate for small businesses. It involves the creation, organizing, storage, and secure disposal of records without the need for sophisticated software or processes.
Financial Life Cycle: This life cycle is specific to financial records and involves the creation, retention, and disposal of financial statements, invoices, receipts, and other financial documents. Overall, the life cycle of records varies depending on the needs of individual organizations and the regulatory requirements that they must comply with.
- "This includes identifying, classifying, storing, securing, retrieving, tracking and destroying or permanently preserving records."
- "The ISO 15489-1: 2001 standard defines records management as '[the] field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records.'"
- "An organization's records preserve aspects of institutional memory."
- "The purpose of records management is part of an organization's broader function of governance, risk management, and compliance and is primarily concerned with managing the evidence of an organization's activities."
- "In determining how long to retain records, their capacity for re-use is important."
- "Records management shows linkages between records management and accountability in governance."
- "Storing, securing, and retrieving records."
- "From the time of creation or receipt to its eventual disposition."
- "The reduction or mitigation of risk associated with managing the evidence."
- "Activities, transactions, and decisions."
- "The ISO 15489-1:2001 describes it as the process for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records."
- "Records management is part of an organization's broader function of governance."
- "Records management is primarily concerned with managing the evidence of an organization's activities as well as the reduction or mitigation of risk associated with it."
- "Storing records is important for their eventual disposition."
- "Records management is part of an organization's broader function of governance, risk management, and compliance."
- "From the time of creation or receipt to its eventual disposition."
- "The efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records."
- "Recent research shows linkages between records management and accountability in governance."
- "Others document what happened and why."