Records Management - Practicing Records Management

Practicing Records Management

A Records Manager is someone who is responsible for records management in an organization.

Section 4 of the ISO 15489-1:2001 states that records management includes:

• setting policies and standards;

• assigning responsibilities and authorities;

• establishing and promulgating procedures and guidelines;

• providing a range of services relating to the management and use of records;

• designing, implementing and administering specialized systems for managing records; and

• integrating records management into business systems and processes.

Thus, the practice of records management may involve:

• planning the information needs of an organization

• identifying information requiring capture

• creating, approving, and enforcing policies and practices regarding records, including their organization and disposal

• developing a records storage plan, which includes the short and long-term housing of physical records and digital information

• identifying, classifying, and storing records

• coordinating access to records internally and outside of the organization, balancing the requirements of business confidentiality, data privacy, and public access.

• executing a retention policy on the disposal of records which are no longer required for operational reasons; according to organizational policies, statutory requirements, and other regulations this may involve either their destruction or permanent preservation in an archive.

Records management principles and automated records management systems aid in the capture, classification, and ongoing management of records throughout their lifecycle. Such a system may be paper based (such as index cards as used in a library), or may be a computer system, such as an electronic records management application.