php-deluxe.net - description Records management

Records management

Records management is the practice of identifying, classifying, archiving, and sometimes the controlled destruction of records. While the definition of a record is often identified strongly with a document, a record can be any tangible object, or digital information which has value to an organization. For example, birth certificates, X-ray, museum artifacts, ordinary office documents, and E-mail are all examples of records.

=Practising Records Management=

The practice of records management involves all of the following activities:

Creating, approving, and enforcing records policies, including a classification system and a records retention policy

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

Identifying existing and newly created records, classifying them, and then storing them according to standard operating procedures

Monitoring the access and circulation of records within and even outside of an organization

Executing a retention policy to archive and destroy records according to operational needs, operating procedures, statutes, and regulations

Often, a records management system helps to 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.

=Managing Physical Records=

Managing physical records involves a variety of diverse disciplines, diversity that may surprise the layperson. At its simplest, physical records must be organized and indexed. In more complex environments, records management demands expertise in forensics, History, Engineering, and law. Records management then resolves to being a coordination of many experts to build and maintain the system.

Records must be identified and authenticated. In a business environment, this is usually a simple matter of filing signed contracts and other important business documents. However, in many environments, records must be identified and handled much more carefully.

Identifying records. If an item is presented as a record, it must be first examined as to its relevance, and it must be authenticated. Forensic experts may need to examine a document or artifact to determine that it is not a forgery, or if it is genuine, that any damage, alterations, or missing content is documented. In extreme cases, items be may be subjected to a microscope, x-ray, radiocarbon dating or chemical analysis to determine their authenticity and prior history.

Storing records. Records must be stored in such a way that they are both sufficiently accessible and are safeguarded against environmental damage. A typical contract or agreement may be stored on ordinary paper in a file cabinet in an office. However, many records file rooms employ specialized environmental controls including temperature and humidity. Vital records may need to be stored in a disaster-resistant safe to protect against fire, flood, earthquakes and even war. In extreme cases, the item may require both disaster-proofing and public access, which is the case with the original, signed US Constitution. Even civil engineers must be consulted to determine that the file room can effectively withstand the weight of shelves and file cabinets filled with paper; military ships are designed to take into account the weight of their operating procedures on paper as part of their ballast equation.

Circulating records. Records are stored because they may need to be retrieved at some point. Retrieving, tracking the record while it is away from the file room, and then returning the record, is referred to as circulation. At its simplest, circulation is handled by manual methods such as simply writing down who has a particular record, and when they should return it. However, most modern records environments use a computerized records management system that includes the ability to employ bar code scanners for better accuracy, or radio-frequency identification technology (RFID) to track movement of the records from office to office, or even out of the office. Bar code and RFID scanners can also be used for periodic auditing to ensure that unauthorized movement of the record is tracked.

Disposing of records. When physical records are disposed, the records must be authorized for destruction by law, statute, regulation, and operating procedure. Once approved, the record must be disposed of with care for risk of discovery. Some documents may be simply be discarded as any other refuse, however most business environments use paper shredding or incineration to some degree.

=Current Issues in Records Management=

As of 2005, records management has increased interest among corporations due to new compliance regulations and statutes. While government, legal, and healthcare entities have a strong, historical records management discipline, general record-keeping of corporate records has been poorly standardized and implemented. In addition, scandals such as the Enron Corporation/Arthur Andersen scandal, and more recently records-related mishaps at Morgan Stanley, have renewed interest in corporate records compliance, litigation preparedness, and issues. Statutes such as the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act have created new concerns among corporate compliance officers that result in more standardization of records management practices within an organization.

=Education and Certification=

Records management, being a complex practice, involves many years of education and practice for full mastery. Many colleges and universities offer degreed programs in library and information sciences. Furthermore, there are professional organizations such as the [http://www.arma.org Association of Records Managers and Administrators] and the [http://www.icrm.org Institute of Certified Records Managers] that work together to provide a separate, non-degreed, professional certification for practitioners, the Certified Records Manager or CRM.

=Records Management Vendors=

A records management system is a computer program (or set of programs) used to track and store records. The term is distinguished from imaging and document management systems that specialize in paper capture and document management respectively. Records management systems commonly provide specialized security and auditing functionalities tailored to the needs of records managers.

The [http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/recmgt/ (JITC)] which builds test case procedures, writes detailed and summary final reports on 5015.2-certified products, and performs on-site inspection of software.

Many vendors sell records management applications, some as part of their Enterprise content management suites, including the following companies:

Accutrac

[http://www.captaris.com/ Captaris]

[http://www.docbanq.com DocBanq]

EMC

Filenet

[http://www.hummingbird.com/ Hummingbird]

IBM

[http://www.interwoven.com/ Interwoven]

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MDY

[http://www.meridio.com/ Meridio]