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The ISO 15489-1: 2016 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, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records.” Record is a document or content that an [[Organization|organization]] needs to keep as an evidence for an important transaction, activity or a business decision for regulatory, [[Compliance|compliance]] and [[Governance|governance]] purposes. Not all documents are Records. Only a subset of documents that an organization needs to preserve as evidence are called Records. Paper records may be stored in physical boxes on-premises or at a storage facility. Digital records may be stored on storage media in-house or in the cloud.
 
The ISO 15489-1: 2016 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, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records.” Record is a document or content that an [[Organization|organization]] needs to keep as an evidence for an important transaction, activity or a business decision for regulatory, [[Compliance|compliance]] and [[Governance|governance]] purposes. Not all documents are Records. Only a subset of documents that an organization needs to preserve as evidence are called Records. Paper records may be stored in physical boxes on-premises or at a storage facility. Digital records may be stored on storage media in-house or in the cloud.
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== Record Lifecycle<ref>Records Management Lifecycle [https://archives.un.org/content/understanding-records-management UN.org]</ref> ==
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All information and records go through a lifecycle. Knowing what stages records go through helps with identifying the most important activities that need to happen to protect and properly organize the Organization's records.
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[[File:Record Lifecycle.png|300px|Record Lifecycle]]<br />
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source: [https://www.laserfiche.com/ecmblog/what-exactly-is-records-management/ Laserfiche]
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*The first phase - Create/receive - starts when records are either received from an external source or created internally. The objectives of this initial stage are:
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**Create complete and accurate records that provide evidence of the organization’s functions, activities, decisions, transactions, procedures, etc.
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**Identify and apply an appropriate security classification
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**Distinguish between records and non-record copies or working documents, to be able to appropriately segregate them in the filing system
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**Place the record in an organizational classification scheme (or file plan) either in paper (e.g. in a filing cabinet or a binder) or in electronic version (e.g. on a shared drive or in a system) to ensure that it’s preserved within its context
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*After the first phase records immediately enter an Active phase of the lifecycle. It means that they are often used, shared between colleagues, retrieved to support day-to-day business and referred to. The objectives of this stage are: Create complete and accurate records that provide evidence of the organization's functions, activities, decisions, transactions, procedures, etc.
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**Identify and apply an appropriate security classification
 +
**Distinguish between records and non-record copies or working documents, to be able to appropriately segregate them in the filing system
 +
**Place the record in an organizational classification scheme (or file plan) either in paper (e.g. in a filing cabinet or in a binder) or in electronic version (e.g. on a shared drive or in a system) to ensure that it's preserved within its context
 +
**Preserve the integrity of the record, which means ensuring that it has not been altered after completion
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**Maintain its usability which means making it available for all colleagues who need an access to the record to do their job
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**Facilitate identification and preservation of records with permanent retention
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*The active phase of the lifecycle may be short for some records (e.g. payroll records' active phase usually is only about two months) and long for others (e.g. a MoU between a field mission and a Host country government may be in its active stage for the entire duration of the mission’s operations). All records, however, move through the lifecycle and with time the retrieval rate often diminishes. At some point, they reach a stage when they are not needed anymore in the primary office space but must still be kept for evidentiary, legal, financial, or historical purposes, as dictated by the retention schedule. This is when they enter an Inactive phase of the lifecycle. During this stage, we should free up space in our offices to new records, but we need to ensure keeping inactive records handy. The objectives of this stage are:
 +
**Identify the records that are not required to be stored in the primary office space (paper) or systems/shared drives (electronic)
 +
**Organize and list them
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**Transfer them to the local Records Center (for field missions the local Records Center within mission area; for HQ offices the ARMS Records Center)
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**Retrieve only those records that are needed from time to time
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*Finally, at the end of the lifecycle, records enter the stage a decision is made (usually based on an approved retention schedule) on what happens with records that entered the final stage of their life. It's called a Disposition phase. In the United Nations, there are two available disposition actions: either Archive or Destroy. It means that some portion of the records, usually about 5% of the total records' holdings of an office or a mission, that due to their historical value have a permanent retention, will be transferred to ARMS while the rest will be destroyed at some point. The objectives of this stage are:
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**Identify records with archival value (permanent retention), list them, organize them and sent them to ARMS
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**Identify records due for disposal/destruction, list them, gather necessary approvals for the destruction and proceed with an environmentally friendly destruction process

Revision as of 02:00, 20 January 2021

The ISO 15489-1: 2016 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, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records.” Record is a document or content that an organization needs to keep as an evidence for an important transaction, activity or a business decision for regulatory, compliance and governance purposes. Not all documents are Records. Only a subset of documents that an organization needs to preserve as evidence are called Records. Paper records may be stored in physical boxes on-premises or at a storage facility. Digital records may be stored on storage media in-house or in the cloud.


Record Lifecycle[1]

All information and records go through a lifecycle. Knowing what stages records go through helps with identifying the most important activities that need to happen to protect and properly organize the Organization's records.


Record Lifecycle
source: Laserfiche


  • The first phase - Create/receive - starts when records are either received from an external source or created internally. The objectives of this initial stage are:
    • Create complete and accurate records that provide evidence of the organization’s functions, activities, decisions, transactions, procedures, etc.
    • Identify and apply an appropriate security classification
    • Distinguish between records and non-record copies or working documents, to be able to appropriately segregate them in the filing system
    • Place the record in an organizational classification scheme (or file plan) either in paper (e.g. in a filing cabinet or a binder) or in electronic version (e.g. on a shared drive or in a system) to ensure that it’s preserved within its context
  • After the first phase records immediately enter an Active phase of the lifecycle. It means that they are often used, shared between colleagues, retrieved to support day-to-day business and referred to. The objectives of this stage are: Create complete and accurate records that provide evidence of the organization's functions, activities, decisions, transactions, procedures, etc.
    • Identify and apply an appropriate security classification
    • Distinguish between records and non-record copies or working documents, to be able to appropriately segregate them in the filing system
    • Place the record in an organizational classification scheme (or file plan) either in paper (e.g. in a filing cabinet or in a binder) or in electronic version (e.g. on a shared drive or in a system) to ensure that it's preserved within its context
    • Preserve the integrity of the record, which means ensuring that it has not been altered after completion
    • Maintain its usability which means making it available for all colleagues who need an access to the record to do their job
    • Facilitate identification and preservation of records with permanent retention
  • The active phase of the lifecycle may be short for some records (e.g. payroll records' active phase usually is only about two months) and long for others (e.g. a MoU between a field mission and a Host country government may be in its active stage for the entire duration of the mission’s operations). All records, however, move through the lifecycle and with time the retrieval rate often diminishes. At some point, they reach a stage when they are not needed anymore in the primary office space but must still be kept for evidentiary, legal, financial, or historical purposes, as dictated by the retention schedule. This is when they enter an Inactive phase of the lifecycle. During this stage, we should free up space in our offices to new records, but we need to ensure keeping inactive records handy. The objectives of this stage are:
    • Identify the records that are not required to be stored in the primary office space (paper) or systems/shared drives (electronic)
    • Organize and list them
    • Transfer them to the local Records Center (for field missions the local Records Center within mission area; for HQ offices the ARMS Records Center)
    • Retrieve only those records that are needed from time to time
  • Finally, at the end of the lifecycle, records enter the stage a decision is made (usually based on an approved retention schedule) on what happens with records that entered the final stage of their life. It's called a Disposition phase. In the United Nations, there are two available disposition actions: either Archive or Destroy. It means that some portion of the records, usually about 5% of the total records' holdings of an office or a mission, that due to their historical value have a permanent retention, will be transferred to ARMS while the rest will be destroyed at some point. The objectives of this stage are:
    • Identify records with archival value (permanent retention), list them, organize them and sent them to ARMS
    • Identify records due for disposal/destruction, list them, gather necessary approvals for the destruction and proceed with an environmentally friendly destruction process
  1. Records Management Lifecycle UN.org