Record Management

1. Presenter:
Hina Sardar
Chief Librarian
Shahida Islam Medical and Dental College
PhD Scholar Departments of Information
Management University of the Punjab
Contact : 03217009482
E-Mail: hinasardar007@gmail.com
Records management
&
Finding Aids

2. April 28, 2021

3. Records management
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, from the time of creation or receipt to its eventual disposition.

4. What is a Record?
 Standard definition - a document that can serve as legal evidence
of a transaction.
 Contemporary definition - information that has been recorded or
captured on a given media. Recorded information may be found
on paper, audio tape, and computer hard-drives and disks. The
record is both the message and the media it is stored on.
(Massachusetts Secretary of State)

5. Definition of a Record
 Records are created as members of an ordered set.
 Records have a logical structure and a conceptual structure.
 Records have an archival bond.
Records have:
Authenticity
Integrity
Identity
Reliability

6. Definition of “Records Management”
By
Federal Government
Title 44 U.S.C. 2901 defines records management as:
“The managerial activities involved with respect to records creation,
records maintenance and use, and records disposition in order to
achieve adequate and proper documentation of the policies and
transactions of the Federal government and effective and economical
management of agency operations."

7. What is Records Management?
The field of management responsible for the systematic control of
the creation, maintenance, use, and disposition of records.
 The proper care and maintenance of records from creation to
disposition.
 Records management is the systematic control of all records,
regardless of media format, from their initial creation to final
disposition. Records management includes the development and
application of standards to the creation, use, storage, retrieval,
disposal and archival preservation of recorded information required
to administer and to operate the University. (Ball State University
website).

8. Principles of Records
These are the “Principles” of good management of Records.
1. Accountability,
2. Transparency,
3. Integrity,
4. Protection,
5. Compliance,
6. Accessibility,
7. Retention
8. Disposition.

9. What is Information Management?
 The function of managing the organization's information resources.
Includes creating, capturing, registering, classifying, indexing, storing,
retrieving and disposing of records and developing strategies to manage
records. (metadata.curtin.edu.au/manual/classification.html)
 The provision of relevant information to the right person at the right
time in a usable form to facilitate situational understanding and decision
making. It uses procedures and information systems to collect, process,
store, display, and disseminate information. (U.S. Army, FM 3-0

10. How Do We Differentiate Records?
 Records are divided into different groups called SERIES.
 A series is kept together as a unit because they consist of the same
form, relate to the same subject, result from the same activity, or
have certain common characteristics.
 This include every record of that type that was ever created, is in
existence now, or that will ever be created.

11. Why is RIM Important?
According to John O’Brien
 Legal compliance
Good public image
 Better use of resources
 Avoiding financial/natural disasters
 Good source of reliable information

12. Benefits of Record Management
 Smooth operation of agency/office operations.
 Consistent and equitable delivery of services.
 Effective performance of job tasks/duties.
 Protects rights of agency, employees, customers.
 Legal compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
 Protection during legal disputes.
 Frees up office space.
 Saves money by freeing up physical space and preventing
unnecessary office equipment purchases.
 Improves efficiency of office staff.

13. Electronic Record management
(Metadata? What is that?)
 Metadata is in reality “data about data.”
 Used to facilitate the understanding, use and management of data.
 Used more with electronic records.
 Four types of metadata:
 Descriptive
 Administrative
 Technical
 Preservation

14. Technical Metadata
“A set of data that describes and gives information about other data”.
A simple example of metadata for a document might include a
collection of information like the author, file size, the date the
document was created, and keywords to describe the document.
 Usually used with digitized or born-digital files.
Examples:
 Pixilation
Encoding scheme (ASCII, Unicode)
 Usually added by a computer system.

15. Preservation Metadata
Definition – metadata added so as to make migration and rendering
possible in the future.
Examples:
 Storage media file is on.
Format of file (pdf, tiff, doc)

16. Summary of Electronic Record
 Electronic records are a specific type of records and thus have
specific needs in the record information management environment.
 Electronic records have a unique set of problems associated with
their management and preservation.
Electronic records cannot take place without cooperation between
record information management staff and systems’ technicians.
 The authenticity and integrity of records can be changed easier for
electronic records than for paper records and thus procedures need to
be in place to prevent this.
 Retention periods take on a whole new meaning in electronic
record management.

17. What are Finding Aids
Finding aids are such tools that help a user to find information in a
specific record group, collection, or series of archival materials.

18. Examples of Finding Aids
Examples of finding aids include published
and unpublished inventories, container and
folder lists, card catalogs, calendars, indexes,
registers, and institutional guides.

19. Inventories
The lists of data about the holdings of an archive are
called inventories which may have been published
accordingly as per their frequency.
There may be some local lists or inventories about the
archives for users.

20. Format of Inventory
 Title Page
 Table of Contents
 Compiler's Notes
 Introduction to Records
 Administrative History
 Serials Descriptions
 Indexes
 Bibliography

21. Containers / Folders List
It include the list of those precious holdings of any
archive center, which have been placed in
containers or folders. i.e. container list of
National Archive of Pakistan, Islamabad

22. Indexes
A systemically complied list of all holdings of any
archive or information center which is helpful to
find the particular piece of information normally
subject wise or author/ publisher wise.

23. According to Merriam Webster
 A list (as of bibliographical information or citations to a body of literature)
arranged usually in alphabetical order of some specified datum (such as author,
subject, or keyword): such as
• a: a list of items (such as topics or names) treated in a printed work that gives
for each item the page number where it may be found
• b: a list of publicly traded companies and their stock prices
• c: a bibliographical analysis of groups of publications that is usually published
periodically

24. Catalogues
Archive Center, Library or information center
have to prepare it catalogue of its holdings
for finding or tracing its materials/ holdings
i.e. Descriptive Catalogue of Quaid-e-Azam
Papers Cell.