2. Lecture 3: Objectives
1. Introduction to Electronic Records Management
2. Knowing the Characteristics of an Authoritative Record
3. Understanding the Electronic Records Management
(ERM)
4. Understanding the Records Management Lifecycle
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The most basic evidence of business transactions. They must be protected, managed, audited, and preserved.
(also digital record; automated record, largely obsolete), n. ~ Data or information that has been captured and fixed for storage and manipulation in an automated system and that requires the use of the system to render it intelligible by a person.
~SAA Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology.
Information is not evidence of an activity and is not a record unless it possesses these additional characteristics.
Authenticity – An authentic record can be proven to be what it purports to be, created or sent by the person purported to have created or sent it, and create or sent at the time purported.
Reliability – A reliable record can be trusted as a full and accurate representation of the transactions, activities, or fact to which it attests.
Integrity – A complete and unaltered record is said to possess integrity.
Usability – A usable record can be located, retrieved, presented, and interpreted.
- The application of records management principles to electronic records.
- The management of records using electronic systems to apply records management principles (e.g., paper, CDs/DVDs, magnetic tape, audio-visual, and other physical records).
~ARMA Glossary, 4th edition
90% of organization’s information is unstructured data.
There are several types of unstructured data. Each has different characteristics and requires different types of functional support from management systems and business applications.
Static: Scanned documents, faxes, PDF files and other content that is captured and managed but not subsequently modified, although it may be annotated and/or redacted if needed. This type of unstructured data also includes application output, like printable files, that is captured to be retained for later reference or for records retention purposes.
Dynamic: Authored or other content that may be created, edited, reviewed, approved by multiple people or groups. Versions of this content may be retained to support back out changes or other editorial functions. Lifecycles are associated with this type of unstructured data. This type of data may include traditional authored documents such as policies, procedures, white papers, other office documents.
Digital Assets: Data that has specialized technical requirements for storage and handling because of the size of the data or the formats in which the content is encoded. Storage and transport of this type of content often requires special handling in order to satisfy performance and storage capacity constraints.
E-mail, Instant Messaging: Data that represents correspondence or other communications between individuals. This includes e-mail and instant messaging logs. Typically, this data must be archived and, in some cases, treated as a business record. E-mail archiving can also have rules applied to archive and de-dup e-mail messages and attachments.
Specialized Content: Web data is an example of unstructured data with specialized access control, content entry, rendering and other functions to manage a web site.
Business Records: Documents, paper or electronic that are subject to business controls over storage, retention, disposition and deletion to comply with legal, regulatory or industry requirements or to support litigation and discovery.
Assets with Intellectual Property Rights Constraints: Data with associated intellectual property rights. Access to this data must be controlled. Property rights must be managed to avoid violation of contract or licensing terms regarding the usage of the material.
Phases in Planning & Managing an ERM Program
Inventory e-records
Link to the business process
Develop a taxonomy
Create a retention and disposition schedule
Protect vital records
