Records Management (RM) is a 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.
Records management is an evidence of organizations activities and daily operations .
Records management is often seen as an unnecessary
or low priority administrative task that can be performed at the lowest levels
within an organization. However, this perception is changing as these
publicized events have demonstrated that records management is in fact the
responsibility of all individuals within an organization.
Records management is the
process by which an organization:
- Determines what kinds of information should be considered records.
- Determines how active documents that will become records should be handled while they are being used, and determines how they should be collected after they are declared to be records.
- Determines in what manner and for how long each record type should be retained to meet legal, business, or regulatory requirements.
- Researches and implements technological solutions and business processes to help ensure that the organization complies with its records management obligations in a cost-effective and non-intrusive way.
- Performs records-related tasks such as disposing of expired records or locating and protecting records that are related to external events such as lawsuits.
