Introduction to Records Management

Records management is the process of systematically controlling the creation, use and disposal of records.

Records management means that you:

• Create records in a controlled fashion
• Know exactly what records you have
• File and store your records efficiently and securely
• Do not keep your records for longer than is necessary.

Why do we need records management?

Records are vital assets, which the Council requires to carry out its functions; as employees of the Council we use records every day in order to perform our jobs. If these records are badly managed, our work becomes harder, and effective service provision becomes difficult, Good records management is important in helping us to:

• Work efficiently
• deliver services consistently and fairly
• provide evidence of our actions and decisions
• comply with legislative and regulatory requirements
• protect us in the event of litigation
• preserve our history for the future

In fact, good records management is just good business practice, enabling better decision making, more efficient working practices, timely and good quality responses to enquiries, and providing proof of our work to other agencies and the public. 

What is a record?
A record provides evidence of a business activity. It can be in any format - a paper document, a voicemail message, an email, a computer file. Examples of records include:

• minutes of meetings
• reports
• certificates
• invoices and receipts
• letters, emails and memos
• databases and spreadsheets

The records lifecycle

Records, like people, have a lifecycle. They are born, live through youth and old age, and finally die. We can simplify their lifecycle into three broad stages:

• The current stage covers records which have just been born (or created) and are still young, They are used for business on a frequent basis
• The semi-current stage covers records which have entered middle age. They still have some business value, but are used infrequently
• The non-current stage covers old records, which have little or no business value. They may be of value for other purposes, for example as a historical record, but most will be able to be destroyed.

Good records management will oversee every stage of the records lifecycle.