managing electronic records in governmental bodies - National ...

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and protected;
- Appropriate access control must be maintained for as long as the organisation
needs the documents;
- There must be a means whereby electronic documents can be grouped or
otherwise organised for formal disposal.
In short, governmental bodies need a practical means whereby the responsibility for
electronic documents can pass from the originator, to the people responsible for the
corporate memory of the body. The most sensible way to do this is to use an
electronic records management application. The purpose of an electronic records
management application is to manage all unstructured electronic records within an
organisation including scanned images, word documents, e-mail, web-based
activities, etc. These systems have an added benefit in that they also manage
records in other formats to ensure that all records are managed in an integrated
manner.
In the paper-based environment, officials usually create and preserve records in a
uniform manner according to a file plan used in the particular governmental body.
The records are also physically kept in a uniform manner in a registry that is shared
by the governmental body as a whole. Generally in the electronic environment, and
especially where personal computers are used, there tends not to be any form of
regulation of record creation and preservation. This could seriously impede effective
access for on-going functional purposes as well as long-term retention and
preservation.
It makes little sense to organise paper documents without doing the same for
electronic documents. Consider the following:
- How will a body identify both the paper and the electronic documents that it
has on a particular subject
- Even if the paper copy is safely filed, the electronic version is also a public
record and the body must be equally aware of and accountable for it.
- It only makes sense to apply a uniform set of standards and practices for all
information in any media, including paper, electronic, audio/video, etc.
Records residing in unstructured systems should be maintained and retrieved in a
manner which ensures that they retain their authenticity and reliability as evidence of
transactions.
The National Archives and Records Service therefore requires governmental bodies
to implement and maintain Integrated Document Management Systems that provide
as a minimum the following records management functionality:
o managing a corporate file plan according to which records are filed;
o managing e-mail as records;
o managing web-sites as records;
o maintaining the relationships between records and files, and between file series
and the file plan;
Managing electronic records_Policy Guidelines.doc
First Edition
Version 1.1
April 2003