Management, appraisal and preservation of electronic records: Vol 1 ...

Management, appraisal and preservation of electronic records
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cannot be represented in hard copy at all. To preserve both content and
structure, the record must be preserved as an electronic record.
2.37 Electronic records are part of overall records management
Although the nature of the medium can influence the way in which we deal with
records, making some aspects more achievable and requiring a stricter control
in others, in principle electronic and paper records should be managed
consistently and to the same high quality standards. The records management
may allow for dispersed physical management, where electronic records reside
on systems variously located in the organisation, but should aim to ensure
corporate-wide intellectual control of all records and records procedures.
Electronic (and paper) records should, as far as possible, be organised in a way
that is able to meet anticipated future business and archival needs, enabling
related records to be reliably and consistently grouped regardless of media, and
supporting an inventory of record collections as a locating device. Where they
are part of shared business processes between departments and agencies, or are
exchanged between departments in a networked system, clear and precise rules
should allocate responsibility for capture, maintenance and transfer to one
organisation or another.
2.38 Responsibility for capturing, maintaining and ensuring access to the electronic
record rests with the organisation as a whole
The department has a ‘duty of care’ to ensure that all aspects of electronic
records are properly managed. In practice, responsibility for the disciplined
capture and maintenance of electronic records rests with a wide range of
individuals and groups across the organisation. A policy should consider
assigning areas of responsibility to nominated roles in the organisation; detailed
procedures will devolve these down to named individuals.
Responsible groups are likely to include: records managers and information
managers; information systems and information technology managers; business
managers and process owners; end users. Areas of responsibility which might be
considered for each group are suggested in the following section.
2.39 Procedures should be developed, implemented and validated to ensure that the
policy requirements are being met
While a corporate policy aims to set out the broader principles which should be
applied to electronic records, more detailed packages of specific policies and
procedures will need to be developed in key areas. Therefore, a general policy