Arkib Negara ELECTRONIC RECORDS MANAGEMENT and archive mgmt guideline_eng

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According to an ISO definition (Information and Documentation - Records Management: ISO
15489, 2001), a ‘record’ is, “information created, received and maintained as evidence by an
organization or person in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business.”
Based on this definition a record is something that has a purpose (i.e. it is not the residue of
organizational activities). It is in existence because it needs to be there not only to serve as
an instrument of accountability (i.e. evidence), but also as an authoritative, authentic, and
reliable source of information (to make decisions, etc.). This definition comes much closer to
the concept of records being an asset.
It follows that publications, by their very nature, have content, context and structure and that
they exist because they have a purpose (e.g. to inform). It also follows that because they
have a purpose, they should be considered an “asset”. “Records” and “publications” or
“published material” are assets and, similar to other assets such as financial and human
resources, they are also assets that need to be managed.
The management of such assets is called “information management” (a convenient ‘handle’
for the ‘management of ‘recorded information’ just as ‘information object’ is sometimes used
as a convenient handle for record, publication, or any other discrete unit of recorded
information).
A host of definitions of information management have been produced by private and public
sector organizations as well as professional associations. The following definition developed
by NATO is useful because it introduces the concept of information being ‘exploited’ - i.e.
not just being administered through its life cycle.
Information management: The means through which an organization maximizes
the efficiency with which it plans, collects, organizes, controls, disseminates, uses
and disposes of its information, and through which it ensures that the value and
potential value of that information is identified and exploited to the fullest extent.
(Information Resource Management - Program Development, March 1998; NATO
(AAP-31))
Any model of information management must be business and accountability driven. In fact,
information is such an integral component of the delivery of government programs and
services that an understanding of information management as a concept cannot be obtained
until one has first established an understanding of the business of the organization and the
responsibilities of those within the organization.
The organization’s information management activities and the IM infrastructure that is
required to support these activities must be aligned with and contribute to the organization’s
business and accountability objectives. Figure 1 illustrates this fundamental concept as well
as the key components of the IM infrastructure.
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