Providing guidance on managing your information for effectiveness and compliance

Records Management in the Open University

What Are Records?

Records are

"Information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organisation or person in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business." (ISO 15489)

The most important characteristic of a record is that it provides evidence or proof of a specific business activity. It is not restricted by physical format or storage medium and can include records on paper, single digital files (such as emails, word processed documents, static html pages, spreadsheets etc.) and records created and managed in structured database systems. In order to demonstrate authenticity, records should be unalterable, for example final versions of electronic records should be "read only."

Why Manage Records?

Records are a valuable corporate resource and can document accountability to University stakeholders, regulators and funding bodies. They provide evidence of past actions and decisions, demonstrating compliance with statutory or regulatory obligations and supporting the conduct of business and decision making within the University, especially in light of new legislation such as the Data Protection Act 1998 and Freedom of Information Act 2000. Records management is therefore an important strategic issue for the University.

Records Management is a corporate function responsible for the systematic and comprehensive control of the creation, capture, maintenance, filing, use and disposition of records. It aims to ensure that records:

• are adequate for the purposes they are required
• are authentic and reliable
• can be retrieved when needed as quickly and efficiently as possible
• are not destroyed prematurely or kept longer than necessary

Freedom of Information legislation has given individuals new statutory rights to apply for access to information held by the University. If we are to successfully meet our responsibilities under this legislation it is important that we create accurate records in the first place, are able to locate the records when necessary and that we have in place recorded disposition procedures, which are consistently enforced.

Site modified on the 13th December 2011 by Sam Mansfield. Contact library-record-management@open.ac.uk