Towards Electronic Records Management Strategies

Background

As the volume of records produced began to grow in earnest during the 20^th century, specialised facilities for the storage of records (in records repositories) grew in number and in the quality of environmental and security controls to ensure the availability as well as integrity of these primary media-centric (paper or films) records. Records with historical or permanent value are therefore, disposed, which included destruction and transfer of discrete sets of records to an archival facility and administered under careful document and audit procedures. With most of today’s business information created in digital format, the rules of the records management game have changed dramatically. Research suggests there has been 30% increase in the amount of stored information (includes four types of physical media: paper, film, magnetic and optical) each year, from 1999-2002, with 92% of new information stored on magnetic media primarily hard disks (Lyman & Varian, 2003). As a result, organisations need efficient and suitable ways to capture and protect their electronic records, as well as efficient and veritable means to dispose of or destroy information and medium when there are no longer requirements to keep them.