Digital Record Management
Records Management also abbreviated as RM refers to the practice of maintaining an organization’s records since the time of their creation till the time they are eventually disposed. This includes the process of classification, storage, archival preservation, securing and the destruction of records. A record could either be digital information or an object that is tangible. Examples include birth certificates, office documents, medical papers like x-rays, application data, databases and email. Record Management, primarily is concerned with evidences of the activities done by an organization and usually is applied as per the value of records than the physical format they are in.
Generally, the Records Management principles apply to many formats. However, digital records, which are mostly referred to as electronic records, do raise certain issues as it becomes difficult to make sure that records’ structure, context and content are preserved and also protected particularly for the records that do not exist physically, implying the importance of reliability, trustworthiness and authenticity of records. A lot of research is still happening in the field of electronic records management. One such research is that of The International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems, also referred to as InterPRARES.
There are some concerns that raises questions over the ability in accessing and reading electronic records with the passage of time since the pace of technology has been very rapid in the last few years, which could bring a scenario wherein the record creation software would become obsolete soon enough, making the records unreadable. A good number of researches are also in the process to address the issues in digital preservation. However, the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy, also abbreviated as VERS, published by the Public Record Office Victoria, also abbreviated as PROV, which is situated in Melbourne, suggests a standard which could be used in preserving, storing and accessing electronic records, permanently. All the departments of Victorian Government have adopted the VERS standard. PROV even set up one digital archive for the use of accessing permanent records by the common people. In fact, even Archives New Zealand is following the same way by putting up digital archive.
A computer program or a host of programs, which track as well as store records is called as Electronic Document and Records Management System, which is also abbreviated as EDRM. This term is different than imaging and also systems of document management, which are specialised in capture from paper and management of document, respectively. The systems in EDRM very commonly give special security and as well as auditing functionality, which are tailored according to what the record managers need.
The publication from European Commission, “MoReq”, in 2001, suggests about the Model Requirements in the management of Electronic Documents and Records. Though it is not set as a standard formally, it is still known to be widely accepted and even considered as a standard! February 2008 saw the update to MoReq, which was named as MoReq2, accompanied by a framework of software testing and XML Schema.
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