Records Management For Dummies by Blake Richardson

Author:Blake Richardson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Published: 2012-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

As the debate has progressed, more records managers have come to the conclusion that a data field in and of itself is not a record, but when it’s combined with other related data fields through the software application, a record is born. For example, if you image a vendor invoice, it creates a digital replication of the document that can be viewed and understood. However, the individual data elements represented on the document, such as vendor name, number, and address, also exist in your organization’s accounting system database in separate fields. If you view an individual data element in a field, it doesn’t have much meaning, but when the software application brings all the associated elements together to form the invoice, it now has meaning.

To apply retention to structured information, you can use the same appraisal method used for unstructured and physical content. If you retain paper invoices for seven years, the structured information in the accounting system that relates to invoices should also be retained for seven years.

A word of caution is probably called for here. In a database environment such as an accounting software application, data elements in a table may be used for different purposes. For example, the Tax department may need to retain vendor information for seven years for reporting purposes, while the Accounts Payable department may need to retain vendor information for three years after the last transaction. Many of the data elements in the database used by each department are the same — vendor number, name, and tax identification number. Therefore, when appraising structured data information for retention purposes, these issues need to be evaluated.

Appraising structured information is a group effort. The appraisal allows you to understand the nature of a software application, see who uses it, determine where the application’s information resides on the network as well as what data it produces, let you establish what information should be archived, and set up the required retention periods. Each department that uses an application should be involved in the appraisal along with the Records Management and IT departments.

Before new software applications are implemented, it’s recommended that the system be appraised prior to placing the system into production. This approach ensures that only required data is archived and that appropriate retention periods are assigned.

Deleting backed-up and archived information

The thought of deleting records and information makes some people cringe, but don’t fear. It’s all part of the information life cycle and should take place on a regular and scheduled basis — as long as the necessary homework has been done, meaning that the information has been researched and the appropriate retention periods have been assigned.

As you discovered, magnetic tapes are still widely used for system and file restores, disaster recovery, and archive backups. Although tapes used for basic recovery and disaster recovery are erased and overwritten on a scheduled basis, archive tapes aren’t; this poses a significant retention and deletion issue. Magnetic tapes don’t allow you to delete or erase specific files — it’s an all-or-nothing proposition when deleting content on backup tapes.

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