25 Things About Records Management

The Facebook "25 Things about Me" trend has probably generated more trivia than you ever imagined (or perhaps ever really wanted to know) about your friends.  Wouldn't it be nice if Records Management got that kind of attention?  Here's a start - what would you add?

1. Recordkeeping is not a new idea.  Scholars estimate that business records (in the form of clay tokens) were kept as far back as 8,000 BC.  (See this article for details.)
2. Disaster recovery isn't new, either.  Plutarch tells us that Alexander the Great kept detailed records of his expeditions.  When the tent containing those records burned, his secretary rebuilt the collection by writing to his generals and outposts for their copies of the documents.  (So if Alexander the Great needed a vital records strategy, don't you?)
3. Connecting the records you create to the business processes they support will make it easier for you to store, find, understand and reuse those records.
4. Metadata about your records can be almost as important as the records themselves.  Thinking about how you name your files, assigning author names and dates to each document, and choosing useful categories and keywords to describe those files will help ensure that you and future generations will be able to find and understand your records.
5. Consider building recordkeeping requirements into your business processes and procedures.  If you integrate record creation and management into the rest of your daily work, managing records is no longer an "extra" task - it's just plain common sense.
6. How long are you planning to keep those records?  Will you be able to access and read them for that long?  Considering that now helps you make smarter choices about the materials and formats you use.
7. Remember WordStar and WordPerfect 1.0?  Remember floppy disks?  Today's file formats and media are tomorrow's antiques.  You need a digital preservation strategy.
8. Hate to file?  Yeah, me, too, but you'll hate digging through an avalanche of information even more.  Building a few minutes into one day a week for simple tasks like filing and sorting information can make a huge difference.
9. Now is a good time to talk to your IT department about their strategies for storage and migration of your data.  Later may be too late.
10. Information security, data governance, and records management are all deeply intertwined.  If they're not connected in your organization, you're missing a huge opportunity.
11. "Indefinitely" is not a records retention period.  It's a failure to make a decision, and it won't help you in the long run.
12. The process of looking at your organization's information and deciding as a group how that information will be managed is good for the soul and good for your budget.
13. The worst time to start a records management program is the day you receive a motion for discovery.
14. The best time to start a vital records and disaster recovery program (if you don't already have one) is right now.
15. Information is kept forever (except when it isn't), and it's private (until it's not).  Do you know what records are being kept about you, and for how long?  See this recent ARMA news bite for just one example.
16. Most unique way to recycle records:  Ancient Egyptians used discarded documents to stuff crocodile mummies.  And you thought shredding was your only option!
17. Google has 274 million hits on e-discovery and only 10 million hits on records management.  Maybe that's a sign there's a problem.
18. It might seem easier to say you'll keep everything "forever," but there are serious commitments and costs involved in that approach.  Easy answers are usually too good to be true when it comes to managing information.
19. There are professional organizations (ARMA and SAA) and certifying bodies (ICRM and ACA) for records managers and archivists.  Check 'em out.
20. E-mail messages, Web pages, electronic systems, blogs, Twitter feeds, and Facebook pages can be records, too.
21. When you work with records, you often hold ideas, your company's reputation, or even a person's life and legal rights in your hands.  If the information you create has an impact on your organization or on your customers, don't you want those records to be accurate, available, and well-managed?
22. Records management isn't just about filing.
23. Records management isn't just about throwing things away, either.
24. Records management is about preserving your history and protecting your rights.
25. Records management is your job, too.