Understanding electronic records

Dear all...

Electronic records are records that are in machine-readable form. It can be in any combination: text, data, graphics, images, video or audio information that is created, maintained, modified or transmitted in digital form by a computer or related system. Electronic records are part of complicated record keeping systems. 

Electronically-produced records deserve special attention because:

• they are relatively new, easily altered and erased, 
• their status as valuable parts of the public record is still unclear to many people. 

Electronic record is a record created, generated, sent, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means. Like paper records, electronic records require a long-term records management strategy. This is because data become records when the content, context, and structure are tied together to provide both meaning and functionality. 

A further distinction is the particular medium (magnetic tape, optical disk, paper) in which information may be carried or embodied. The information carried on that medium is the record. Thus, within the organizational context, electronic records support three broad types of needs for example as accessible records providing timely information for current operational needs, as secure and legally admissible records that provide accountability, and also as historical records of past activity which provide a corporate memory.

The implementation of record management practices for electronic records can result in a number of benefits for organization. One of the most important benefits is to ensure the creation and management of accurate and reliable electronic records. This allows organization to fulfill legal mandates regarding the protection of their records. 

Other organization benefits include: ensuring the legal acceptability of organization electronic records, reducing costs for the retrieval of records no longer needed to be maintained on the system, reducing the burden of paper record keeping, identifying appropriate means for the movement of records to successive generations of technology and systems and improves staffs access to organization information.