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In this article the authors explain how a new system has been designed to work in conjunction with existing databases to ensure a consistency of approach to retention scheduling across a variety of media and formats. The system allows for the whole life‐cycle of a record to be pre‐defined at both record series and file level. The reports produced by the system enhance a retention schedule programme that not only meets the needs of the records manager, but also serves as a ‘user‐friendly’ point of contact between himself and the users he serves. The authors will briefly explain the existing approach taken to retention scheduling at Pfizer Central Research, Sandwich and will demonstrate how this new ‘Electronic Retention Schedule’ (ERS) will enhance the current system of publishing advisory ‘guidelines’ for users and implementing ‘annual reviews’ of record holdings held in a number of different storage formats.

Provides a review of the main features of the software available in the market that deal with retention management. Reviews a range of recently published works discussing retention management features and establishes a list of criteria. Reviews the most important and widely available software tools for retention management against these features and makes a comparison. Provides information about each how each criterion is satisfied by the reviewed tools and gives an overview on how the industry approaches retention management. Reveals that the list of the reviewed software is not exhaustive; also, the evaluation could have included more information on the tools and examples of how they can actually be used. Maintains, however, that this is a very useful source of information and impartial advice for everyone interested in retention management. Especially useful is the discussion on the future issues identified. Fulfils an identified information need for a discussion on how existing systems deal with retention management and offers help to an individual who wants to carry out research in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the practice of records retention in relation to statistical records and to provide answers and solutions to the challenge of retention from two perspectives: by offering some recommendations on how to approach the identification of validated retention periods and by presenting findings resulting from the practical use of this recommended approach.

The research presented in this paper was conducted for the final dissertation of the BSc (Hons) Information and Records Management Programme at the University of Northumbria. A Delphi study was used as the method to achieve the research objectives.

While answers to the question of what retention value should be attributed to records vary enormously depending on who is asked, this research shows that the involvement of end‐users to gather feedback and attempt to reach a consensus of opinions on retention periods is successful and provides meaningful results, and can also help in gaining end‐user support in the subsequent schedule implementation.

Successful implementation of a retention schedule is more likely to happen if end‐users are involved from the start in the design process and if they understand the benefits of this tool. In this respect, involving end‐users in the retention decisions throughout the performance of a Delphi Study has revealed to be very effective and is therefore recommended for attaining similar objectives.

The paper presents a validated method for assigning retention values to records that could be applied by practitioners in other organisations. Further information on the resulting retention schedule can be obtained by contacting the author.

Records management has undergone an unprecedented process of change in the last few years. This has been chiefly due to the proliferation of information technology and the rapid pace of organisational change. It is my belief that current criticisms of the retention schedule as a records management tool are largely justified because the traditional retention schedule programme has failed to keep pace with these changes. This paper proposes that the full potential of the retention schedule has not been recognised in many organisations. It argues that if it is possible to identify overall retention requirements at a series level it should also be possible to identify other properties and descriptive values that can also be assigned to each series in advance of records creation It then discusses the range of such properties that it is possible to define at this point and begins to explore how, if automated, these values can act not only as the basis of future systems design, but can also be used as the point of control for virtually all records management functions.

This article, which is one of the products of an international collaborative research initiative called iTrust, aims to explore these questions and offer suggestions concerning how the issues they raise can be addressed.

The article describes the results of the first stage in a multi-stage research project leading to methods for developing retention and disposition specifications and formal schedules for open data and big data initiatives. A fictitious organization is used to describe the characteristics of open data and big data initiatives, the gap between current approaches to setting retention and disposition specifications and schedules and what is required and how that gap can be closed. The landscape described as a result of this stage in the research will be tested in case studies established in the second stage of the project.

The argument is made that the business processes supporting open data and big data initiatives could serve as the basis for developing enhanced standards and procedures that are relevant to the characteristics of these two kinds of initiatives. The point is also made, however, that addressing the retention and disposition issues requires knowledge and leadership, both of which are in short supply in many organizations. The characteristics, the issues and the approaches will be tested through case studies and consultations with those involved with managing and administering big data and open data initiatives.

There is very little, if any, current literature that addresses the impact of big data and open data on the development and application of retention schedules. The outcome of the research will benefit those who are seeking to establish processes leading to formally approved retention and disposition specifications, as well as an instrument – the approved retention and disposal schedule – designed to ensure the ongoing integrity of the records and data associated with big data and open data initiatives.

This paper, through examining the judgment on Case C-131/12 and the European Union (EU)’s Proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation, aims to demonstrate to the records management (RM) profession, the importance of being proactively involved in records creation identification and the challenges of performing sound retention analyses for newly emerging activities. It also serves as a call to the RM profession that more active participation in law-making processes is needed.

The research selects the current right to be forgotten phenomenon as an illuminating case and examines it with fundamental RM concepts and principles, in particular those relating to records creation and retention. The research process consists of three major parts: one, the establishment of an analytical framework based on RM theories; two, description of the selected case that is relevant to the analysis; and three, the application of the analytical framework to the described case.

Records retentions are much needed for the activities of data controllers that are now established by the most recent Judgment of the European Court of Justice pertinent to the right to be forgotten and the proposed General Data Protection Regulation. The determination of retention periods for such activities requires an RM framework that synthesizes the identification of digital records and the various types of value associated with the different usages of records. It is also observed that the data protection legal framework does not address RM considerations, or at least, not in any explicit, easily recognizable manners.

Records retentions are much needed for the activities of data controllers and/or processors that are now required by the Judgment of the European Court of Justice and the proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation, yet the legal framework does not offer any assistance in establishing retentions. It is also observed that the data protection legal framework fully acknowledges the importance of records but fails to address RM considerations – at least, not in any explicit, easily recognizable manners.

The findings are expected to be instructive to data controllers and/or processors, in particular with respect to records creation identification and records retention establishment in their organizations. It is also expected that the observations generated during the analysis process could shed light on the development of the RM profession.

The right to be forgotten in the digital world has newly acquired complications, and it has the potential to affect not just the privacy right but also the rights considered conflicting to it, such as the rights of freedom of press and freedom of expression/speech. Efficient and effective RM programs should be able to assist their parent organizations in dealing with this complicated situation through creating and managing records that support the compliance of regulatory requirements on the one hand and the balancing of competing rights on the other hand.

The research appears to be the first of its kind according to the literature search conducted within the accessibility scope of the researcher.

The purpose of this paper is to assess records management components, such as record scheduled, records appraisal, destroyed/disposed, retained, training of staff on the management of the student affairs records (SARs), provided access, the challenges associated with efficient management of SARs and strategies for effective management of SARs, to determine the extent the Student Affairs Department (SAD) complies with the University of Mpumalanga (UMP) records management policy.

This paper uses qualitative methodology of a triangulation of data collection and this included interviews, document analysis and observation.

The literature review, as well as the interview, revealed that findings on the UMP records management policy are multi-layered. A number of participants mentioned lack of records centre, records retention and appraisal of records, records management training and managing access to information as a challenge to the management of SARs.

The research was only limited to the UMP, Student Affairs Division, with a population of 15 staff members even though the findings can be applied to all the universities in South Africa.

SAD has a unique contribution to make to ensure that records created within their division are managed in terms of the UMP records management policy by ensuring that components such as records storage retention and appraisal of records management training and managing access to information are adhered to.

Failure to comply with the UMP records management policy by the Student Affairs Division will contribute to the loss of institutional memories, non-compliance with legislations such as Promotion of Access to Information Act 2000, National Archives and Records Services Act 46 of 1996 and the Protection of Personal Information Act No 4. Of 2013.

The research appears to be the first of its kind, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to assess SARs at the UMP, South Africa.

Working as a consultant really gives you the opportunity to travel. This week, the office of an oil company … the next, an office in the water industry … and the following week, still more variety—an office in the finance sector. Now capable of writing a thesis on the correlation between wallpapers and SIC codes, we turn our attention to the records held by each industry sector, and the way in which those records are managed. The practice of records management varies considerably from industry to industry and, within industry sectors, from company to company. So the oil industry tends to practice records management in a different way from the water industry or the finance industry. Certainly the oil industry faces particular problems in the range of media which it is required to handle, including well logs, seismic data, oil samples, as well as the inevitable quantities of paper and paper substitutes which all industries face. But not only does records management vary from industry to industry, it also varies from company to company—and so individual companies active within the oil industry operate a variety of records management procedures. A company's records management programme may include a number of elements—and I should like to review the most important of these before looking at the potential for standardisation in record management practices. The major elements within a records management programme may include the following:

The purpose of this paper is to examine the myriad ways record‐keeping can affect the course and outcome of products liability litigation. The examination includes an overview of the civil jury system in the USA, as well as an analysis of the benefits gained from instituting quality concepts and principles regarding the creation, management, storage and protection of quality‐related documents. Frequently the “star witness” in a products liability lawsuit is not a witness at all – it is a document. The written record a company generates plays a critical role in presenting a case to the jury in the event of litigation. With regard to retaining and storing company records, serious legal problems arise when documents are lost, damaged or destroyed without adequate explanation. Accordingly, embracing and implementing quality concepts and principles with regard to record‐keeping provides numerous rewards in the event of litigation.

Functional appraisal of records is an idea which has been around for a long time but it is only relatively recently that it has actually been implemented in various organisations and countries. The aim is to ensure that archives capture the right records but avoid the huge workloads and backlogs of the past by identifying these records before they arrive in the archives, so that only archival records arrive there. This can be done by appraising functions instead of appraising documents, because records exist to document functions, so if a function is archival, then the records which support it will also be archival. Retention schedules can then be developed based on those functions, and classification schemes based on the schedules so that there is a seamless system governing the records from creation to final disposition.