What are the Principles of Record Management?

In order to be successful, the records management must be based on the following principles:

1. Verification:

Records can be verified whenever needed.

2. Justification:

Records must be maintained with some justifiable purpose. Otherwise, it will be a waste of money, space and time.

3. Classification:

Records must be classified according to their use. It may be classified according to time or chronology or subjects.

4. Information:

The required information must be available whenever needed.

5. Elasticity:

The record system must be elastic in capacity so that expansion or contraction of records is possible.

6. Reasonable cost:

The cost of record management must be a reasonable one. For more important records larger amount may be spent and for less important records only smaller amount should be spent.

Record management must be simple, accurate, economic and useful for the organization. Records Management: In the words of Zane K. Quible, “Record management refers to the activities designed to control the life cycle of a record for its creation to its ultimate disposition.” Accordingly the life cycle of records involves the following stages:

1. Creation Stage:

The first stage involves design and control of office forms. Data should be recorded in the forms accurately and completely. The time period for which the records are to be kept should also be determined properly.

2. Storage Stage:

Under this stage, records are properly classified and put into appropriate file covers. The records should be stored at an accessible location and arrangements should be made for their protection.

3. Retrieval Stage:

The purpose of maintaining records is to make them available for future reference. Therefore, an efficient filing procedure should be designed to retrieve the records in time. There should be a proper procedure for the issue of files.

4. Disposition Stage:

This stage is concerned with disposition of obsolete and unnecessary records. Valuable documents are preserved in water-proof and fire-proof cabinets. The documents which are no longer required should be destroyed. Less important records which are not in current use should be transferred from high cost storage area to low cost storage area.