Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) 2007 A.M.I.E.T.E Computer Science

• integrating records management into business systems and processes.
Managing Physical Records
Managing physical records involves a variety of diverse disciplines. At the simplest, physical records must be organized and indexed. In more complex environments, records management demands expertise in forensics, history, engineering, and legal regulations. Records management then resolves to being a coordination of many experts to build and maintain the system.
Records must be identified and authenticated. In a business environment, this is usually a matter of filing business documents and making them available for retrieval. However, in many environments, records must be identified and handled much more carefully.
Identifying records. If an item is presented as a record, it must be 1st examined as to its relevance, and it must be authenticated. Forensic experts may need to examine a document or artifact to determine that it is not a forgery, or if it is genuine, that any damage, alterations, or missing content is documented. In extreme cases, items may be subjected to a microscope, x-ray, radiocarbon dating or chemical analysis to determine their authenticity and prior history. This level of authentication is rare, but requires that special care be taken in the creation and retention of the records of an organization.
Storing records. Records must be stored in such a way that they are both sufficiently accessible and are safeguarded against environmental damage. A typical contract or agreement may be stored on ordinary paper in a file cabinet in an office. However, many records file rooms employ specialized environmental controls including temperature and humidity. Vital records may need to be stored in a disaster-resistant safe or vault to protect against fire, flood, earthquakes and even war. In extreme cases, the item may require both disaster-proofing and public access, which is the case with the original, signed US Constitution. Even civil engineers must be consulted to determine that the file room can effectively withstand the weight of shelves and file cabinets filled with paper; historically, a few military vessels were designed to take into account the weight of their operating procedures on paper as part of their ballast formula (modern record-keeping technologies have transferred much of that info to electronic storage). In addition to on-site storage of records, many organizations operate their own off-site records centers or contract with commercial records centers.
Circulating records. Records are stored because they may need to be retrieved at a few point. Retrieving, tracking the record while it is away from the file room, and then returning the record, is referred to as circulation. At its simplest, circulation is handled by manual methods such as simply writing down who has a particular record, and when they should return it. However, most modern records environments use a computerized records management system that includes the ability to employ bar code scanners for better accuracy, or radio-frequency identification technology (RFID) to track movement of the records from office to office, or even out of the office. Bar code and RFID scanners can also be used for periodic auditing to ensure that unauthorized movement of the record is tracked.

Earning:   Approval pending.