Glossary of Information Management Terms

The key activities form part of the information life cycle as you will see in the accompanying diagram.

Active records:
Records which are in frequent use by being referred to or which are liable to change, for example by adding papers to a file

Archive:
A term for inactive records which need to be kept permanently or for an extended period of time

Capture:
The process of registering a document or record, deciding which class it is to be classified to in a fileplan, adding further metadata to it, and storing it in the system, e.g. an electronic records management system. The information can, for example, be captured via templates, received in the form of electronic documents from external sources, acquired by scanning paper documents or by taking snapshots of information contained in operational databases, corporate intranets and internet sites.

Classes of Records:
Records which form part of an integrated series (often in the form of files or folders)

Content management
Managing the information content of enterprise portals, intranets, extranets to internet sites

Current records:
Those which provide current or most recent information

Declaration:
The act of assigning to a captured document the status of a 'record'

Disposition:
The range of processes associated with implementing records retention, destruction or transfer decisions

Document (noun):
Recorded information or object that can be treated as a unit. A document may be on paper, microform, magnetic or any other electronic medium. It may include any combination of text, data, graphics, sound, moving pictures or any other forms of information. Documents precede records in the information life cycle. Records are formed by declaration of documents

Document management:
The management and control of documents with emphasis on their dynamic and transactional nature including indexing and retrieval, revision and version control, work flow and information content

Document type:
Categorisation of documents into mutually exclusive groups to aid the designing of document templates, and hence the capture of metadata at the creation stage in an electronic document or records management system. Its use also aids subsequent retrieval by allowing users to search by document type. Document types tend to be categorised generically, for example as 'letter', 'minutes' or 'reports' rather than by the specific content of these documents. See also Record type

Documents:
Coherent records of information meaningful to their relevant users

Electronic Records Management System (ERMS):
A computer-based facility for managing and controlling records throughout the information life cycle

File or folder
A collection of records physically brought together in a recognisable context

Fileplan
A logical and systematic arrangement of files into subject groups or other categories based on some definite scheme of natural relationships

Forms:
Documents with a highly structured layout designed to facilitate the recording of information

Information life cycle:
Activities involved in managing information throughout its life e.g. information acquisition, creation, retention, storage, retrieval, communication, utilisation and destruction

Information systems:
Ways of providing human-readable information to users such that it is relevant to their business objectives

Knowledge management:
Managing tacit knowledge (held in an individual's brain in the form of know-how and experience) and explicit knowledge (recorded independently of humans)

Library management:
Concerned with the acquisition, circulation, cataloguing and classifying of mainly external publications

Metadata
Descriptive and cataloguing data which systematically identifies various attributes of a class of items such as file/folder and documents

Record type:
Categorisation of records into mutually exclusive groups so that a different management policy (for example retention scheduling or security category) can be applied to each record type. Record types tend to be categorised by the type of content rather than by the generic format, for example as 'disciplinary letter, 'Management Board minutes', or 'Financial audit reports'. See also Document type

Records:
Any piece of recorded information; an account of a fact or, for example, an opinion in permanent form

Records analysis:
A records management activity involving appraisal to identify and evaluate records, decide retention schedules and identify vital records

Records management:
The management and control of an organisation's records irrespective of the storage medium

Retention schedules:
Prescribed lengths of time for retaining various classes of records; often related to a fileplan

Review records:
Records which should be retained for a pre-determined period according to retention schedules,

Version control:
Managing changes to documents as they are edited, reviewed and finalised and providing an auditable trail of the various versions through which they pass 

Vital records:
Business records without which an organisation would encounter major operational or legal problems

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This page was last updated on 21st February 2003