Making the case for merging document control and records management.

• Author: Beck, Vera

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Although document control and records and information management (RIM) employees share a custodial responsibility that includes identifying, protecting, and presenting their entity's records as assets, they do not share the same focus on managing information throughout the entire life cycle--from creation to distribution and use, storage and maintenance, retention, and disposition or archival preservation.

Document control's focus is on just the active phases; concerns about information retention, disposition, and archival preservation are dismissed with the pressing need to begin the next project or the simple question: "Why not just save everything?" Applying records logic is sacrificed to inexpensive storage.

The potential negative impact of this leaves RIM managers no choice--they must become facilitators, leading their organizations to a more defensible position by proposing that these two functions be combined.

Differentiating Between Controlled Documents and Records

An important step toward unifying these functions is to establish within the corporate culture a shared understanding of what is meant by the use of the terms "document," "controlled document," and "record," as well as what the processes are for managing them. People often use these terms interchangeably, which is an error that produces confusion and profoundly affects communication among the stakeholders in a RIM project. This may lead to scope creep--or worse, a scrapped effort.

The subtle differences can best be understood within the context of the information life cycle, which is illustrated in Figure 1: "The Records Life Cycle." (For an explanation of each stage of the records life cycle, see sidebar "The Life Cycle of a Record" on page 27.

* The term document describes information during a part of its active state--its creation, review, and initial edits as it is saved.

* A controlled document is a document whose use and distribution is tracked and controlled throughout its active state. It requires the user to make a decision: is this the first version or the twentieth? (See sidebar below "The Controlled Document Template.")

* A document/controlled document becomes a record when it reaches the retention state; as the activity to generate the information is completed, it is no longer required for immediate use and is moved toward either disposition or archival management.

A record is, according to Glossary of Records and Information Management Terms, 3rd edition, "recorded information, regardless of medium or characteristics, made or received by an organization in pursuance of legal obligations or in...