Records Management is another name for ways of organising your information, whether it is held on paper or electronically. Records Management aims to control the creation, version control, distribution, filing, retention, storage and disposal of records.
The University has a Records Management and Retention Policy:
Records Management and Retention Policy - IGP-03 (PDF, 404kB)
Such things as:
are all records if they record details of a business decision - in other words they document the decision - making process for administrative, legal, financial and historical purposes.
Examples of non-records are:
The University's records are a corporate asset. They are important sources of administrative, evidential and historical information, and are vital to the University in its current and future operations. Records provide part of the corporate memory of the University and give awareness and understanding of its history and procedures.
Additionally, the University is expected to comply with several pieces of recent pieces of information legislation, such as the Data Protection Act 2018, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Freedom of Information Act 2000. To do this correctly we need to have efficient and effective records management functions.
Any improvement will also bring organisational benefits such as:
All University staff who create, receive and use records have records management responsibilities. Looking after the University's records is part of the day job, and if done properly will assist staff in their work.
The Special Collections in the Arts and Social Sciences Library on Tyndall Avenue houses the University College and University of Bristol collection, where University records with long-term research value are preserved and made available.
1. Find out what records you hold in the office / Department.
Do a survey of all the storage areas overseen by your office, and also all the cabinets and desks.
Look at your servers and find out what documents are held on your PCs and what has been burnt onto CDs or is held on microfiche / film.
2. Apply a Records Retention Schedule.
This lists categories of record held by the University, and recommends how long the records should be kept for. Establishing a regular (perhaps annual) review against the Records Retention Schedule will help to ensure consistent and timely disposal.
The University has its own Records Retention Schedule:
Records Retention Schedule - IGP-04 (PDF, 870kB)
3. Manage your storage to ensure that records are accessible to staff.
External physical storage or document scanning
If you have records taking up space which you would like to use for another purpose, or if you are having difficulty storing records in the space that’s available to you, consider using another method of storage. The University’s Print Services team can scan your records and return them to you for storage in electronic format (you can find out more about this service here). You can also have your records stored offsite or scanned by the University’s contracted external supplier, Restore Records Management. Further detail about Restore Records Management services, and the processes for using them, are available to UoB staff here.
In-house physical storage space
4. Identify historical records.
The Records Retention Schedule will identify some types of records that have a historical value and need to be preserved. Other types of records that have a historical value could be:
Special Collections
Any possible historical records should not be destroyed once they cease to be useful to the business. Instead, contact Special Collections in the Arts and Social Sciences Library on x17715 or special-collections@bristol.ac.uk . Further details about Special Collections, and the Yesterday's Future project designed to ensure a more organised flow of information into the University archive can be found on the relevant webpages, including the archive transfer procedure.
The University has a comprehensive Information Asset Register (IAR), detailing all of the information assets that it holds. For further details, and to access the IAR, please see this page.
