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Records Management Electronic Records

“Electronic records have revolutionized the business of state government and created a growing body of digital material and data with enduring value. Preserving and providing access to the recorded evidence of work done by state agencies is a core responsibility of government. One challenge that agencies face is that electronic data, while useful for access and efficiency, is problematic for long-term preservation. Another challenge is the overall fragility and rapid obsolescence of electronic records and the systems that keep them. Electronic records cannot simply be put on the shelf (like paper) and forgotten—they require maintenance and an integrated preservation and conversion strategy over long periods of time. The stakeholders in this process of good electronic records management and custodianship are archivists and records officers, agency administrators, information officers, and, ultimately, the citizens of Tennessee.”

Introductory paragraph of the electronics Records guidelines approved by the
Public Records Commission (PRC) in November 2008

The Records Management Division together with the State Library & Archives, Office for Information Resources (OIR), and the Attorney General’s office worked together in 2007/2008 as the eRecords Committee to produce an electronic records guideline for the state. The Public Records Commission approved theses guidelines in November 2008. The final format of the guidelines will soon be available and uploaded to this website. This guidelines will provide the following to agencies of Tennessee government:

  • An inventory of recommended electronic media formats linked to retention periods.
  • Technical standards to achieve across-the-board compatibility, authenticity, and security in electronic records.
  • Procedures for data migration and conversion.
  • Options for integrated life cycle records management from creation to archiving or destruction.

The eRecords Committee, under the leadership of the State CIO, focused on recommendations for unstructured (files containing text, images, video, audio, etc. that are non-relational and cannot be defined in terms of rows or columns) data and structured (files typically found in a database which is organized, hierarchical, or relational). These recommendations include considerations such as authenticity, reliability, integrity, usability, audit trails, access controls, and security for records stored in structured and unstructured technology. In addition, the recommendations also considered issues such as system and records lifecycle, active systems, inactive systems, obsolete systems, conversion and migration strategies, disposition of data, and system interdependencies. It is hoped that this report will offer a compendium of best practices and policies for the efficient and consistent management of electronic records by agencies of Tennessee state government.