Records Management Glossary

Active Records	Documents maintained in the office for daily operations of the college. (A record that is referred to more than once a month.)
Administrative Value	The departmental value of a record in the performance of its assigned operations within the college.
Convenience Copy	A copy created for administrative ease of use; also called a working or reference copy—not the record copy.
Electronic Records	Records stored in a form that only a computer can process; also called machine readable records.
Filing Systems	The planned method of indexing and arranging records for storage and retrieval.
Historical Value	The importance or usefulness of records to document past events and accomplishments of the college.
Inactive Records	A record that does have to be readily available, but must be kept for administrative, fiscal, legal, or historical purposes.
Legal Value	The usefulness of records to comply with legal requirements for maintaining information and/or to provide proof of college authority and college business transactions.
Life Cycle of Records	The management concept that records pass through three stages: creation, maintenance and use, and disposition.
College Record	Any document, paper, letter, book, map, photograph, sound or video recording, microfilm, magnetic tape, electronic media, or other information-recording media created or received by a local government or any of its officers or employees pursuant to law or in the transaction of public business.
Office of Record	The office responsible for maintaining the record copy (official copy) of a document for the retention period.
Record Copy	The official copy of a record, which is designated to be kept for the full retention period.
Records Control Schedule	A document under the control of the records management officer that identifies the records maintained by the college, the retention periods, and other records disposition information that the records management program may require.
Records Disposition	Final processing of records by destruction, permanent retention, or archival preservation.
Records Management	The systematic management of all records over the life cycle (creation, distribution, maintenance, retrieval, final disposition). Essential elements include the approved Records Control Schedule, properly training those responsible for implementation, and careful execution of the disposition of college records.
Records Series	A group records filed together in a unified arrangement which results from, or relates to, the same function or activity that is used and filed together as a unit .
Retention Period	The period of time during which records must be kept before final disposition.
Shredding	The destruction of documents to render them illegible and beyond reconstruction.
Vital Records	A record essential to resuming or continuing college operations in an emergency or disaster, and/or to the recreation of the legal or financial status of the college.

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